Starting the DIY process....advice needed!

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njschwartz

Member
Sep 12, 2021
8
Madison, Wisconsin
My wife and I have been discussing getting a pool for quite some time and are finally in a place to make that happen. We are located in southern Wisconsin btw. As with many others I have reached out to PB's in the area and either the quotes are insanely high or they are just so busy they cannot get to me for a year or more. I am quite handy so have been doing research for weeks and I am pretty confident I can do the majority of the work myself and so have decided to go down the DIY path. I am leaning heavily towards poolwarehouse.com for the inground kit. They appear to have good reviews and their prices are pretty reasonable from what I can tell. We are looking to build a pretty large pool and spend quite a lot of money, so I really want to make sure I make the right decisions regarding equipment in particular. So here is the plan:

Looking at a 24x54 rectangular pool with 48in walls and a 9ft deep end. This will put the pool somewhere around 60K gallons which I know is big. We really want to be able to both dive and have plenty of space for things like water volleyball and basketball hence the chosen size. I plan to higher a professionals for the excavation, landscaping (will need a retaining wall due to slope) and I have a master electrician FIL who has agreed to do that part of things for me.

Pool warehouse carries primarily Hayward products it appears. Below is what I was tentatively selecting for the equipment. My biggest concern is the equipment isn't really designed for that big of a pool and I will have problems. To be clear I have not spoken directly with pool warehouse yet, I plan to in the coming days, however I wanted to get all of your expert opinions before I do so I can go in with some knowledge rather than just let them sell me something that isn't going to work well for me.

Chlorination - Hayward OmniLogic Cat5 Smart Phone Controlled 40k Salt System
Pump - Variable Speed Hayward Tristar 2.7THP Vs950 Pump
Filter - Hayward C7030 SwimClear Cartridge Filter, 150 GPM, 2"
Skimmer - 3 Grey Aqua Genie Skimmers, 2 Grey Main Drains & 1 Grey return
Light - 6 Grey Trim Nicheless 1.5" Color LED Lights 50' CORDS 12V
Heater - Hayward Universal H-Series 400k btu digital propane
Deck Jets - 4 Laminar LED Deck Jets Programed for Hayward Lighting Systems
Step Returns & Step Jets - 2 Grey Step Returns With Eyeballs For Steel Steps

I would like to go salt, but I know that with a pool that size the one listed is not going to be near enough. It appears none of the residential systems are really big enough. Any suggestions there? I have read about putting cells in parallel, but not sure if that is truly a reasonable option. I like the idea of the Omnilogic system to automate everything (lights, chlorinator, pumps, actuator valves), but should I look at something else?

Sorry for the long first post. I am super excited to get started with my pool project and I great appreciate any and all advice and guidance you can provide. Thanks!!

Nate
 
Welcome to TFP.

You are planning to build a large pool where commercial size pool equipment will be more suitable then residential pool equipment typically used.

In addition to an oversized SWG system you need a larger then normal heater for a 60K pool. A 400K BTU heater will heat a 60K pool at best 0.64 degrees an hour. Look at larger commercial pool heaters from Raypak.

Without a cover on the pool you will lose heat every night.

Raypak has a Gas Pool Heater Sizer. It tells you the Temperature Rise/Hr and Natural Gas and Propane costs to heat a pool in your local area to selected temperature by month. Adjust the natural gas cost and propane cost in the lower left to your local gas prices for accurate costs.

You are planning 3 skimmers plus a main drain and how many returns?
 
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That IS going to be a BIG pool for sure! It is also going to be a VERY fun pool! Have you thought about doing an L shaped pool? The "leg" for the deep end and swim lane. The "foot" part all the same depth (4') for the play part.

Check out the "watermelon ball" game! Funnest water game out there!

Kim:kim:
 
Thanks for the replies guys! I appreciate the input.

@HermanTX I have read that article a few times, but still am not certain the best approach. I really don't want to move up to the commercial level stuff because it is so much more expensive. I will keep researching this for sure.

