Need New pump for above ground pool with DIY solar tube!

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S

Slivacki

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Apr 22, 2013
7
I have a summer escape pool that is the 15'x48". A couple years ago I decided to add to my system 500' of black poly line to my pool to help heat my pool up as I live in north area. The tube is on my fence and only has to pump up maybe 7' and then runs back and forth on a 2x6 on the top edge of the fence. I was able to get my pool up to almost 100 last year but wasn't planned to get that warm and normally kept my temp around 85. The pump that came with pool sure didn't do any good at supplying water to my heating tubes. First year I used a submersible pump but the chlorine started eating pump apart. So last year I redone things again and added a salt generator and re-pressure pump to my system and worked great but pump would over heat from it running non stop during day and then a couple hrs at night and also the pump was stainless steel plated and the saltwater ate threw the drain and prime ports on it.

So my question is would a Intex 2,650-Gallon Sand Filter Pump have enough pressure to push threw all the solar tube or would i have to go with something like Hayward, pentair, or sta-rite pump to get enough pressure. I have looked around on drawings on the design of the Intex pump and haven't seen anything that tells me if it would do any good at it. I am also wanting to add a sand filter and get ride of the cartridge filters.

Thanks in advance for any info!
 
What size is the tubing?
If it's very small, any pump is going to have a problem pushing much water through it.
Is there a bypass valve that you throttle to send part of the water through the loop and the rest straight to the pool?
 
The tube is 1/2" black poly. My re-pressure pump worked on it and yes I would throttle it down where I was getting about 10 degrees more then when it left pool the rest of the pressure then was blowing back into the pool.

Here is a picture of my solar heating system.
2012-04-18_11-46-38_4_zps43a0971a.jpg
 
Given that you have a bypass I'd say the 2650 pump should work fine. I'd let more water through it than a delta 10ºF. I'd probably shoot for about a 5º difference. The less delta "T" you have the more efficient the heater is.
 
Thank you much on the join of the forum. Been in the background for a long while.

I have been really happy with the location of it myself. Before I put it there I did the circle on plywood but didn't like that it killed my yard and was hard to move around. This stays up year round on the fence. Still need to paint the boards and would like to add glass to the top sometime to help with heat but that down the road projects. Really want to get my pool back up and running first.

So I called Intex and well they sure didn't like the idea of there pump hooked to a solar heater but they did give me the max cut off pressure of the pump, it will do about 55 psi before pump shut off. So I took a garden hose with a pressure gauge on it and turned it on at 50 psi it shooting way out the end. I know that way to much pressure at about 5-10 psi back pressure on it should be enough. Another thing I am worried about is max pressure back on sand filter.
 
Just out of curiosity, how do you have the 6 poly lines plumbed together? What is the water routing?

The most heating efficient, would be to run to the far end in PVC and then return to towards the pool in all 6 parallel tubes. This gives the lowest head loss and the highest flow rate.

If not wanting to run the length in PVC, then running in 3 parallel away and then returning in 3 parallel on the way back would be the next most efficient.
 
Currently I have all 500' as one continues run. That is a great idea on running up like a main 2" pipe to supply the heater lines or maybe run 2 new 1/2" lines up to these so there is less head pressure. These are located about 40' from the actual location of the pool. Thanks for the great idea there.
 

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I thought I would come in and update a old post of mine. After finally cutting up solar system redoing main line to a bigger line. Went out and made tube parallel and I also added it own mag 950 pump and temp controller to it was I able to get most efficiency out of it. It kicks out maybe a degree more then what is leaving pool now. With temp controller it now turns on a certain temp and off at certain temp. So this way if cloudy or rainy day the system isn't running. Just wish I didn't order Celsius unit and got the Fahrenheit one. These tubes each year are getting more stretched and more stretched so I will be having to redo them soon. But learned a few things from this one and will be doing something similar to this just making sure hose are more supported. Here is a few pics of my gear now days. Thanks for your help back then on this problem.











 
That's a nice looking equipment pad set up!

Where are you located?
Do you have some rough numbers on your 24 hour heat gain during the spring?
You have 6 runs of about 80' each coming off a manifold?
Is that your temp sensor in the white cup? Pentair went to a black solar sensor so that it would pick up solar gain in addition to air temp. You might consider painting that cup black to see if it helps with temp sensing.
 
pooldv said:
That's a nice looking equipment pad set up!

Where are you located?
Do you have some rough numbers on your 24 hour heat gain during the spring?
You have 6 runs of about 80' each coming off a manifold?
Is that your temp sensor in the white cup? Pentair went to a black solar sensor so that it would pick up solar gain in addition to air temp. You might consider painting that cup black to see if it helps with temp sensing.
Click to expand...
Thanks been a project for many years now. I would guess between 2 and 4 degree a day in total raise of temp currently. I am located in South part of idaho. It has 3 1/2" 120' long lines running off a 1" manifold. Maybe if i redo down the road will go with 6 60' lines but at time doing this didnt have spare 1" line for running down fence to other side. Yes that is my temp sensor in cup. I had to put in that cup as a little breeze at all would cause it not turn on. White is very reflective why it left white to reflect it back to probe more. So far temp sensening been working great last two years have had this cheap sensor on it.
 
Ok, I see what you did, looping down and back for each run. 4 degrees over 24 hours in Idaho is pretty good! I get 8 on good days in TX. Hey, if the sensor works don't mess with it, good idea for the wind guard.

I'll probably start pointing folks to your thread. We get lots of folks wanting to make their own solar heater with tubing rather than buying panels. It seems like you've done a pretty good job figuring out how to do it effectively.
 
This morning when starting to write this I was sitting at 78 and now just checked and last 3 hr we have had over cast but temputure outside got to 90 and pool is sitting at 89 right now. I have them angled just a bit toward the south. Seemed the best after getting them off the main pump and using a external aquarium pump and the manifold. Have 180 gallon saltwater aquarium to as my real hobby. Before finding here I thought my 9 degrees was killer but less heat with more water movement means more heat generated.

U could easily make something like this for a wood fence. Putting them on the in side of a north wood fence u could easily run set these to warm pool. Like I said I tried the huge plywood and round thing but with short space in yard they was to much work. Always killing yard and having to move them. I did try the roof thing and didn't find a good enough pump to pump up onto my roof. I can get more pictures of my setup and happy to answer questions. Not sure why tho I don't get notification of new post on this.
 
You can turn on notifications, it is defaulted to off. Click Settings, upper right, then click General Settings lower left, then on the Default Thread Subscription Mode drop down menu you can select the type of notifications you want.
 
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