I am in the process of working with a builder on my pool design. It will be a pool only (no spa), but I am building a grotto water fall. The grotto will be roughly 8 feet wide and 3.5 feet off the water. I am building a free form pool roughly 33' x 20'. The builder is telling me that I will only need 1 variable speed Jandy pump vs. having a separate water feature pump? Does this sound correct? They are telling me I could add an additional pump but it will just cost more money and is not really needed. Should I get the additional water pump or not?
Pump Question
- Thread starter msujohn
- Start date
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That's a wide waterfall. How much water are you visualizing going over it? You may need quite a large pump and separate plumbing for it.
That's a wide waterfall. How much water are you visualizing going over it? You may need quite a large pump and separate plumbing for it.
The total width will be 8 feet, but I'm thinking after I build up the boulders around it, etc that I will only have about 4 or 5 feet for the waterfall. I'm trying to create a grotto/jump rock that my kids can jump off as well as having some water come off it. Just not sure if I need a separate pump or not.
It very much depends on the width of the waterfall and how you want it to look. Flow rates for waterfalls are in the 5 to 30 GPM per foot of width range, with values around 10-15 GPM/foot being the most common. At 15 GPM/foot, an 8 foot waterfall needs 120 GPM, which will make a separate pump well worth having. But a two foot wide waterfall at 10 GPM/foot, or 20 GPM total, would work just fine on the main pump.
Is it possible to use the water fall pump to also run my polaris cleaner or do I need the separate pump that comes with the cleaner? I've been told my city requires a safety valve for each pump and that cost is $500, so I'm trying to understand my options.
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