I'm a pool novice who has been lurking on this forum for a few months as we began planning our project and appreciate all the great info. We finally received permits last week (quite a challenge in our town) and we are just waiting on an install date for our new fiberglass pool. Due to restrictions on transporting the pool from W. Virginia over Labor Day weekend, I'm told we'll have the pool up in NJ likely in 10 days or so.
As we make final plans, I had a question pop up that I was hoping to run past the group for thoughts. PB offered us to use their electrician on their install team or bring in our own. Since our neighbor can do the work at the same cost and I trust will be around post-install for any modifications or corrections we need, I offered him whatever we were going to pay the PB to do the work for us. If we use the PB's electrician, they will provide the panel (Fiberstars WPC2) which seems quite basic but will get the job done. If we use our neighbor, we'll have to provide our own panel and so I've been looking into the entry-level automated units (Hayward Pro Logic PL-P-4 or Pentair EasyTouch 4P).
The pool will be a 14x33 Blue Hawaiian Venus pool (11,700 gallons) with a Hayward SWG, Hayward Heat Pump, Hayward Variable Speed Pump (no spa). We will have 3 Treo LED lights. We are not installing landscaping lighting now but we will probably do so in the Spring when we open the pool and finish landscaping the pool area.
With that background, my questions are:
1. Do people have thoughts on the reliability of the three panels I listed above?
2. Is the Pentair or Hayward panel a real upgrade over the Fiberstars or am I just spending too much time on something that in practice won't really change my pool experience? For example, does one give me more control over the VSP or is it no real difference as I'll control the pump speeds on the pump itself?
3. Since all the components the PB is giving us are Hayward, does it make sense to go with the Hayward over the Pentair or would either work just fine?
I'm sure I'm missing details as I'm new to the pool ownership game but would appreciate the forum's thoughts on my current panel dilemma (or anything else I should be thinking about).
As we make final plans, I had a question pop up that I was hoping to run past the group for thoughts. PB offered us to use their electrician on their install team or bring in our own. Since our neighbor can do the work at the same cost and I trust will be around post-install for any modifications or corrections we need, I offered him whatever we were going to pay the PB to do the work for us. If we use the PB's electrician, they will provide the panel (Fiberstars WPC2) which seems quite basic but will get the job done. If we use our neighbor, we'll have to provide our own panel and so I've been looking into the entry-level automated units (Hayward Pro Logic PL-P-4 or Pentair EasyTouch 4P).
The pool will be a 14x33 Blue Hawaiian Venus pool (11,700 gallons) with a Hayward SWG, Hayward Heat Pump, Hayward Variable Speed Pump (no spa). We will have 3 Treo LED lights. We are not installing landscaping lighting now but we will probably do so in the Spring when we open the pool and finish landscaping the pool area.
With that background, my questions are:
1. Do people have thoughts on the reliability of the three panels I listed above?
2. Is the Pentair or Hayward panel a real upgrade over the Fiberstars or am I just spending too much time on something that in practice won't really change my pool experience? For example, does one give me more control over the VSP or is it no real difference as I'll control the pump speeds on the pump itself?
3. Since all the components the PB is giving us are Hayward, does it make sense to go with the Hayward over the Pentair or would either work just fine?
I'm sure I'm missing details as I'm new to the pool ownership game but would appreciate the forum's thoughts on my current panel dilemma (or anything else I should be thinking about).