ShopVac Vs Compressor for Pool/Irrigation system closing

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R

Rockstead

Well-known member
Sep 2, 2010
476
Montreal, QC, Canada
Pool Size
100000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
Hi,

I own a 18x36 inground pool, as well I have a large irrigation system for automatic watering of my lawn.

I'm tired of the expense of closing both equipment, we're a large family and money is tight and I need to start saving where I can, these guys come in and leave pretty quickly and take a lot of my cash with them, I want to man up and start doing this myself.

Now I often hear about people using Shopvacs or compressors to close their pools, can someone with experience on closing both, please recommend what I should be buying that would work great in either application, would be great if you could recommend specific power requirements so I buy one that is powerful enough and does it in a good timeframe.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!
 
A good shop vac with a high CFM rating will work on a pool (a Mighty Vac works well). For a pool, you need to think high air flow rather than high pressure. You can also use an air compressor if its big enough, say at least a big enough tank with a motor that can keep up. I use a craftsman pancake compressor, 6 gallon tank to blow mine with about 15 psi on the regulator.

A sprinkler system is another animal all together. There's a reason the guys that blow them rent a compressor on a trailor. For an irrigation system, you need a lot of air, and i mean a lot. If you used a regular tank compressor, it wolud have to be really big. You need enough air to blow continuously to clear all the lines in each zone. A comprssor like the ones they pull behind a truck is what you need. There is no tank, but the motor is big enough to supply a continuous amount of air. Thats why they use those to run jack hammers. A tank would run out of air to fast. FWIW, I'm in new england and I know a lot of people who blow their own pools. I know of no one who does their own irrigation.
 
I tried a 2HP large shop vac on mine and eventually used a compressor, worked way better and a lot faster. Plus the compressor can be charged up and dragged to the spot required without a cord, I used a tiny 5 gal oil less Campbell Hausfield compressor...so even that is plenty.

Not to mention vaccums are designed to suck not blow and don't put out a lot of pressure in blow mode.
 
bk406 said:
A good shop vac with a high CFM rating will work on a pool (a Mighty Vac works well). For a pool, you need to think high air flow rather than high pressure. You can also use an air compressor if its big enough, say at least a big enough tank with a motor that can keep up. I use a craftsman pancake compressor, 6 gallon tank to blow mine with about 15 psi on the regulator.

A sprinkler system is another animal all together. There's a reason the guys that blow them rent a compressor on a trailor. For an irrigation system, you need a lot of air, and i mean a lot. If you used a regular tank compressor, it wolud have to be really big. You need enough air to blow continuously to clear all the lines in each zone. A comprssor like the ones they pull behind a truck is what you need. There is no tank, but the motor is big enough to supply a continuous amount of air. Thats why they use those to run jack hammers. A tank would run out of air to fast. FWIW, I'm in new england and I know a lot of people who blow their own pools. I know of no one who does their own irrigation.
Click to expand...

You are right, the irrigation company does come with one of those trucks that looks like one huge compressor at the back.

When I contacted the irrigation company about doing it myself, they had this to say: "You can use a small compressor but it will take 45-60 minutes to do . The size is not that important it is the volume of air".

Given that, can I purchase something that will let me do both, from your message I get the impression that people just don't normally do it by themselves, I'm willing to except that too if I have to.

As for the Shop Vac, when you say high CFM, how high do you mean, I'm not well versed with Shopvacs at all, but it would be nice to have one I could also use to clean my garage and car with.

The last person that closed my pool had a nifty one, it actually looked like a large dustbuster and it was a portable hand held, any idea what that was? The only thing I fear is having the shopvac fall in the pool while it is plugged in, I don't know if they make a combo type unit that is hand held like that pool closer had and at the same time can be used to do clean up jobs in the garage and car?
 
CFM= cubic feet per minute. If you use some sort of shop vac, one that puts out around 400 CFM would be ok. Your pool guy probably had mighty vac. Was this it:

http://www.poolcenter.com/winter_suppli ... ty_vac.htm

You dont worry about dropping it in the pool. Look at the video on the link I put in to see how they do it.
If you use a compressor, you blow from the equipment pad. You screw the air hose into one of the drain plags on the pump and blow the whole system from right there.

To do a sprinkler system, you would need a larger compressor with a big tank. Like say 60 gallon, 100 gallon would be better. That will run you $1000 up to 3 grand. A compressor to blow the pool would be in the range of 60-80 bucks from Sears. Even at $1000, around here thats 10 years worth of blow-outs from my landscaper (he charges $100 a season).
 
bk406 said:
CFM= cubic feet per minute. If you use some sort of shop vac, one that puts out around 400 CFM would be ok. Your pool guy probably had mighty vac. Was this it:

http://www.poolcenter.com/winter_suppli ... ty_vac.htm

You dont worry about dropping it in the pool. Look at the video on the link I put in to see how they do it.
If you use a compressor, you blow from the equipment pad. You screw the air hose into one of the drain plags on the pump and blow the whole system from right there.

To do a sprinkler system, you would need a larger compressor with a big tank. Like say 60 gallon, 100 gallon would be better. That will run you $1000 up to 3 grand. A compressor to blow the pool would be in the range of 60-80 bucks from Sears. Even at $1000, around here thats 10 years worth of blow-outs from my landscaper (he charges $100 a season).
Click to expand...

OK all valid points on the compressor and irrigation system, the company I use also charges around $100, I'll put that to rest and just keep having them close it.

I'll look at Shopvac in the 400CFM+ range.

I looked at the link you sent and it is not what the guy used, his was portable, compact and hand held.
 
I'm looking at the ShopVac website right now but I don't see any listing for CFM, I'm looking at all the models they have available with a blower and there are so many with Horsepower ranging from 0-6+ and different tank sizes.

Is there one people generally recommend? a Mighty Vac looks cool but I would like it to double as an actual Vacuum for the garage and car.
 
I tried both a 6hp shop vac and compressor with mixed results. Then I remembered that I had another 2HP spa blower that I got off ebay for $50. Hooked that up and attached a couple different fittings and blew out all great.

Now im looking to integrate that blower into my plumbing this spring so I can blow all out without unhooking much. Or will just use it as my go-to closer.

B
 

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That's going to be hard to do. The one specification that you need, to determine with certainty that it'll work, is outlet pressure and no shop vac mfg's that I know of list that spec. In order to blow water out of a line you have to know the head of the water in the line and buy something to overcome that.
 
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