Advice in upgrade to VS Pump

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kfpool

kfpool

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LifeTime Supporter
Jan 14, 2016
141
Semmes, AL
Pool Size
12000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Hayward Turbo Cell (T-CELL-5)
My 1.5 hp pump is beginning to sqeal and will likely need replacment soon.

Considering that I may ultimately want to upgrade to a SWG I would want to replace this with a variable speed.
I have one floor dran with 2" piping, one wall skimmer with 1-1/2" Piping, and run a barracuda on the wall suction with 1-1/2"piping.

Current Pump 1-1/2 HP, SF 1.1, Sta-Rite Dura Glass PE.

What size Variable Speed Pump should I consider.
Any recommendations?
 
k,

As a highly biased Pentair guy, I recommend the "Gold Standard" of variable speed pumps, the 3 HP Intelliflo... :)

I know you are thinking 3 HP is way to much, and you would be right except that is the "max" HP... You would normally run it at a very slow speed, so Max HP does not matter.

This pump uses 175 Watts of electrical power at 1,200 RPM. I would run it slower, but that is just above the point my SWCG needs to close the flow switch.

No matter what pump you get, I recommend installing it with unions to avoid problems later. Also ,all vs pumps need to have a surge protector installed at the equipment pad.

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.
 
If your 1.5 HP drive is handling it all okay now, then you can go with 1.5 or larger. I replaced my 1 HP single speed with a Pentair Super Flo VS and am very happy with it. I can dial it back to as low as 650 RPM (from max of 3450) and still meet the flow rates my SWG needs. Your select may depend if you plan on having automation, and/or want automatic freeze protection. The SuperFlo VS has 4 programmable speeds, and a simple low voltage digital remote control interface. it does not have a freeze protect mode.
 
Jimrahbe said:
k,

As a highly biased Pentair guy, I recommend the "Gold Standard" of variable speed pumps, the 3 HP Intelliflo... :)

I know you are thinking 3 HP is way to much, and you would be right except that is the "max" HP... You would normally run it at a very slow speed, so Max HP does not matter.

This pump uses 175 Watts of electrical power at 1,200 RPM. I would run it slower, but that is just above the point my SWCG needs to close the flow switch.

No matter what pump you get, I recommend installing it with unions to avoid problems later. Also ,all vs pumps need to have a surge protector installed at the equipment pad.

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.
Click to expand...

Our equipment pad has recently been setup and all electrical run. Have a Pentair UltraTemp 120R H/C, EasyTouch 4 and IntelliFlo 2 VST 3 HP pump. The VS pump was installed on a 240 volt GFI breaker. The wiring goes directly to a breaker in the EasyTouch 4 panel. How would I add a surge protector?


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How would I add a surge protector?
Click to expand...
You would want to use a high quality surge protector that would cover the entire subpanel. I used the Square D HEPD80. Ideally you would have room in the panel for a 20amp circuit breaker, which you would wire the protector. There are instructions included as well as instructional videos available on yt. Or you can hire an electrician. This then protects everything attached to your panel.

surge.jpg
 
Thanks. Wish I had known this before my electrician finished wiring. Found on online for ~$100. Can this be installed in an outdoor panel? Has to be mounted so you have visibility to the lights else it defeats purpose, correct?


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miles267 said:
Thanks. Wish I had known this before my electrician finished wiring. Found on online for ~$100. Can this be installed in an outdoor panel? Has to be mounted so you have visibility to the lights else it defeats purpose, correct?
Click to expand...

Yes you can mount at indoor panel. I am not an electrician, but "think" it would work best as close to where surge would come in. So for the outdoor equipment it "may" be best to mount outdoor. I mounted mine outside. I have not yet, but do want to mount one at my main panel too.
 

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Jimrahbe said:
k,

As a highly biased Pentair guy, I recommend the "Gold Standard" of variable speed pumps, the 3 HP Intelliflo... :)

I know you are thinking 3 HP is way to much, and you would be right except that is the "max" HP... You would normally run it at a very slow speed, so Max HP does not matter.

