- May 27, 2021
- 1,396
- Pool Size
- 17000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
I assume this is the inlet and outet of the heater? Can you show all plumbing before it and just after?
Backwash procedure for pool with 2 filters
- Thread starter JPMorgan
- Start date
I assume this is the inlet and outet of the heater? Can you show all plumbing before it and just after?
I will check this again tomorrow. When I opened that valve all the way, I noticed the pressure on the gauge near the pump dropped by 5 psi, but I did not check the filter pressures. I only looked at the flow meter and I did not notice any change in the flow rate. I will try this again and will be sure to check to see if the filter pressure rises.
Correct. I am moving that valve all the way to the right. When I do that the pressure in the guage right after the pump (shown in the pic) drops by about 5 psi.
I will try this again tomorrow and take photos of that valve in the fully open position as well as pics of that guage and the filter guages, as well.
Yes. All of the plumbing before and after the inlet and outlet of the heater is in the "pit". There is a lot of plumbing down there and I'm not always sure what I'm looking at, but I will try to get some pics.
No. The vertical pipe you see with the closed valve on it is capped and not functional. I believe that was connected to the old erosion feeder. (We used to use trichlor, but changed to liquid chlorine last year.)
Here are before and after pics with that red valve partially open and fully open along with the filter pressures in each position. There was no change in the flow rate.
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Here are a series of pics showing the plumbing into and out of the heater (as best as I could capture it). Hopefully this gives you a good idea of the setup.
Is there anything there that looks like a metering valve? Let me know if you see anything that could be restricting flow or have any questions. Thanks.
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- May 3, 2007
- 18,131
- Pool Size
- 20000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
Because the filter pressure is changing, there definitely is a flow rate change. It just may not be registering on the flow meter for some reason.
Is this the pump that you have:
Pentair Sta-Rite D Series Medium Head Centrifugal Pumps
Available in high head or medium head series (high-head in separate listing). Feature leak-proof mechanical seals, easy service design, heavy-duty motors, rugged construction.
The original pump PSI and suction in-hg you posted were 30 PSI and 9" HG respectively. This would indicate a total head loss of close to 80' of head. From the pump curve, flow rate is right at 180 GPM (DMJ curve). There may be an issue with your flow meter.
Not sure you are looking at it correctly. One fiter is reading about 21 psi before and after adjusting that valve. The other is reading about 18 before and after adjusting the valve. It's not going from 18 psi to 21 psi.
Yes, I believe that is the pump. Would a pic of the label on the pump help to confirm?
I don't understand all of this, but I think you are saying the pump should be putting out 180 gpm. Is there a way to test the flow meter? There was a BW flow meter (the old type that the State doesn't allow anymore) installed in front of the current one temporarily, but we were getting the same reading form that one. H2 Flow Controls (the company that sells the FlowVis) also has a digital flow meter. Does anyone have experience with those? I want to get a digital flow meter installed anyway because the way the FlowVis is installed it is very hard to read. However, I don't know how those digital flow meters work. Would they possibly give an accuarte reading.... even if the one currently installed is bad..... or does the digital meter just pick up what the FlowVis is reading?
- May 27, 2021
- 1,396
- Pool Size
- 17000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
From what I can see, you have no bypass and metering system. All the water your pump is putting out is running through the heat exchanger and this is limiting your flow to what the heat exchanger can handle. It’s a bottleneck. Basically the bypass would be a pipe with a valve in the middle connecting the inlet and outlet pipes of the heater. You would also want valves on the inlet and outlet side of the piping before the heater but after the bypass. You can then tweak all three valves to restrict inlet and outlet flow to the heater to allow it to heat most efficiently while tweaking the bypass to increase flow back to the pool.
- May 3, 2007
- 18,131
- Pool Size
- 20000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
That is correct but only if you can confirm that the link I posted is the pump you are using.
Not very easily.
It depends on the flow meter. Venturi style meters like you had before are the worst and can easily be thrown off by placement.
The check valve versions are better but I really don't know why it would be incorrect flow unless it was damaged somehow.
There are other types of flow meters (e.g. paddlewheel, ultrasonic, turbine) that can be more accurate but it may be difficult to find one that has the correct pipe size and flow rate range. You might check with your supplier and see what they have. Here are a couple from Amazon
Filter capacity?
We are currently getting about 100 gpm from our outdoor pool pump. I'm told the pump is capable of much more flow than that. The state regs say our pool should turn over every 6 hours, so that's 167 gpm required for our 60,000 gallon pool. We had the pump checked out and were told the...
www.troublefreepool.com
H2Flow Meter
We recently had some new equipment installed on our outdoor pool. After the equipment was installed the flow rate dropped from 170 gpm to 135 gpm. The pump is the same and only minor plumbing changes were made (from what I can tell). The installation primarily involved a new liquid chlorine...
www.troublefreepool.com
- May 27, 2021
- 1,396
- Pool Size
- 17000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
Paddlewheel Flow Meters - Blue-White Industries
Accurate flow rate measurements are critical to ensuring the fluid control process runs efficiently. Blue-White’s digital paddlewheel flow meters provide an accurate, safe, and economical method of measuring flow.
www.blue-white.com
I think this configuration may exist, but I'm not 100% sure. I'm going to take some better pics of this section of the plumbing and post again so you can see it a little more clearly. Then, you can tell me whether this is the configuration you are referring to. Does a metering "valve" look different or function different than a regular ball valve?
I will post a pic of the label on the pump. Hopefully, that will confirm that it is the same one that you posted.
We definitely need a digital flow meter because the placement of the FlowVis flow meter in the pipe makes it very difficult to read. I'm assuming this flow meter would be a replacement for the current flow meter.... not an add-on to the system, correct? Does anyone have any experience with this type of flow meter? If we replace the current flow meter with this one and we get approximately the same reading (120 gpm), then we could definitely rule out the flow meter being the cause of the low flow rate, correct? I'm trying to rule out the simple things.... like a bad flow meter or valves not properly set before we start investing in bigger fixes. The proposals from the pool company that I posted earlier range from $5,000 to $14,000, so we want to be sure we are fixing things that are the real source of the low flow rate... not spending money on things that are unnecessary, i.e., new filters?????Paddlewheel Flow Meters - Blue-White Industries
Accurate flow rate measurements are critical to ensuring the fluid control process runs efficiently. Blue-White’s digital paddlewheel flow meters provide an accurate, safe, and economical method of measuring flow.
- May 27, 2021
- 1,396
- Pool Size
- 17000
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
The valves are not special, they can be any style. It’s just how the arrangement is setup that allows for metering and bypass.