Buying a new 2-speed pool pump and need some advice

Jump to latest Follow Reply
H

heygreene

0
Jun 28, 2015
59
Greenville/SC
Hi All, I have a 1.5hp ancient single speed Hayward pump that just will not die. However, it is very expensive to run (~$200 a month or so... even when only running around 12hrs a day). Therefore, I'm looking at 2-speed 1hp pumps to hopefully cut my costs some. I have a 24' AGP (round), which is around 13,500 gallons. I'm looking at a 2-speed Hayward SP15922S Power-Flo Matrix ($278 on Amazon). It looks like a good bit of folks on here run those, but I had a question about my setup.

Will this new pump work okay with my current Hayward S210T sand filter? I only have around 5' of pipe going to the pump and filter, and another 5' coming out. The piping is 2" all around, but of course it's 1.5" going in and coming out of the pump itself (the new one will be the same way). On Hayward's site they show the pump as 86GPM at 10-20' of head. My old sand filter has a rating of 80GPM with 2" pipe, so I don't think this will be an issue.

All of that being said, I'm 99% sure that this should all work, but before I spend almost $300 I wanted to get a sanity check or feedback on HP, model, etc.

Thanks,
Heygreene
 
Well, first I must say that only running the pump for 12 hours is still WAY longer than you likely need to. A pool only needs the water circulated for chemistry dispersion for a 1-2 hours a day.

That 1-HP 2-speed Matrix is a good pump and will work well for you. It should be fine with your 21" sand filter too.

Just run it on low speed to save $ on power and cut back your run time to say 6 hours and see if the pool stays filtered enough for you.
Use high speed to backwash and do your pressure check to know when the pressure rises 20-25% over your clean pressure telling you to clean.
 
Thanks jblizzle. Now that I've done some more research I see that my old pump is 70GPM, and my pool being 13.5k means that I could turn the water over in a little less than 3 hours, which would actually be great and probably make the old pump not that expensive to run if I cut it way back. However, my main problem is that I end up having to run the pool a lot just to keep leaves out of it since I have a good bit of trees around. My thought around the 2-phase pump was that I could run it longer, thus hopefully cleaning up more of the leaves throughout the day.
 
We really don't care about turnovers. If leaves are your main concern then yes running the pump more on a lower speed might help although the skimmer doesn't work as well at low speed.
 
scooperhsd, you're right... I shouldn't say it's as much leaves as it is a "film" over the water from a few leaves, but mainly pollen (and the occasional bug). Another bigger problem that I should have mentioned is just dirt accumulating on the bottom of the pool. I have to vacuum daily if I don't run the pump a good bit. The more I run it, the less I vacuum (maybe every 3-4 days instead of daily).

My main fear is I'll get the 2-speed and like jblizzle said, it may not have enough "umph" to clear the crud on the bottom or the top of the water... then I'm back to running on high again (same as my single speed).
 
No, I don't have any kind of automatic cleaner for the pool (but that's probably a great idea). I know almost nothing about them, but I assumed that you had to hook them into the skimmer which means I wouldn't be able to catch the crud and leaves off of the top of the pool at the same time. If I was only running the pump around 6hrs a day, how would that work? Would I have to hook the cleaner up for a portion of that time? Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
Should be possible to add one. Would have to cut a hole in the side of the pool and liner. Add a port, then plumb it into you suction line with valves. Way easier to buy a robot ;)
 
I agree, the electric robotic cleaner sounds much easier. My main concern is my 2 wild boys (6 and 8yo)... I would have to ensure that they understand NOT to get in while the cleaner is hooked up! Of course we monitor them closely around the pool, but sometimes it's like herding cats. I see that the cleaners are around $250 and up. Are there any suggestions for any around $300 or so that work okay? Thanks!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply