Pressure Side Cleaner question

Jump to latest Follow Reply
MiaOKC

MiaOKC

0
Apr 15, 2012
354
Oklahoma City, OK
We are just beginning the remodel of our pool (our reno thread is in my signature) and one question I have is about reviving an abandoned cleaner line. I found a small capped line at my equipment pad, and we have a dead "return" in the pool. It is quite close to the next working return, so we eventually figured out that it may have been a cleaner line at some point. The PB says he will first pressure test that line before we attempt to do anything with it, but since I'm impatient I thought I'd ask here first. :-D

We'd like to re-purpose one of the 3/4 HP pumps we have (they will be extraneous when we fill in the hot tub as part of the reno) if we can to run a pressure cleaner to have as an auxiliary/backup cleaner to our robot, especially during leaf fall season. Anyone have any advice on that? Thanks!
 
We've never had a working hard-wired cleaner, so not sure what to expect. I understand a booster pump doesn't usually have the basket and perhaps has a different impeller size than the standard pumps we have? Does anyone foresee a problem with repurposing a regular pump in this way?
 
Booster pumps are designed for low flow and high pressure. Regular filtration pumps are designed for high flow and lower pressure. It's likely that a filtration pump won't produce the pressure that a pressure side cleaner needs to operate. However, there's only one way to know for sure. Hook it up and see what happens.

You could look up the curve of the pump if you know the brand and model.
 
MiaOKC said:
We've never had a working hard-wired cleaner, so not sure what to expect. I understand a booster pump doesn't usually have the basket and perhaps has a different impeller size than the standard pumps we have? Does anyone foresee a problem with repurposing a regular pump in this way?
Click to expand...
Correct, they usually don't because they are fed by the main pump and purposed for running a cleaner only. Not so sure re-using a standard would be a good idea because of low pressure. Bama is correct as usual. However, I have abandoned the Idea of a pressure cleaner all together, and I'm all in with the robot option. For me, I hate the idea of running another pump because of noise and energy consumption. On new designs, the booster pumps have to be fed by the main pool pump, and I dislike that as well. One reason is because you can't run the cleaner without running the main pump too. To me, that is a huge disadvantage.

I was all in for a pressure side cleaner until I talked to Dave (duraleigh) about his long experience with many different cleaners over the years. After mulling it over, the whole idea of pressure cleaners just seems silly. To me anyway...this is just IMO, but I agree with him, that robot cleaners are the future. A booster pump, no matter the choice, will consume a lot more electricity, be another thing to break/wear out, make lots of noise, and further complicate a system overall. Something to think about, but my mind is firmly made up. I've been researching these for about a month, and I'm about decided on one I think.
 
Thanks, this would be a back-up to our robot, which doesn't even come close to being able to keep up with the leaf drop this time of year. I agree the efficiency of the robot is better for a lot of reasons in a lot of circumstances. Bama, I am new to the mechanics of pools so do not know what the curve of a pump means. I took a picture of the label on one of the pumps - these motors were put new on the two hot tub pumps last year, so I think that while the pumps are different designs the motors are the same. Is the brand/model of the pump the important part or the motor's info? These are both Hayward pumps with AO Smith motors. I can try to look for more detailed numbers - is the important one the Serial Number (one I can read is 630A28) or the SP number (really faded, hard to read?






These are the two designs.
 
It's not the motor that matters, it's the design of the water-moving parts of the pump. They are fundamentally different for a booster than for a circulation pump, and aren't interchangeable.

Have you considered something like the PoolSkim for leaf drop? From what people say around here, that works the best for grabbing leaves before they can sink.
 
Those look like a superpump and a super II. It's the pump model that's important. They put the same motor on lots of different pump wet ends. The Super II (the one with the round basket lid) has a higher cutoff (pressure) than the superpump. I'm not sure what pressure and flow rate the cleaner you're interested in requires.
 
Thanks everyone for all your help! OK, I think I have deciphered one of them, the Superpump, as possibly being model 2607X10. The other one, the Superpump II, my photo of the label is too blurry so will need to get out there again to see if I can make it out or use a pencil to make an etching to get the number off of it. I will do that asap, but we are expecting an ice storm so it may be after this weekend. I didn't have a particular cleaner in mind, sort of a "whatever works" mindset. I've thought hard about a PoolSkim before - in fact, in the fall and even in the summer when our crape myrtle was throwing up in the pool - just thought it is sort of an inelegant solution the way it protrudes into the pool, plus I have to run our main pump to make it work and I'd gotten my pump time down to two four hour sessions this summer and didn't want to add to that. Since I have these two pumps with new motors (they've only been run about 4 or 6 hours since they were installed) I thought that I would try to do something besides chuck them in the landfill.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
Thanks, all. I guess I was thinking that one of these pumps could run a pressure cleaner on their own, not hooked in-line to the main pool pump (i.e., not a booster). I was envisioning something like the spa pump feeding to the dedicated vac (pressure) line, and some kind of splitter/valve on the pipe coming back from the skimmers being split before it goes into the pool pump so it could run the suction water to both the pool pump, the spa pump, or one or the other at a time. In my head, it is somehow more similar to people who have an integrated spa with spillover to pool, or something like that, than people who have a booster pump to run a pressure vac. It's still very theoretical and esoteric, since I have no experience with any pool other than this one. I very much appreciate all the experienced folks who have chimed in! I agree that it will not function as a booster, but maybe I can think about it or tinker with it to think of another approach.

Any other ideas of what I could do with these pumps?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply