Pool pump replacement blues

[mcmoyer]

Hi all, I've got a 15k gallon above ground pool with a saltwater chlorinator and a robot sweeper. My pump, a Power-flo Matrix 1hp 2 speed gave up the ghost today. I was shopping around and gleaning all the information I could about pump technology and was pretty interested in the variable speed pumps. Then I realized that they really don't make those for above ground pools. So then I started looking at 2 speed pumps, but I realized, for the last couple of years, I never moved off of the low speed and ran it 24/7. I don't ever vacuum and my robot is electrical. Additionally, I always wished there was a speed in-between the high and low settings as high seems to be a little much for my EC50AC DE filter and low was just a tad too slow for the chlorinator when the filter was needing bumped.

Would it be a crazy idea to go to single speed 3/4 HP pump and run it 24/7?

 

[mas985]

A 1 HP pump run at 1/2 speed is theoretically a 1/8th HP pump (affinity laws). Also, a 3/4 HP is not much different than a 1 HP in terms of energy consumption. So you are looking at about 10% reduction in power. Where as low speed of the 1 HP is about 75% lower in power so a significant savings. Even if you run on low speed all the time, you would probably be better off getting another 2 speed motor.

 

[mcmoyer]

so maybe go up to a 1.5 hp to get a little more strength to the low speed?

 

[mas985]

On typical AG plumbing, the 1.5 HP delivers only 1 GPM more than the 1 HP on full speed. Low speed is only 0.5 GPM. So probably not worth it.

There might be some other things you could do to increase flow. How many return lines does the pool have and what size eyeballs are entering the pool. Describe suction side too. Also what kind of swg do you have?