Inground/Indoor Pool Pump and Heater Replacement Suggestions

Jul 9, 2012
11
MN
Hello everyone,
I would like to thank you ahead of time for any advice that you can provide. I appologize, but I am completely new to pools. I have been doing a lot of research over the last few months, but still have a long way to go.

To provide some background information, my wife and I are in the process of purchasing a home with an indoor pool room. The pool room contains an inground fiberglass pool and an inground fiberglass hot tub, each with 100% independent systems (seperate heaters, filters, pumps, etc.). The house was built in 2006 and foreclosed on in 2007. The homeowner sabotaged the heating (the house is in MN) on the way out and managed to freeze the house. The sabotage was caught right away which prevented any major damage, however not soon enough. The heaters for the pool and hot tub both froze and burst. Luckily the piping, filters, and rest of the equipment survived. We did have the underground piping pressure tested to ensure it is ok. The bank had a plumber bypass the heaters in both systems so that the pumps could be run, however the house was left empty for several years with no one running the equipment or maintaining the pools. Later caretakers were allowed to live in the house by the bank, but they also have not maintained the equipment or run the filters. During our inspection of the pool I discovered that the pump for the pool was stuck. We were able to get it running after turning by hand for quite some time, but it obviously needs replacement.

I am looking for suggestions for replacing the pump for the pool as well as both the heater for the pool and the heater for the hot tub. I am looking to maximize the energy efficiency of the set-up and have thus been looking into the Intelliflo Pumps. I am also a huge fan of automation. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

The following is a breakdown of the current set-up:

Pool:

Structure - Fiberglass rectangular pool. 12' x 32' approximately 15,500 gallons.

Pump - Pentair WhisperFlo 3/4hp - Model WF-23 - PN 011771 - (Needs to be replaced)

Second Pump (did not grab info on it) attached to a pressure cleaning port in the pool

Heater - Pentair MiniMax NT 200,000 BTU - Model 200DV - Propane - (Needs to be replaced)

Filter - Pentair Sand Filter - FLT TR60 - PN 140264

Salt - Intellichlor - Model IC40 - (Unkown if the blade needs replacement)

Ozone - UltraPure - Model UPP15


Hot Tub:

Structure - Fiberglass circular hot tub. 8' in diameter.

Pump - Pentair SuperFlo 2/.33hp - PN 340044

Heater - Pentair MiniMax NT 200,000 BTU - Model 200DV - Propane - (Needs to be replaced)

Filter - Pentair Sand Filter - FLT TR40 - PN 140236


Another question: Both the fiberglass hot tub and pool have significant hard water staining (the hot tub being worse). Any suggestions for removal? I have been told the Magic Eraser works well for this, but am open for suggestions. The hot tub needs to be drained, however the water in the pool appears very salvageable and I would prefer to not drain.

Thank you for your suggestions!
 
Re: Inground/Indoor Pool Pump and Heater Replacement Suggest

So, as I have been doing my research I am leaning towards the following items:

Replacement Pool Pump: Pentair Intelliflo VF
Replacement Pool Heater: Pentair MasterTemp 250k (the price difference is so minimal between the 200k and 250k)

Replacement Hot Tub Heater: Pentair MasterTemp 250k

Any experience with these items?

The eventual goal would be to upgrade to an Intellitouch i10+3 to control the systems. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I have to go to the top end Intellitouch because the pool and hot tub have completely seperate systems? It did not appear that the EasyTouch or any lesser Intellitouchs were able to work in this scenario.
 
Re: Inground/Indoor Pool Pump and Heater Replacement Suggest

Welcome to tfp, Nemesis :wave:

Another Minnesotan...it's just a matter of time until we take over tpf :rockon:

I am not sure I can answer all of your questions, but I will try and answer the ones I can.

Nemesis said:
Another question: Both the fiberglass hot tub and pool have significant hard water staining (the hot tub being worse). Any suggestions for removal? I have been told the Magic Eraser works well for this, but am open for suggestions. The hot tub needs to be drained, however the water in the pool appears very salvageable and I would prefer to not drain.
What do the stains look like? Are they metal stains or do they look more like calcium scaling? For us to help, we need a full set off test results. See:http://www.troublefreepool.com/what-we-need-to-know-to-answer-your-questions-t10341.html#p82430

Nemesis said:
Replacement Pool Pump: Pentair Intelliflo VF
That is a good pump line, but since our electrical costs around here is pretty low, you may not be able to pay it back as compared to a 2-speed pump even with year round use. However, if the the automation is what floats your boat, then as far as I know, it is a good choice.

I am sorry, but I can't answer the intelletouch questions...hopefully someone will chime in who can :whip:
 
Re: Inground/Indoor Pool Pump and Heater Replacement Suggest

Linen, thank you for the reply! We do not actually close on the house until next week. I will get a complete set of test results and post them after I have access to the pool. I have attached a few pictures to help. I believe they look like hard water stains. Let me know what you think.

[attachment=2:1nnxa4r5]100_0636.jpg[/attachment:1nnxa4r5]

[attachment=1:1nnxa4r5]100_0638.jpg[/attachment:1nnxa4r5]

[attachment=0:1nnxa4r5]100_0648.jpg[/attachment:1nnxa4r5]
 

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Re: Inground/Indoor Pool Pump and Heater Replacement Suggest

More pics:

[attachment=2:uvlnmbz3]100_0649.jpg[/attachment:uvlnmbz3]

[attachment=1:uvlnmbz3]100_0844.jpg[/attachment:uvlnmbz3]

[attachment=0:uvlnmbz3]100_0839.jpg[/attachment:uvlnmbz3]
 

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Re: Inground/Indoor Pool Pump and Heater Replacement Suggest

That looks like a great setup...i'm jealous thinking of the great swimming you can do all year round :oops: :twisted:

When you get into the house, try crushing up some vitamin C tabs, put them in a sock and set them on the stain on the hot tub step for a few minutes. If the stain lightens, it is likely metal staining.
 
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