1-1/2" vs 2" piping?

[darin.brown]

we're still waiting for the drainage engineering to come back and in a bit of a holding pattern. I noticed on some builds here that 2" PVC seems to be the de-facto whereas some others have 1-1/2". I believe all the bids we got included just 1-1/2" and for sure the bid we selected does. any concerns here to bring up with the PB? We don't have any water features or an attached spa but just the standard returns, skimmers and a dedicated 1-1/2" suction cleaning line as a fallback since we're going with a robotic cleaner.

I should note the skimmer runs are independent lines runs back to the equipment and we're going with the Pentair 3HP VSP

 

[duraleigh]

How big is your pool?

 

[jblizzle]

It really does not hurt anything to have the larger pipe other than the small price increase for the PVC and labor. Although if you have multiple 1.5" lines it may not matter.

I would definitely use 2" after the lines are combined at the pad before the pump and then for all the pipe above ground.

 

[darin.brown]

thanks. I'll make a note to bring up with the PB. it's going to be a 17k gallon sport/play pool

 

[duraleigh]

17k is big enough to use the extra flow from the 2". It's certainly not a deal breaker to use 1.5 (and 1.5 would be perfectly adequate on,say, an 8k pool) but you will get somewhat better results so I think the 2" is worth it

 

[Isaac-1]

I suspect the difference in cost going with 2 inch vs 1.5 inch would be less than $50, certainly worth it in my opinion the 2 inch will be lower on head loss which can be important with a 3 HP pump, and I suspect it will pay back the difference in electricity saved over time.

 

[ColdAirGuy]

Ours was 1-1/2" at well over 20k gallons. We remodeled, shallowed pool to 16K play pool and went with 2" plumbing.
Very happy with the versatility I have now in combination with the intelliflo pump and larger 60sf de filter.