high efficient pump w/1.5 plumbing

[Marauder]

Hello!

I am pretty new here. Looking at upgrading the pool I have at my new house. The pool needs a complete resuface, tiling, and new skimmer.

I have a single speed pump that runs off of 220V. Since the high efficiency pumps run 220V, i am considering upgrading it to save energy costs. I noticed that they all run 2" inlet into the pump. My plumbing is 1.5" to the pump right now.

Should I look into upgrading the pool to 2" plumbing, or will it still run fine with the smaller plumbing?

I've also looked into which pump I want to run, from Jandy and Pentair. Any opinions on which is the most efficient pump?

Thanks!

 

[JasonLion]

It is fine to use a pump with 2" inlet/outlets on a pool that has 1.5" plumbing. Normally in that situation it is good to do the entire equipment pad in 2", but even that isn't crucial. The size change can be very close to the pump if you want.

On the other hand, 2" pipe everywhere is more efficient. It isn't very common to replace all the plumbing because that can get quite expensive. Depending on what kind of changes you are making, you might get lucky and replacing all the plumbing may be reasonable. Usually replacing all of the plumbing is quite expensive because it means cutting into the pool deck. But if you are doing that anyway it can sometimes be more reasonable.

One other consideration is to get a comparatively small pump, hopefully a two speed or variable speed pump. 1.5" plumbing is very inefficient with a larger pump and smaller pumps save electricity even with larger plumbing, so you save twice. Depending on how the spa is setup you may need the larger pump, but be able to run the pool on low speed, which is a reasonable compromise.

 

[Marauder]

Thanks for the info. I was trying to see if I could find a "efficient" 2 speed or variable speed in 1.5" plumbing in a smaller HP rating. Seems most meant for 1.5" plumbing are either single or 2 speed.

My spa is setup so that there is a diverter valve on the returns, and in one position it returns to the pool and spa, and in the other it all goes to the spa to make it jet, and then it waterfalls into the pool.

Guess i'll keep looking at my options. I was thinking that since I need a new skimmer, and its really close to the equipment, that I could replace the 1.5" piping from the skimmer to the pump with 2", and plumb 2" on the return side to where ever they split the lines to the individual returns. i would think it would have some king of manifold somewhere, since i have like 4 returns around the pool and some in the spa.