How long do I need to run my filter every day?

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H

heikejohn

0
Oct 18, 2007
330
Cedar Hill, TN
For the last couple of weeks, I have been reading a lot, and learned a lot from everybody. (And 'am almost finished with my conversion to BBB)

Something I noticed with different posters, they only run their pump & filter several hours each day. Is that OK? For the last year, I have run my 2 HP pump 24 hours a day on high.

My pool is 12500 gal AG. How long is long enough? Is is bad for the pump to run 24 hours a day for month on end? Am I killing my pump?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
 
There is nothing wrong with running your pump all the time other than the cost. You can probably run it far less and not have any problems. How much that turns out to be in practice is hard to predict. I would try starting with 12 hours a day on low and see how that works out and then adjust it up or down from there.
 
My pump is on a timer and runs 8 hours at night. We get reduced rates between 9:00 P.M. and 9:00 A.M. as well as all weekend. The pool volume is about 12,000 gallons.

When the pump is on it runs on low. I only use the high setting for mixing in chemicals, vacuuming, and backwashing.

Anna
 
Ilan,
When I turn off my pump, the water drains back to the pool.
Click to expand...
If that's the case, it sounds like you have a suction side leak allowing air into the system. I'm guessing suction side since you don't report water leaking from your system when the pump is running.
 
Last year, being our first w/a pool, we found info on Pool Forum about pump run time. Based on what I remember reading there, we ran our pump about *SIX HOURS per day...broken into Three Hours in the AM & Three Hours in the PM. Our water stayed beautiful all year long. This year, we had new plaster and increased the run time to about EIGHT hours per day. We do not have a timer and have never run our pump at night. Next year we plan to go back to the Three/Three plan since it worked wonderfully well for us. This pump run time + BBB makes our pool pretty 'cheap' to run. :wink:

*Seems that Ben mentioned that most PB's size equipment to turn the pool over once about every four hours and, one and a half turns per day should be sufficient. This is what I recall and hope it is correct, but you could probably do a search at PF and find it verbatim.

Hope this helps.

Joyce
 
The usual rule of thumb is that you want to turn over the water once a day. "Turn over" means run the same amount of water through the filter as there is in the pool.

Pumps are typically sized to turn over the water somewhere between two and three times a day. However, it is tricky to figure out what the flow rate actually is on a specific pool, so many builders simply put in a much larger pump just to be sure (and because buyers are frequently impressed by how "large" their pump is, even though that is a bad thing more often than not).

What really matters is how the water looks. That is why I suggest using emperical testing of the appearance of the water with different pump run times to decide how long to run your pump on your pool. It is simplest to start with a longer run time than you are likely to need, to get an idea of how good the water can look. Also, keep in mind that colder water doesn't require as much circulation as warmer water, so testing in the spring/fall may not apply to summer.
 
I'm sure someone here can tell me how much it costs per hour to run a standard, say 1hp, pump. I know this depends on electricity rates so maybe this could be in KWH and then we can multiply by our respective rates. I think my rates are $0.078.

Thanks.
 
A typical 1 HP pump will draw perhaps 7 Amps at 230 Volts or 1.6 Kw hours/hour or 38.6 Kw hours/day or on the order of 1200 Kw hours/month. If you are paying $0.078/Kw hour that is around $90/month. Some people are paying closer to $0.35/Kw hour or around $400/month. It is quite common to be able to reduce the pump run time to 12 hours a day (and often much less) which would be a 50% savings.

There is more than one definition of a HP, not all 1 HP pumps are actually the same size. Plus the actual electrical usage will depend on where your plumbing system's TDH hits the pump efficiency curve. The numbers above should be representative with perhaps +-20% variation depending on your particular situation.
 

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Thanks All!

I turned my pool on low for now, but will keep it running until the conversion is done. I think it's keeping the CL over night, but am still waiting for the Taylor test kit. It's been 10 days and will hopefully show up in a few more days. The cheap wal-mart reagent has been used up, since I tested every few hours for the last 10 days. Had to get another test kit, since the refill bottles were all gone already.

Once the "Real Test Kit" confirms my readings, in goes the polyquat, re-shock & close.

Can't wait for next year to swim in truly clear water!!!

(Sunday was nice over here, the water was still 70 degrees, it looked really clear, it was almost holding the CL over night without much loss, so .......... just had to try it out. A bit cold, but it was SO WORTH it!!!!
 
When our pool was built 11 yrs. ago the contractor told us to keep pump on 24/7......we did but were worried about electric bill......we finished our pool in spring so we took out our electric bills for spring and fall for 3 years prior (because we don't run a/c or heat during these times)....the most our total electric bill jumped was/is $7.59 per month.....I don't want want to go upstairs and find out our electric rate but I will say my 2 neighbors on either side of me also have inground pools....one like me, runs pump 24/7 and our pools are always pristine....the other guy runs his pool 4-6 hrs. a day and his pool always looks awful and he complains about all the "hard work"....right now it looks like a swamp....I will also add this is the original pump/filter....2 years ago we had the sand replaced but guy told us when he opened the filter up, that it really didn't need it....but he changed out the sand for us anyway....just my 2 cents.
 
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