Hello!
I've just started taking care of my first in-ground pool. It is shaped like a figure 8 or a guitar and I estimate the volume to be 18,000 gallons.
I can't get all of the air out of the pump basket and when vacuuming it easily loses pressure and needs to be re-primed.
I also cannot seem to vaccuum the sand and dirt off of the bottom very well.
Also it seems that very little debris is being caught with the skimmer.
I'm thinking the pump motor is too small. The guy I hired to take care of the pool before we moved in had to replace the motor and put in a 3/4HP motor.
He then told me the motor was too small...
Is this the source of my priming issues?
The filter I currently have is a posiflow and is rated 70GPM (which he also said is too small for this size pool).
The pump runs at about 8PSI and has been steady. It is a cartridge filter.
I run the pump 5 hours per day which I feel should be enough (18,000gal / 70GMP = 258min or 4hrs 18 min).
The chemical balance of the pool stays level only requiring 1 chlorine tab every 7-10 days (we're not swimming in it very much).
There is only my wife and I to use the pool, so there will not be heavy traffic in the pool.
Is the filter too small?
There doesn't appear to be any air leaking into the system as the water level in the pump basket remains the same after it is primed and I only seem to need to re-prime when vacuuming.
I blocked off one of the returns and it seemed to help a bit (there are 4 returns), but I cannot block any more off as the nozzles are cemented in (which will be a fun project - separate post about that later).
Thanks for your expertise!!
I've just started taking care of my first in-ground pool. It is shaped like a figure 8 or a guitar and I estimate the volume to be 18,000 gallons.
I can't get all of the air out of the pump basket and when vacuuming it easily loses pressure and needs to be re-primed.
I also cannot seem to vaccuum the sand and dirt off of the bottom very well.
Also it seems that very little debris is being caught with the skimmer.
I'm thinking the pump motor is too small. The guy I hired to take care of the pool before we moved in had to replace the motor and put in a 3/4HP motor.
He then told me the motor was too small...
Is this the source of my priming issues?
The filter I currently have is a posiflow and is rated 70GPM (which he also said is too small for this size pool).
The pump runs at about 8PSI and has been steady. It is a cartridge filter.
I run the pump 5 hours per day which I feel should be enough (18,000gal / 70GMP = 258min or 4hrs 18 min).
The chemical balance of the pool stays level only requiring 1 chlorine tab every 7-10 days (we're not swimming in it very much).
There is only my wife and I to use the pool, so there will not be heavy traffic in the pool.
Is the filter too small?
There doesn't appear to be any air leaking into the system as the water level in the pump basket remains the same after it is primed and I only seem to need to re-prime when vacuuming.
I blocked off one of the returns and it seemed to help a bit (there are 4 returns), but I cannot block any more off as the nozzles are cemented in (which will be a fun project - separate post about that later).
Thanks for your expertise!!