Pool Pump recommendation needed

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Archos

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Jul 9, 2008
27
Evansville, Indiana
My pump motor kicked the bucket on me. Granted it was a 10+ year old motor and has been slowly losing performance over the past couple of years. While I was cleaning the pool out the motor started sounding like a bi-plane was flying over my house. Then it shut itself off and wouldn't turn back on. I managed to get the motor to start again, but it is running rough. When I removed the pump, I could hear what sounded like metal shavings moving around in the housing. Time for a new pump.

The pump/filter system I have is a Jacuzzi sand filter and a single speed 1HP pump. I'd like to keep the filter, because I just replaced the dial valve (I think that's what it's called) a couple of years ago. The filter does a good job for me.

I'd like to upgrade to a 2 speed pump for obvious economical and efficiency reasons. I'd also like to buy the whole pump skimmer/motor combo and not just replace the motor only. (Part of the pump mounting bracket broke years ago and finding replacements parts is pretty hard. It's also very difficult to work on)

I have a 28 foot round AG pool with an Aquatrol SWG. It's over 18000 gallons total. 1 1/2" PVC plumbing.

Should I stick with the 1HP pump? The pool store person insisted I needed a 1.5HP to 2HP motor, which sounded pretty fishy because I hadn't told them what size pool I had yet.

I've been looking around at various websites, but I find this place is the apex of pool knowledge on the internet. (Ordered my TFP Test Kit last year and had a blast playing shade-tree pool chemist)

Can someone give me a suggestion as to what is a good pump?
 
If the 1hp pump is doing a good job now I'd stick with it for the replacement. That being said, check the max flow rate on your filter and see what it's rated at. That way you'll know how much pump you can use.
 
I've got a Pentair Optiflo 1 hp 2-speeder, and love it. From what I understand, the Pentair Dynamo 2-speed is a good pump, too.

I bought mine from Amerimerc.com . Good price, and free shipping. I'm all about free shipping. :mrgreen:
 
I have been reading some good things about the Pentair pumps. Their website doesn't say if any of the Optiflo models they are selling are 2 speed. I guess I'll need to call them.

One of the problems I had with my old pump was that it would be frozen every spring when I opened the pool. Every spring I'd have to take the pump from the pump skimmer and break the shaft free. I've been told newer models have a cap on the back of the pump motor that you remove and can use a ratchet to do the same. The owner's manual doesn't say. Any idea if yours has this feature, Mike?
 
Archos said:
I have been reading some good things about the Pentair pumps. Their website doesn't say if any of the Optiflo models they are selling are 2 speed. I guess I'll need to call them.

One of the problems I had with my old pump was that it would be frozen every spring when I opened the pool. Every spring I'd have to take the pump from the pump skimmer and break the shaft free. I've been told newer models have a cap on the back of the pump motor that you remove and can use a ratchet to do the same. The owner's manual doesn't say. Any idea if yours has this feature, Mike?
Click to expand...

Hmmm..I don't know if it does or not, to be honest. I'll check this evening and let you know.

Interesting - Amerimerc's showing both a 2 speed 1hp Optiflo and 2 speed 3/4, 1, and 1 1/2 hp Dynamo pumps on the website.

Optiflo

Dynamo

Did they say they were sold out of the Pentair pumps?
 
Yes, they told me they didn't carry the 2 speed Optiflo. They carried the Dyna but it was a no cord model only. I asked what that meant exactly, thinking I'd just have to buy a cord, she said it was a model meant to be wired straight into a powersource. No idea what that means, but she said it wasn't something I'd just want to wire a cord into and plug into my SWG. I also need the verticle model.

I found the 2 speed Optiflo at Aqua Super Store. It was under $260 and would be here in two days. Considering my above ground pound isn't going to get any more greener since my old pump died...

I'll keep everyone posted on my experience.
 
It seems that Aqua Superstore didn't actually have the pump they advertised in stock and it would take an additional 7-10 days to get the pump on top of the normal shipping time. I need a pump before the government declares my pool a swampland reserve.

