Finally!! New Pump and Filter Going in Tomorrow

geekgranny

0
LifeTime Supporter
Aug 20, 2009
1,357
North Central Texas
New pump and filter going in tomorrow. I'm so excited. Favorite, most trusted pool guy doing it. He wasn't going to be able to do it till Tuesday, but I bribed him with promise of big tip. :-D It doesn't always work with him but he saw it was going to be a fast easy job and is going to fit me in. He knows the filter, pump, and multi-valve (sand filter valve for Pentair Quad) so no problems with exploding cartridges. I do feel better about his doing the job. I know he will stand behind his work but, over the years, he's never had to come back to fix or redo any of his work.

I asked him about my three way suctions side valve that has been here forever. I told him that I've read not to turn the valve handle position when pump running. (Maybe that's only for the multi-valve??) He said it wouldn't hurt this one. He's obviously right as I've been adjusting between the drain, skimmer, both, etc., forever, with pump running. Nothing has ever needed replacing in that valve either and it totally closes and opens. That was the only way I could totally clear the partial blockage in the drain pipe, a few years back. I would shut if off for a moment and then quickly switch it to drain. Using the drain king several times over a summer, both directions, got much of it cleared but it took switching between skimmer and drain several times, very fast, once a week or so to do the final clearing. It took a second summer to get it totally cleared. When we move the whole station down the hill he is putting in a new, I think different valve. Hopefully we'll do that this summer with me hiring someone to hand dig the trench.

He said he has had a few customers who didn't like the Quad and actually had him put in new different filter even though their Quads were new. Most of his customers really like them. He, also, has some customers who don't like the cellulose fiber media. I won't know until I use it in the Quad. I've only used it in the ailing Nautilus, undersized filter and liked it's filtering in addition to not throwing so much DE into my already dusty, silty patch of land.

BTW... I got my huge and big Slimebags in and have been using them with the submercible pumps to get some filtering done. They are rated down to 1 micron and when I lift the bags slightly up in the water a cloud of fine "substance" comes off the bag. :shock: I'm experimenting letting the bags go longer between cleanings to see if maybe some of the silt will clog up the bag a bit to trap more stuff; kind of how a DE filter works. No..... a sand filter will not work here. :rant: Wish it would.

:party: :party: :party:

gg=alice
 
Good to hear Alice. :goodjob: Hopefully I can get my new pump soon! As long as the circ. pump on the hot tub is working, I'm fine with it the way it is...for now. At least with one good pump, I won't have to drain, scrub, flush....and so on. Enjoy your new 'toys'!

On a side note, I really enjoy reading all your stories! I always look forward to seeing if you've posted anything new!
 
Well, thank you John. That is so nice. :-D

Our town is having Haz-mat round up today so I have to go collect a bunch of stuff. You drive through and they unload it. Otherwise I would be my usual verbose.

OH MY doG :whoot: :whoot: :whoot:

I can't even hear the pump when I'm standing right over it. Pentair Intelliflo VF. I've left the PoolSkims on, and not changed any of the returns. The Pentair Quad 80 (using cellulose media) has a clean start up psi of 7. It was always double that with my old 36 sq ft, even with new grids and no filter media and 19 psi when I added the PoolSkims and restriced flow to two returns. All of the PVC running to pumping station is still 1.5". "Most favored, most trusted" pool guy removed so much junk from the pumping station and used all 2" pipes. He had to run much more piping than I thought was needed when I was planning to do it myself BUT it is done well and right. Without changing any return fittings nor removing the PoolSkims the venturi action has increased drastically in the PoolSkims. Yesterday was variable direction, 50+ mph gust blowing so much Crud into the pool. I was impressed with the PoolSkims before but I'm amazed now.

It is so exciting. My dinner meeting cancelled so I got to spend a lot of time watching the pool. :party:

I'll post more later and pictures.

I sat and watched and talked to him for three hours as he invited me to do so. I got to pick his brain for all that time. It was so educational. BTW.... Out this way virtually none of his customers have anything but DE filters. He said the PBs who put in pools out here do take into consideration our extreme environmental conditions. Although DE is not the cheapest, (and builders are a business and cut cost where they can) they know no other kind of filter will work with our conditions and owners, in the end, will be very dissatisfied.

His favored mfr is Pentair. And he has been unhappy with Jandy for some time.

More later.

gg=alice
 
PoolGuyNJ said:
With 1.5" plumbing, you should set the max speed/flow to not exceed 75 GPM and 2450 RPM in order to keep head loss due to water velocity under 7 feet per second.