@ajw22 Thanks for that suggestion, I will look at this some more. What are your thoughts on a combo of a heat pump and a propane heater? Propane to get the temp up a bit more quickly and lengthen the season and the heat pump as the primary over the summer? If you did that would you just plumb them in parallel and choose which to use?

@kimkats That is awesome!! I have never seen that thing, but will be ordering one as soon as we get close to having a pool. Very cool and looks like a ton of fun!
 
njschwartz said:
@ajw22 Thanks for that suggestion, I will look at this some more. What are your thoughts on a combo of a heat pump and a propane heater? Propane to get the temp up a bit more quickly and lengthen the season and the heat pump as the primary over the summer? If you did that would you just plumb them in parallel and choose which to use?
Click to expand...

Get two units not a combo unit.

Connect the two heaters in series. I am not 100% sure how the OmniLogic handles two heaters. The automation is supposed to regulate temperature via the heat pump 1st - if it can not maintain temp it reverts to the gas heater.

full
 
Welcome to TFP. DIY'ing a pool can be a rewarding experience if you know what to expect going in, can save some $$$ too.

The Omnilogic system can run multiple salt cells, so you don't have to only have the single 40K unit. One will hook directly to the Omnilogic board and the 2nd, 3rd, etc will have to also have the controller.

I DIY'ed mine from poolwarehouse and have no complaints from them at all. As others have mentioned...you might want to look at a True L. I have a 18x43x30 True-L pool and it seems huge for a backyard pool.

You can see my build in the link in my signature below.
 
@duckcmmndr thanks for that info. When you say you can add another controller, is that an addon board for the omnilogic itself or like an aquarite controller. Would the omnilogic control both of them or would I do what I saw and run the second one at 100 percent and adjust the omnilogic one to keep it where it needs to be? I suppose I can reach or to hayward and ask too. I would love to get your opinion on poolwarehouse and how things went as well!!

@ajw22 thanks for that info and image. That's exactly what I planning, 2 separate devices. Is the idea the heat pump does what it can then the propane will do the rest kinda thing? Do you know if the omnilogic can control both or would I do it manually? Thanks!
 
njschwartz said:
@ajw22 thanks for that info and image. That's exactly what I planning, 2 separate devices. Is the idea the heat pump does what it can then the propane will do the rest kinda thing? Do you know if the omnilogic can control both or would I do it manually? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Pentair IntelliCenter, MasterTemp gas heater, and UltraTemp HP all work together as I described above.

See page 10 in https://www.hayward-pool.com/assets/documents/pools/pdf/manuals/Heat-Pump-Owners-Manual.pdf or page 14 in https://www.hayward-pool.com/assets...s/HeatPro-Installation-HP2xxxxT-HP2xxxxBT.pdf as it shows Hayward wants a parallel setup.

Best if you call Hayward and discuss how their stuff operates.

B87DC0BF-32CA-4C6F-8C5B-28DFD77C5525.png
 
njschwartz said:
@duckcmmndr thanks for that info. When you say you can add another controller, is that an addon board for the omnilogic itself or like an aquarite controller. Would the omnilogic control both of them or would I do what I saw and run the second one at 100 percent and adjust the omnilogic one to keep it where it needs to be? I suppose I can reach or to hayward and ask too. I would love to get your opinion on poolwarehouse and how things went as well!!
Click to expand...

You would have to re-search further to get the details...but I asked this very question to Hayward before I bought the Omnilogic system and was told yes, but one would hook directly and the other would run through a separate controller. I think if you have more than 1 T-Cell you will need an AquaRite controller with the 2nd cell hooked to it and then the AquaRite will connect to the Omnilogic system with a HLAQRPCB communication board that installs inside the AquaRite Panel.

I also know you can do multiple heaters on the same body of water. That was in a recent update.

I have zero experience with either...I just know it can do it. It might be a good idea to get a Hayward support tech on the phone and pick his brain to the specifics.
 

