Pump motor options for WhisperFlo WFE-28

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Summoner12

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Nov 16, 2015
87
Riverside, CA
I just moved to a new home. I am renting it. BUT, we decided to rent this home for the pool. Sadly I didn't get a chance to tinker with the pool stuff before the lease was signed.

Bottom line. The pump is either worn out or under powered it seems for the pool. I can't run the skimmer and the Baracuda G3 at the same time. If I bleed the valve to the skimmer enough to get some skimming action the rover stops hopping around. Even then the skimmer doesn't have enough flow to pull leaves in over the floating cylinder (when splitting). The skimmer is a two hole setup, do I need to restrict the flow to the floor somehow, or does that only flow when the skimmer isn't getting water? I can take a look at the cartridge filter, not sure of the elements' condition. When the spa is turned on the jets don't do much... not very 'spa' like.

My BIL has a InteliFlo VS.... I love it. BUT, is that super overkill? I want the spa to flow more.

I was looking at my electric rates;

Summer Season:
Tier 1 (0-750 kWh, per kWh) $0.1035
Tier 2 (751-1,500 kWh, per kWh) $0.1646
Tier 3 (Over 1,500 kWh, per kWh) $0.1867

Winter Season:
Same as above.

This is a three bedroom home with windows from '97, they don't seem great, it gets cold in the winter and hot as heck in the summer (in riverside, CA). I am sure we'll use a lot of electricity, so I expect to be in the mid to upper tier range.


So what options do I have? Can I make this a VS pump? I read that I can change out the motor and leave the pump housing. This is preferred so I don't have to disturb the plumbing. This also gives me the option to take the motor with me when I leave. Again, we got this house for the pool. It's a great setup, but the pool needs some TLC. I plan to communicate with the home owner. I would like to see about him replacing the pump, but if he refuses to pay, I'll just do it myself (if it makes sense...).

Thanks in advance! I got good help in my other thread. Great forum community here!
 
That pump is larger than the pump that I have. It should be plenty big to do what you want to do and pumps rarely go bad. So, I think there must be a problem. What is the pressure reading in your filter? I would try removing the cartridge and seeing what the pressure reading is and whether the flow is greatly increased.
 
I just looked, our city as a $200 rebate for upgrading the pump.... I'm seeing the Pentair on Amazon for about $900.

I will check the obvious stuff, filter clogged, heater clogged...

But still interested if just the motor can be swapped out, even if it means I don't get a rebate. Any ideas?
 
I was thinking that. But part of why I am not impressed with the flow is that even with the valves set to pull strictly from the skimmer the skimmer doesn't seem to really pull a lot of water. I will check the rover diaphragm.

I was planning to buy a Poolcleaner... I see some used IntelliFlos on Craigslist for just a tad more money. If I get a better pump, I won't mind this G3 if I can get more flow going to run skimmer and G3.
 
I was at the house poking around today (we move tomorrow) the filter pressure gauge is reading 30psi. This seems high. Once the dust settles I will pop the filter open and see what's what. I'm hoping the filter is just clogged up. But still. A VS pump would be great. I don't think the spa is going to be very enjoyable even if the flow goes up a bit.

Found a one year old pump on CL for $450, we'll see how it goes.
 
So we moved in today. Still a bit hyped up from all the activity, so posting as I unwind with a cold one. So, here is the pool, and me doing first water test. (Water is F'd, pool guy just uses tablets. Cya was higher than my BIL's pool 200 or more, needs to be drained)



Here is the first thing I set up after the movers left. :cool:



After the beer was secured and chilling I started in on the pool. I grabbed some tools and opened up the filter pod.

Here is is what I found:









It it took me about two hours to clean these things. I'm sure they aren't 'clean'. But they don't have all that crud on the filters. After all that I can see the value in this gadget that rotates the cartridge and sprays the element. The patio here has drains, I placed he cartridge on a plastic box sitting inside a tote to catch the large debris. This let the fine silt drain as the water overflowed, but the large stuff hung around. I had a couple of inches of sludge in the tote. Pretty nasty! There are no photos since it was already dark when I was only 1/2 way done.

so after all was done. I fired up the system. All I can say is: wow, what a huge difference!! Before I couldn't get the skimmer to pull water without the rover coming to a halt.

I can can now split the skimmer and rover port 50/50 and the skimmer is a tornado. Now I just wish I have a Poolcleaner instead of the G3.... Darn thing likes to walk around the sides of the pool more than the bottom. Very frustrating.

Now ow the spa jets actually bible and get the water really moving. The waterfall now spills a ton of water. I think I would greatly benefit from a vs pump. But for now, I'm satisfied, until I get the electric bill. I'm going to draft up a proposal to the home owner asking him to pay for the pump. I really hope he bites.
 
I told you that pump should be plenty big for that pool. :)

The cheapest upgrade would be to just put a two speed motor on that existing pump and running low almost all the time except for when you want to use the spa.
 
If the cartridges were that nasty, here's something you can do - hose them off and let them soak in a solution of TSP (trisodium phosphate) and water. TSP can be found in any hardware store and it removes grease and organic build up. If the pleats of the cartridge feel "crunchy" (calcium scale) you can then soak them in a diluted muriatic acid and water solution. Always clean them in TSP first before acid as acid can cause oily substances to gum up the filters pores.

You can also look into replacing those cartridges with new ones as the standard OEM cartridges are usually not as good as some of the Pleatco versions. Perhaps the homeowner might go for new cartridges.

I agree with others - I think the VS pump may be a waste of money. A decent 2-speed pump will be a huge improvement in terms of cost and the ROI will likely be faster. If the homeowner doesn't want to buy a VSP then your best bet would be to upgrade the motor yourself to a 2-speed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk,16k gal SWG pool (All Pentair), QuadDE100 Filter, Taylor K-2006
 

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