Scott

Thanks Scott. Valuable information I will put in my pool book on back, outside cover so I'll see it often. He set it on a setting to clear the pool first with not too high GPM and RPM. I'm not going to change anything or change out returns until I study the manual thoroughly. The pool was so cloudy I couldn't even see the shallow end bottom, two lowest steps, or even the light lens and ring during the day. I can now see most of the shallow end bottom and will probably see the drain in deep end some time this morning.

I told him I was going to run the Polaris 280 after learning the system, i.e. thoroughly studying the manual. He said, "I thought you weren't going to use the Polaris this summer." (He remembered all I told him when he was out here to look things over.) I want to run the Polaris to compare the EZ bag filtering capability to the bags I have made out of Frost Cloth or any other material that may be needed. He cautioned to wait at least 24 hours before running the Polaris because of new plumbing AND to let the pool clear first without disturbing the bottom so I could see the bags and if silt came through them. (He used quick set glue and boy, does it set fast. I had decided before hand that I was not going to use it if I did the job myself.) He also reminded me to "let the smart pump" do its job" without fiddling with it too much. He, also, told me to keep in mind the "back pressure" (pressure side head) when changing out the return fittings. On his personal pool he has a Pentair VS for circulation/filtering and another Pentair VS for the water features. He runs his "main" pump at around 2300 when the Polaris 280 runs. Is that a good setting for running my Polaris? I'll play with other speeds/flows later, when I know the system better. My plan is to run only the Aquabot, at night, after the doggies are brought in for summer/fall months, till the leaves start falling. I'll probably bring Polaris out if we get extreme debris during storms.


Pump has been running since Friday afternoon. Pool has cleared considerably. Starting psi was 7 and it is now 8. With my old 36 sq ft DE filter, with all parts functioning properly, it would have been time to do a backwash by now. Do I still stick with the 10 psi increase "rule" for when to do a backwash? He said that people find it hard to deal with the drain for taking the top off to rinse the cartridges on a regular basis, because it is placed in a position that is awkward to get to. But since mine is on a step, with the drain pointing towards the next step down, it would be much easier for me to do if I really wanted to do that but regular backwashing should be enough and much less hassle. The fiber media called for 13.5 scoops (included in each bag) for 72 sq ft filter. I used 14.5 scoops guesstimating. After first backwash I'll add the media more slowly at the end so I can watch the filter psi to keep the clean starting pressure at 7-8 psi for one turn over per day or 9-10 psi for three turn overs per day. After the water clears more I'll have to play with how many turn overs per day. I'm aiming for 1 turn over per day and then additional "turn over" from the Aquabot running at night.

I can now, finally, see the pressure gauge while at the skimmer (and from anywhere around the pool) without going three steps down and bending down to look under the deck. :party:

Thanks, gg=alice
 
I couldn't wait. Pool was clear enough to almost see bottom drain. When I lifted, slowly because water was draining out slowly, the large Backwash SlimeBag, rated 1 micron, out of the pool, a tremendous amount of very fine "powder" came out into the pool from bag pores. That clouded it up considerably. "Favorite Most Trusted Pool Guy" had setting 1 on one turnover/day @30K gal for pool, with turn on 9 a.m. and shut off 9 p.m. so I changed it to 3 turnovers, 9:05 a.m turn on and 8:45 a.m. turn off. This made the pressure rise on filter from 8 psi (after Thur-Sat 12 hr runs) to 10 psi. Opened up Polaris valve and ran pump for a couple of minutes to clear out line. Then attached Polaris 280 with the E-Z bag. The very fine silt goes right through the very fine, disposable E-Z bag. So I'm going to let the pool get to daytime clear before I put the Aquabot, with very fine bag, in for night cleaning. After it gets daytime clear I'll try my home-made, frost cloth bag on Polaris.

I hadn't had a working light for about three years or more till I put in the LED bulb last summer. (Used flood lighting for night time swimming.) I never could get to totally clear at night, all summer, with light on running 24/7 with DE and then cellulose. It looked great during the day of course.

This very fine "powder/silt" is going to be a real test for the Quad 80 using cellulose!!!!!! If it can clear the pool to "clear at night with light on" then that should be a super testimonial to the efficacy of the Quad 80/cellulose combo. I think the combo is rated to close to 1 micron. If it doesn't clear it up then I'll have to make some polish bags, < 1 micron to use with the trash pump or two submercibles to get the "micro" stuff out of the pool. I don't know if I can make a < 1 micron bag strong enough for the return from 3/4 hp trash pump. I'll just have to work on it.


