Setting the pump timer

[phillijp]

My next step towards a low maintenance pool is adjusting the pump timer. When we bought the house the timer was set to run from 8a to 8p, algae set in and I was advised to let them pump run 24/7. Not surprisingly the electrical bill went up. Now that I'm becoming better educated about the pool I've reduced the pump to 10 hours a day and I'm considering 8 hour cycles based on posts I've read here. Our pump is an older, single stage beast that's quite loud despite new bearings. Are there advantages/disadvantages to running the pump in one 8 hour blast versis breaking it up over the course of the day (ex: 4 2 hour cycles)? It would be nice to run it throughout the night for some or all of the daily cycle simply for noise reasons.

Thanks

 

[needsajet]

As far as water circulation and algae prevention, you should have good success with 4 to 6 hours per day during swimming season with a 1.5 HP pump on a 10K gallon pool. You may need more hours to add chlorine and/or for skimming. Adjusting the return jet eyeballs for both good circulation and skimming can help with reducing pump run time.

You only need 24/7 for a SLAM, or for one day after adding CYA and salt. It's preferred to leave it on overnight if performing an overnight chlorine loss test if you don't want to get up a half-hour before sunrise to turn the pump on.

 

[phillijp]

As far as water circulation and algae prevention, you should have good success with 4 to 6 hours per day during swimming season with a 1.5 HP pump on a 10K gallon pool. You may need more hours to add chlorine and/or for skimming. Adjusting the return jet eyeballs for both good circulation and skimming can help with reducing pump run time.

You only need 24/7 for a SLAM, or for one day after adding CYA and salt. It's preferred to leave it on overnight if performing an overnight chlorine loss test if you don't want to get up a half-hour before sunrise to turn the pump on.

8 is my comfort zone for now, I may eventually get to 4-6 but I want to proceed carefully.
i have my returns positioned such that the pool is constantly swirling and that allows the skimmer to draw off most of the bugs.

So I'm ok to run this pump in the middle of the night? I think I'll start with 4 hours at night and 4 hours mid morning.

Thanks

 

[needsajet]

Yeh, for sure, the pump can be run at night. Some people run their pump at night to take advantage of lower electricity rates. Most people run their pumps during the day to keep the pool skimmed and looking nice, to run water features and slides, and/or because they're dosing chlorine with a chlorine injection system or SWG. There's no need for chlorine replenishment at night, so daytime works well, but either way works.

 

[phillijp]

Ok so I'm going to make the switch, no turning back now....