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I love a big pool with room to play! We love to play volleyball in the pool, and I wish mine were a little bigger for it. I'd say ideally you want 12 feet on either side of the net of level floor. We have about 10 feet either side and have lots of fun, but a little bigger would be nice. All the other folks commenting are way more expert in equipment than I am! But just to throw a data point out - I have a 40,000 gallon pool and live in Maryland. The pool is open from mid-April through end of October, with the SWCG operating May through early October. I have the residential Pentair IC-60 SWCG. I run my pump 18 hours per day and, depending on the time of year, I run the Pentair IC-60 at somewhere between 30% and 45% and easily keep the chlorine where it needs to be. I'm finishing my fourth full season with the pool and no problems at all with the salt system so far. So from my experience, I'd say a residential Pentair IC-60 SWCG would work for your pool. You might have to run the percent a little higher than I do and have the pump on 24 hours (which many people do anyway), but that still may be cheaper/simpler than doing a commercial system or incurring the cost/complexity of hooking up two cells. And I don't think you want to be lugging jugs of liquid chlorine for a 60K gallon pool so I would definitely recommend salt! Good luck!
(Edited to change my SWCG percentages after checking my logs.)
 
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The more I read and research the more I am starting to lean toward the Pentair stuff over the Hayward equipment. Pentair has the 60k SWG which is likely what I will need, but I have been reading a lot of horror stories about the Hayward ColorLogic lights and constant failures. Does anyone have any strong opinions either way? I know that is a very subjective question but curious peoples thoughts. Pool warehouse seems to primarily carry Hayward, if I wanted to price out Pentair instead does anybody have a suggestion for an online company? Thanks!
 
 
For SWG don't overlook the RJ60 at 3.1 pounds of chlorine a day... and a 7 year warranty for DIY install, pentair and hayward can not touch it... If you installed 2 you could run your pump about 12 hours... Or run the VS pump 24/7 at a lower rpm with 1 RJ 60 and you should be good... :)

www.discountsaltpool.com

CircuPool RJ-60 PLUS Saltwater Chlorinator | Discount Salt Pool

www.discountsaltpool.com www.discountsaltpool.com
 
Welcome to TFP! I'm a fan of DIY projects but I don't have enough motivation to try to DIY an inground pool. 60k gallons, my first though when you mentioned heat was that's gonna cost a lot to heat on propane!

Looking forward to watching this build though!
 
@cowboycasey I appreciate the suggestion. I have indeed looked at them and people seem to be very happy with them. Looks like you have one. I assume happy with it since you are suggesting it. Honestly the only reason I was maybe a little hesitant was it would be nice to use the automation system to control it all as much as possible. Not that big of a deal it it just works though I suppose.
 
jseyfert3 said:
Welcome to TFP! I'm a fan of DIY projects but I don't have enough motivation to try to DIY an inground pool. 60k gallons, my first though when you mentioned heat was that's gonna cost a lot to heat on propane!

Looking forward to watching this build though!
Click to expand...
You are right, I have looked at the calculations and it will not be cheap on propane. That is why I am looking at a dual propane/heat pump system. Still won't be cheap, and much more upfront, but I think it will help decrease the expensive propane costs.
 
njschwartz said:
@cowboycasey I appreciate the suggestion. I have indeed looked at them and people seem to be very happy with them. Looks like you have one. I assume happy with it since you are suggesting it. Honestly the only reason I was maybe a little hesitant was it would be nice to use the automation system to control it all as much as possible. Not that big of a deal it it just works though I suppose.
Click to expand...
Here is the funny part.. if you are running the pump 24/7 you can run the SWG 24/7 and then about 3 times a year you walk over and change the % it is at... about 2 minutes of work a year when it comes down to it... So you get a better system, a better warranty but have 30 seconds more work 3 or 4 times year... :)

Your setup would probably be about 85% spring and fall and 100% during July, Aug timeframe...
 

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