I really need to set up the camcorder on a tri-pod so everyone can see what I'm talking about. I'm hoping that the increase in "powder" is the result of the AA treatment, and maintanance does of sequestrant, over the winter. The scale has continued to very slowly loosen during the winter so I'm hoping that is what this extremely fine stuff is as a lot of it is lighter than most of the "normal" fine silt. Color ranges from dull white to light brown. I haven't brushed much over the winter but the Aquabot is doing a great amount of "scrubbing" and the Nasty Bags (after market, frost cloth like material) and the Aquabot fine bag are always lined with it when I change them out daily. There was so much I started letting them dry and then do a vacuum prior to dip rinsing them in three separate water buckets before washing them in washer (to split the fine stuff up; part going into environment when I dump the buckets, part gong into the trash from vacuum, and part going into the septic tank.

To be continued....

gg=alice
 
Butterfly said:
geekgranny said:
I really need to set up the camcorder on a tri-pod so everyone can see what I'm talking about.

The only thing better than a pic is a movie! :goodjob: :whoot:

.....waiting.......

YUP :wave: I should have taken pics or video over the past week. But I was so busy "doing" and I had so much "sipping and watching" to do. :lol: Oh yeah, we've had three days of sun in a row. It's hard get up from basking for very long. :wink:

gg=alice
 
I'll set up one submersible pump with the smaller SlimeBag attached so I can demonstrate the "cloud". I think I can manage to make the time to set up video. :lol: It will take a couple of days running to build up enough in bag to see fully what I'm talking about. "Favorite, Most Trusted" pool guy asked me to PLEASE, PLEASE!!! make it clear, when posting pics, that this setup is temporary, until we move the whole pumping station down the hill this summer (Still under deck but high enough vertical height so we can stand up and take the top off of filter.)

BTW... he said we wouldn't need much more pipe for the run since there is so much in the temporary plumbing already. The pipes are not run under ground for the temporary position of filter as it would have been impossible. Permanant pipes will be run underground (rock). The pipes are now supported by heavy coated wire suspended down from the metal beams of deck. At least the green wire matches the green writing on the PVC. :-D AND no one will ever see it but me. :roll:

gg=alice
 
:lol: :lol: Your "Favorite, Most Trusted" pool guy sounds great! :goodjob: Tell him that you have him covered with with your TFP buds.

......and color coordinated wire and writing ............I just can't wait for the movie! :mrgreen:
 

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Butterfly said:
:lol: :lol: Your "Favorite, Most Trusted" pool guy sounds great! :goodjob: Tell him that you have him covered with with your TFP buds.

......and color coordinated wire and writing ............I just can't wait for the movie! :mrgreen:

He had other colors and chose the green on his own.

He is so wonderful. It was certainly a rare experience to catch him when he wasn't needing to rush off to another job. He likes to gab, too, but usually doesn't have the time. He and his helper split up some jobs to do alone, instead of together, so that he could work me in. I got to hold pipes a couple of times while he pushed them into position while gluing.... ya know that quick set stuff. :wink:

He said most customers don't want to know any thing about their pools and workings. They only want it to work and be pretty with the least amount of thinking or doing on their part. I think he enjoys discussing "all things pool" as much as I do "all things dogs" and now "pools" especially since joining TFP.

He took some short calls from his helper while working. I got to comment and ask after some of the calls. After one call I asked a question and he said, "Yes, it's like doing an acid wash with water in pool" so I said, "kind of like an AA treatment". "Right" he said, without any surprise to it as we had already spent a couple of hours talking. Have I mentioned, lately, how much I enjoyed the experience?? :lol:

BTW... His pool is white plaster. He likes that over any other surface color as it disperses the light better, takes best advantage of light colors, gives great blue color when water is properly balanced, and doesn't mottle like the colored plasters do. When I had my pool replastered in 1996 I didn't know about any of those things and opted for the color thinking it would make my water "bluer". Now that I have learned so much from TFP I wouldn't have spent so much extra on the color plaster. I would still consider a pebble type finish as it would hide the "tons" of sand/silt that are on my bottom until the cleaner runs at night when the doggies are brought in. The bottom is clean for a few minutes every morning til doggies start playing in the pool. :lol:

gg=alice
 
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