New equipment recommendations?

[HotShot53]

After being busy with things and vacation this fall, and needing a new cover before closing my pool, I somehow never got around to closing it this year... and learned the hard way that my procrastination has some costs. My pump and filter are both cracked from the water freezing, so I need a new pump and filter. (Thankfully they were both a little over 5 years old, and starting to show their age a little anyway, so it's not quite as bad as if they were new.)

So... what are good pumps/filters out now? Has anything changed significantly in the last 5 years? I had a Pentair Optiflow 1 HP 2 Speed pump and a Pentair cc200 cartridge filter, and they've worked well, should I just get the same stuff again?

 

[Jimrahbe]

Hot,

I'm not up on AGP equipment, so I can't be much help there..

How often where you having to clean your filter? If more than twice a year, I'd suggest going bigger on the filter size no matter what brand you buy.

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.

 

[HotShot53]

Hot,

I'm not up on AGP equipment, so I can't be much help there..

How often where you having to clean your filter? If more than twice a year, I'd suggest going bigger on the filter size no matter what brand you buy.

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.

When I first got my pool, for the first 2 years I only cleaned it about 2-3 times a year. For the last year or two though, I've had to clean it a lot more often, although I don't know if that's because I didn't keep up with my pool as much and it was cleaning out more algae than it should be, or if my pump was just not as powerful as it use to be. Originally I could run my pump on low power for months between cleaning... last year after a week or so on low power I had to turn it to full power to keep enough flow for my 2 SWGs to run, and then a week or two after that it wouldn't be enough flow even at full power.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Hot,

I suspect the filter was just doing its job.. cleaning dead stuff out of your pool.

As a general rule, the main reason that filters clog and quickly reduce that amount of flow they allow, is from algae due to insufficient chlorine levels.

Pump power is not the reason your filter is clogging.. And, if you were only cleaning it 2 or 3 times a year, size is not an issue either.

I see that you have been a member here since 2011... So, I'm sure you know what I'm going to say next....

How often have you been testing your water, and what test kit have you been using? What color is your water now and how clear is it?

FC
CC
pH
TA
CH
CYA

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.

 

[HotShot53]

Yeah, I joined in 2011 when I was building my pool, and the advice then helped a lot

Right now, because of not closing my pool for winter, and not having a working pump/filter, my pool is a nice shade of swamp green lol. (I'm considering draining it and fixing or replacing my liner also, I made a thread in the AGP section for that.)

I haven't done any tests recently... and to be honest hadn't done many (or any) tests last year... the water was crystal clear all year so I didn't worry about it, but I'm guessing my CYA levels got too low from the annual splashout/refilling etc., so maybe algae was growing during the hours my SWGs weren't running, or just growing at low levels so it clogged the filter but didn't really make my water look bad.