The only other "substitutes" they could offer were in-ground Whisperflo and an in-ground Jandy pump. Both cost in excess of $600 to $700. I canceled my order. They "Live Chat" rep, Crystal, was very helpful despite there being a huge lag in response time.

Off I go to search for another place to buy a pump. I have the absolute worst luck with my pool. I posted a running year by year commentary on a private message board and most of them couldn't believe how bad my pool experience has been.
 

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Sorry for the delay in the update. I wanted to run the pump for a few weeks before I posted my total experience with it. The following Monday July 13th, the pump arrived at my doorstep. Here it is:

P1010001.jpg


It also came with an instruction book with the general warranty info and such. The one thing that was missing from the whole package is how exactly you convert this thing from horizontal and vertical discharge. I decided to wing it. The first step is getting the pump disconnected from the skimmer. You'll need a short philipshead screwdriver, because there is very little clearance on the top side screws.

P1010004.jpg


P1010005.jpg


You'll notice these little "magic buttons" on the connection between the skimmer and the discharge/pump connector. In theory all you need to do is push these little buggers in and slide the two apart. The problem is, once you push one or two out of the four in, they will start popping back out due to the opposite side pressure you get from pushing the other side in. After about 20 minutes of playing musical buttons, I decided to call Pentair. Below is a pic of these little demons.

P1010006.jpg


P1010007.jpg


First off, let me say Pentair's support people are really nice folks. My tech was a super nice lady who came right out and told me they had nothing on the conversion process. No written documentation, no secret dealer how-to's... nada. She actually went and retrieved my exact pump model out of their inventory and tried to get the discharge disconnected. She went around and around with it. I could hear the buttons popping back into place the more she tried to get the discharge off. She was obviously frustrated and apologized for not being able to figure it out. She said if I ever figure it out, to let Pentair know. They are evidently compiling a "guides" section on their site. Who know? Maybe I'll be pseudo-famous?

After a bit of hair pulling, I decided to use a little hillbilly innovation. I retrieved a few of the 700 flathead screwdrivers I own and went to work. What I found is that you basically take a small tipped flathead screwdriver and slip it into the buttonhole. (Be careful not to dig the screwdriver head into the plastic. A light touch is all you really need here.) This stops them from popping back out. Then you continue to the next hole leaving the last screwdriver in place. Like so:

P1010011.jpg


Once you are finished, it will look something like this:

P1010010.jpg


Then you just slide them apart! Be careful not to lose the little o-ring that that goes around the inner shaft of the connecting tubes.

P1010012.jpg

P1010015.jpg


Here's the other side:

P1010014.jpg


Then all you do is slide them back together the way you want them. Ta da! Vertical discharge!

P1010016.jpg
 
The new pump works great! It's very quiet on high speed. On low speed I can't even tell it's on most of the time.

My big problem was that I had a pool, with no water circulation, in July. I've never seen my pool go from the greenish/dirty of opening to looking like King Kong had used it as a toilet. It was so nasty the local frogs wouldn't get in it.

The pump turns my water over so fast compared to my old Jacuzzi pump, my pool went from King Kong's toilet to milky blue in about 4 days. The problem I'm having now is that it's not getting any better. It's still just a milky blue. We keep getting these unusual thunderstorms that drop an inch or so of water into the pool. I'm sure this isn't helping. It seems like I've done nothing but test the pool water for a week. I was only dropping 1ppm of FC over 12 hours for the last two days, however the water is still not clearing up. I've brushed and vacuumed the pool so much, my forearms are starting to look like Popeye's.

I've consistently kept the following numbers despite the rainstorm messing with my Ph.
FC = 9-10
CC = .5 (I can barely notice a color change when doing the test)
Ph = 7.2 (I've had it jump as much to 7.8 after rain. I always run out and get the Ph back down after the rain)
CYA = 20 (Although it has gotten down to 15 when it rained so much my skimmer overflowed)
TA = 130 (Started at 180 last week. I can't seem to get it to normal range with these rainstorms)
Water Temp = 75 to 82 degrees F

I'm not sure whether I need to keep the pool at shock level or drop it to the normal 3-4 FC and wait to see what happens. My pump has been running non-stop at high.
 
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