Hi from Sydney, Australia!
Firstly, I want to say how valuable troublefreepool.com has been to me - what a fantastic source of information on all things pool.
If I may, I have some questions related to the Pentair Intelliflo VF pump, which has recently become more widely available in Australia. I am in the market for a variable speed pump, having inherited a pool with an energy hungry 1.5HP pump and paying very high energy costs here in Sydney. It seems the most commonly sold variable speed pump here is the Hurlcon EVO 320 (http://www.astralpool.com.au/products/v ... -p320-pump). This looks like a decent pump, but the Intelliflo is a similar price and offers quite a few additional features. As many of the users on this forum have an Intelliflo pump I am interested to hear whether the additional complexity of the pump has led to failures or reliability issues (eg. controller, VSD, flowmeter, LCD display) that would not have been a problem with a standard pump.
My pool spec is as follows: 45,000L concrete (pebblecrete) pool, Davey PM250 pump, Hurlcon VX9T salt water chlorinator, Waterco 21" sand filter, 40mm PVC plumbing throughout, Polaris 3900 Sport cleaner with dedicated booster pump.
I've read all the posts on this site regarding the Intelliflo VF and I've also read the manual. I think I've got a pretty good handle on how it works and the potential energy savings, but I still have a few questions:
1. Does the flow figure come from a flowmeter that is incorporated in the pump or is the flow derived by the controller?
2. Does the pressure figure come from a sensor that is incorporated in the pump or is it derived by the controller based on the pump curve?
3. The Intelliflo is the only pump I have seen that measures pressure and flow. Has anyone experienced problems with the flowmeter or pressure reading?
4. Has anyone experienced failures related to the controller other than those caused by extreme temperatures, accidental closing of valves or other equipment malfunction?
5. If hypothetically I find that, for my pool, the most effciient operating point for the Intelliflo is at 1000rpm and I want to set it up to run close to that point, but still retain all the features of filter mode (ie increase speed as flow drops and still have all alarms and pump protection active) then do I need to fudge the scheduled hours/pool volume such that the pump target flow rate corresponds to 1000rpm? Alternatively, it seems I can run the pump in RPM mode, but then I lose some of the features of filter mode? Hope that made sense :?
6. I assume the Intelliflo will run ok with 40mm plumbing? My pool is a suspended concrete construction on a rock shelf so all the plumbing is accessible. I plan to upsize to 50mm and get rid of 90 degree bends, but probably not right away.
7. The maximum flow on the Intelliflo is very high and I'm not sure my system would cope with it. It seems you can set a maximum flow limit, but has anyone had any problems with the pump exceeding this limit?
I hope that isn't pushing my luck too much for a first post. Any help would be very much appreciated.
Firstly, I want to say how valuable troublefreepool.com has been to me - what a fantastic source of information on all things pool.
If I may, I have some questions related to the Pentair Intelliflo VF pump, which has recently become more widely available in Australia. I am in the market for a variable speed pump, having inherited a pool with an energy hungry 1.5HP pump and paying very high energy costs here in Sydney. It seems the most commonly sold variable speed pump here is the Hurlcon EVO 320 (http://www.astralpool.com.au/products/v ... -p320-pump). This looks like a decent pump, but the Intelliflo is a similar price and offers quite a few additional features. As many of the users on this forum have an Intelliflo pump I am interested to hear whether the additional complexity of the pump has led to failures or reliability issues (eg. controller, VSD, flowmeter, LCD display) that would not have been a problem with a standard pump.
My pool spec is as follows: 45,000L concrete (pebblecrete) pool, Davey PM250 pump, Hurlcon VX9T salt water chlorinator, Waterco 21" sand filter, 40mm PVC plumbing throughout, Polaris 3900 Sport cleaner with dedicated booster pump.
I've read all the posts on this site regarding the Intelliflo VF and I've also read the manual. I think I've got a pretty good handle on how it works and the potential energy savings, but I still have a few questions:
1. Does the flow figure come from a flowmeter that is incorporated in the pump or is the flow derived by the controller?
2. Does the pressure figure come from a sensor that is incorporated in the pump or is it derived by the controller based on the pump curve?
3. The Intelliflo is the only pump I have seen that measures pressure and flow. Has anyone experienced problems with the flowmeter or pressure reading?
4. Has anyone experienced failures related to the controller other than those caused by extreme temperatures, accidental closing of valves or other equipment malfunction?
5. If hypothetically I find that, for my pool, the most effciient operating point for the Intelliflo is at 1000rpm and I want to set it up to run close to that point, but still retain all the features of filter mode (ie increase speed as flow drops and still have all alarms and pump protection active) then do I need to fudge the scheduled hours/pool volume such that the pump target flow rate corresponds to 1000rpm? Alternatively, it seems I can run the pump in RPM mode, but then I lose some of the features of filter mode? Hope that made sense :?
6. I assume the Intelliflo will run ok with 40mm plumbing? My pool is a suspended concrete construction on a rock shelf so all the plumbing is accessible. I plan to upsize to 50mm and get rid of 90 degree bends, but probably not right away.
7. The maximum flow on the Intelliflo is very high and I'm not sure my system would cope with it. It seems you can set a maximum flow limit, but has anyone had any problems with the pump exceeding this limit?
I hope that isn't pushing my luck too much for a first post. Any help would be very much appreciated.