Best time and length to run pump?

[CarrolltonTXPool]

Okay, now that my water finally held the FC overnight ( ) i am assuming i don't have to run it 24/7 anymore. When is the best time to run a pump and for how long? Found out through reading this sight that most of what I knew about pools was wrong

Don't know if there is a chart about pool temp and hours to run. Also run at night or during the hottest part of the day?

This place has already helped me tremendously and the pool looks better than ever before. Now just to clear up that iron staining and we are good to go.

 

[Butterfly]

Well Congrats!

Pump run time is different for every pool.

So, I'll suggest that you start with 12 hours a day.

From there you can monitor and determine if you should/could reduce the run time.

Example, I run mine about 8 to 10 hours a day, during the daytime.
Since I add my bleach in the evenings, I make sure there is about an hour of run time after adding bleach before turning off.

Some folks run at night because of cost/reduced rates and/or to help cool the pool temps.

 

[Wes45]

I start my pump around the time the sun starts hitting the pool like 8:30AM and keep it running till 6PM. I might increase it by an hour cause my pool water isn't as sparkley as it could be.

 

[anonapersona]

I am still tinkering with the ideal run times. I plan my run times based on my idea that I need to keep chlorinated water going through the waterfall several times a day to keep the rocks algae free. But I don't like to run that too much since I get massive evaporation from the waterfall, it is large and faces the hot SW sun all day.

So, I run the waterfall for 30 minutes in the morning and in the early evening. Then I run the Polaris for an hour after each waterfall run, to pick up anything dropped into the pool by the waterfall. Finally, I run the main pool filter for 10 hours in the summer, in the cooler hours of the day. So now that I've just switched to summer hours the filter is on at 6 AM and off at 11 AM, then on at 4 PM and of at 9 PM. Since that leaves a stretch mid-day between 11 and 4 with no circulation I run the Polaris for another hour then.

I know that this leaves the spa uncirculated so I will be watching to see if that lack of circulation mid day creates any problems there. It may be that I need to add back a few hours mid day to keep the spa in good shape. Or maybe I need to add some of my bleach there to boost the level a bit higher. Still playing with it.

 

[Durk]

You have a 1.5 hp pump, a 60 sq. Ft filter and 21K gallons. Pretty heavy duty hardware for that size pool. Depending on your plumbing, you could do with a pretty short run time, in my opinion. Go find the Hydraulics 101 article and run some numbers. I think you could start at 8 hrs. and probably end up at 6 or less unless plumbing is undersized and runs are long. Depends on usage and environment, too. I know others will disagree. Find out what works for you.

 

[CarrolltonTXPool]

I'll check that out tommorrow, thanks!