This pump uses 175 Watts of electrical power at 1,200 RPM. I would run it slower, but that is just above the point my SWCG needs to close the flow switch.

No matter what pump you get, I recommend installing it with unions to avoid problems later. Also ,all vs pumps need to have a surge protector installed at the equipment pad.

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the feedback. I will be tearing my pump apart this week & if it does not look good I will be shopping for a VSP. Your feedback helps.
In a previous life I was powerplant instrument tech & electrician so the install details should be no problem.
I do have a whole house surge protector, would you still recommend the local install as well?
 
kfpool said:
Thanks for the feedback. I will be tearing my pump apart this week & if it does not look good I will be shopping for a VSP. Your feedback helps.
In a previous life I was powerplant instrument tech & electrician so the install details should be no problem.
I do have a whole house surge protector, would you still recommend the local install as well?
Click to expand...

I would rather have a whole house unit than none at all, but my gut says the closer to the pump the better. No proof of this at all. But... A long time ago I used to manage the Repair Department for a high-end audio/video company. They made stuff for movie stars, sports stars, etc. Anyway, we would often get back equipment with very obvious lightning damage and almost always the equipment was from their "pool house".. We almost never got back the same equipment that was installed in the main house. Kind of like how mobile homes seems to attract tornadoes... :p

Sorry, but I have no experience with EcoPump, but, you almost always get what you pay for..

Good luck with your choices...

Jim R.
 
I have two "whole house" surge protectors. One on my main service panel and a second smaller capacity one on my pool sub panel. Total price for both less than $160 and an afternoon to install. Cheap protection for expensive equipment.
 
I did both. Kind of a belt plus suspenders approach. They say that even with whole house at main panel, there can still be surges within your wiring, particularly with a long run to the pool sub panel.
 
miles267 said:
My electrician almost exclusively does pool wiring. Recommends installing ahead of main electrical service rather than at equipment sub-panel.


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Click to expand...

Then he doesn't understand surge protection very well....sorry, but this is a very common misconception.

Surge protection works best at the point of necessity, i.e., at the equipment. This is because SPDs are protecting you against a very large and energetic reactive power spike, i.e., a lightening strike is a huge current/voltage spike. Reactive power can travel across gaps if it is large enough (e.g., spark-gap lightening arrestors on telephone poles), and can form on wires through inductive coupling (i.e., acting like an antenna). So there can be a small but very significant time delay involved when a surge hits your line such that an SPD at the main panel would not necessarily protect anything 100 ft away from it.

For pool equipment, one most definitely wants and needs the SPD at the pool panel, not at the main panel. And for any equipment inside the home that is expensive or essential, one should always put SPDs at the equipment outlet (flat panel TVs, computers, cable modem, routers, etc). An SPD at the main panel is mainly good for filtering out slight over-voltages from the power company that might not necessarily trip the breaker but would stress equipment plugged into outlets throughout the home.
 
:goodpost: - I agree with Matt. I lost a lot of equipment a couple of years ago, which were plugged into more generic power strips with some level of surge protection(so the strips list). Damaged tv, home theater receiver, lots of network gear (cable modem and multiple routers), 2 blu ray players, and couple directv dvrs. Did not lose any computers, as they were plugged into UPSes. Now all that equipment is plugged into local UPSes. I installed my surge protector at the pool subpanel to keep close to pricey pump, led lights, swg, auto cover... That said, I do want to install one as well in my main panel to help as much as possible with the rest of the stuff.
 
Foosman said:
Looks like that takes up 2 slots, any idea how many breaker slots are in an Easytouch 8?
Click to expand...

Yes. Requires one slot for each leg. I had four slots left on my panel and so used two for the SPD. There are 8 CB spots in the panel. If one does not have enough slots left in their panel, there are ways to wire in a separate smaller box before the panel to act as the feed to the pool panel with the SPD in that but, in that case, one would probably want to hire an electrician to do the work.


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