Mixing pipe sizes

[lardieb]

I moved into a new house last year knowing nothing about keeping my pool in good working order and thanks to TFP I now have good looking water (it will be great after I drain it at the end of the season, high Calcium) that is easy to keep in balance. Thanks to you all!

I am in the process of replacing my pump that died, a Pentair Ultraflow 2HP and AA Leaf Vac that has cracked and is patched to keep things at least kinda flowing. I have my waterfall pump keeping things moving for the mean time. In looking into things I realized the previous owner most likely retroed in a SWG after the pool was setup. Well there are 12 90 degree bends in after the filter before the water heads to the pool cleaner water valve. This of course causes a huge reduction in flow and the pop-ups don't work as well as they should. Since I am already going to be replacing the pump and Leaf Vac I figured I would take out the mess that is the SWG piping and clean everything up to increase the flow.

Now to my question. I will be replacing the pump with a Pentair Intelliflow VF and have a new AA Leaf Vac (yes I get that much stuff in my pool). The two lines from my main drain and skimmer at 2 inch and the returns are 2 inch to the cleaner and 1.5 inch to the pool and skimmer returns. I was thinking of combining the 2 lines from the pool with a 2.5 inch Jandy valve and keeping everything after that 2.5 inch as much as possible. SWG unions, Filter unions and heater unions would all still be 2 inch. Does that make sense, is it overkill, or just plan wrong?

Here is what the full setup will be when I am done:
22,000 gallons
Pentair Intelliflow VF
AA Manufacturing 6 port top feed water value, pop-up with AA Leaf Vac
Purex Triton Clean and Clear Filter CC420P
Hayward Aqua Rite SWG with T-CELL-15
Pentair Mastertemp Heater

Attached is a pic of the mess.

Thanks,
Brant

 

[mas985]

Replacing just the pad plumbing won't have a big impact since there are a lot of other things that add head loss. For example, replacing 10' of 2" pipe and 12 90s with 2.5" would increase flow rates around 2-3% which is not a lot. I would just focus on the pipe that you have to cut out and not worry so much about the other plumbing.

 

[lardieb]

Mark thanks for the reply.

I notice that when I switch the valve from going through my SWG, heater router to just heading to my cleaners I see a significant performance increase in the cleaners. That is taking 11 of the 90s out of the route and the heater. Is the heater the part that is reducing the flow by the most?

Thanks,
Brant

 

[mas985]

Most likely it is the heater since they tend to have very high head loss. Next in line are filters but cartridges are better than the rest. Valves are worse than a typical 90 but not by much.

Does the in floor work ok without the heater? If so, you might consider a re plumb to bypass the heater most of the time but leave the SWG in line.

But with a VF, I think you should have no problem getting the flow rate you need although it will cost more to run and you will need to run at higher speeds most of the time so don't expect a lot of cost savings. In floors are energy hogs.

 

[lardieb]

Yes, the pop ups work without the heater in line but I was not sure if it was the heater or the rest of the mess. I guess it is the heater. I don't use it all that much so a bypass is the route I will take along with getting the SWG inline.

I am planning on running the new pump a higher speed 3-4 hours a days to keep things clean and lower for another 8-10. I have been running 10 hours so I am hoping for some energy savings. Is that realistic?

Next year I am budgeting for automation so I can switch the valves over and bypass cleaner, heater, etc.. based on a programmable schedule.

Thanks,
Brant

 

[mas985]

My guess is you may only need the 3-4 hours per day on high speed. The current run time of 10 hours is probably overkill. Most pools don't need that but it depends on your location and what drops in the pool. As long as you chlorinate the pool properly, run time is mainly for cosmetics.

Currently, I am running my pool, about the same size as yours, for 2 hours on high speed and 2 hours on low. The 2 hours on high is good enough for cleaning (suction side cleaner) and solar while the 2 hours on low is strictly for the extra run time needed for the SWG.