winter pump schedule

[AZAA]

Here in Arizona I don't shut down my pool for the winter. I don't cover it, I keep up on the chemical balance and brush/skim when necessary. I get very little plant material on the surface since the vegetation is predominantly cactus so I keep the skimmer dialed back to about 25% of full speed. Non swimming months are typically November thru February.
I have a Pentair VSP with 6 speeds. I keep one at manual 800 RPM for those nights that it gets close to freezing which it does a few nights every year. What would be the recommended schedule/speeds for the rest of the time? I usually run the pump schedule exclusively in the daylight hours but I'm open to advice.
Thank you.

 

[proavia]

I don't change my pump schedule.
I run 24/7/365.
20 hours at 1200 rpm (satisfies SWG flow switch and provides skimming).
4 hours at 2900 rpm for IFCS (two 2 hour cycles, one early morning and one later afternoon).
It costs me less than $20/month to run the pump and SWG (SRP power).
75% skimmer, 25% main drain.

I've found that pump efficiency drops off when rpm is less than 1000.
Since you are using liquid chlorine, 1000 rpm for skimming and whatever is needed for your IFCS a few hours daily should work fine.

You really only need to run few hours a day. I guess it would be best to determine how long you need to run at a higher rpm for your IFCS to clean the pool. That would dictate the minimum run time. Then add in any other time for low rpm skimming and freeze protection. Chances of the pool pipes freezing areprettyslim, but better safe than sorry. Highest chance of freezing here inthe valley are from about 4-5am thru an hour after sunrise.

 

[Jimrahbe]

AZAA,

I too run 24/7 and nothing changes for me between summer and winter.. Other than my salt cell shuts off due to the low water temperature.

I like to always see a little motion in my pool water. I find that when my pump is off, my pool looks dead..

I like skimming all the time. My wife's joke to me is.. There is "a" leaf in your pool..

I too do not worry about freeze control as the pump is always running.

I personally believe that there is less wear and tear on my pump running 24/7 than if I were stopping and starting it each day. I admit, that I have no proof that this is true, just my experience.. I have three pools and three IntelliFlo pumps, all running 24/7. The pump at my house is 9 years old, and the other two pumps are over 10 years old, and they work today just like they did when they were new. Only time will tell.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[AZAA]

Thanks Gene & Jim. This is my second pool, (one had a salt cell), and I have never run my pump for 24hrs. I haven't needed it for skimming, and at night I don't care if it looks dead , so unless I hear a compelling reason to do so I will probably stick to my 12hr schedule. I run 1800RPM for a couple of hours at start-up (perhaps I'm overly sensitive, but I think about "quiet time" for my neighbors) then 4hrs at 3100 only because it seems I should , then back to 1800 until 6:00 PM. As you see, I have no real "scientific" reason for any of this! I've had really good luck following the TFP method and have never had to shock my pool.
So other than now wondering about the 24hr thing, I feel I'm probably OK with what I've been doing.
Again, thank you both for taking the time to answer.

 

[dfwnoob]

Like Jim and Gene mentioned, most of us do 24/7 at low speed. I'm at 1200 RPM (anything lower won't trigger my SWCG flow sensor) all day long except for an hour ramp up to 1800 RPM to satisfy the Polaris booster, and I do have it ramp up to full speed once a day for a couple of minutes to fully re-prime the pump. A month of nonstop low speed operation at ~140 watts costs me under $15. You're spending more than that just running it at high speed for four hours a day. By "pop ups" do you mean an in-floor cleaner? Is that the reason for the 4 hour window?

At the end of the day, you only need to run the pump at the speed and time required to provide adequate filtration and skimming. And for SWCG owners, enough time to generate sufficient chlorine. For SWCG owners, putting it on 24/7 low speed op is just easy mode since it achieves everything at once.

 

[AZAA]

Like Jim and Gene mentioned, most of us do 24/7 at low speed. I'm at 1200 RPM (anything lower won't trigger my SWCG flow sensor) all day long except for an hour ramp up to 1800 RPM to satisfy the Polaris booster, and I do have it ramp up to full speed once a day for a couple of minutes to fully re-prime the pump. A month of nonstop low speed operation at ~140 watts costs me under $15. You're spending more than that just running it at high speed for four hours a day. By "pop ups" do you mean an in-floor cleaner? Is that the reason for the 4 hour window?

At the end of the day, you only need to run the pump at the speed and time required to provide adequate filtration and skimming. And for SWCG owners, enough time to generate sufficient chlorine. For SWCG owners, putting it on 24/7 low speed op is just easy mode since it achieves everything at once.

Thanks dfwnoob, yes my 4 hrs of 3100 is to get my pop-ups really blasting since my floor drains are 75% + of water return.
I will revisit my speeds and duration. I'm 73 years old but I can still hear my father say "Don't run that xxx too long. You'll burn it up". Thanks again.