So I got this new Variable speed pump. It uses bunch less energy than the old Hayward Superpump, but the hayward was one speed only, I didn't need to think about it. Now i have an enormous number of possible pump protocols to choose from. Max speed for the same amount of time the Hawyward was doing is easy, but I haven't found any guidelines about how to figure out the optimal use of the variable speed pump. Can I run the pump for less time, or should I break it up during the day? Maybe running it all day at a lower speed would be best. I would like to hear all manner of viewpoints on this please.
Finding the right program for a variable speed pump.
- Thread starter czipper
- Start date
Read the article in the How To section of Pool School about pump run time.
1000rpm is that pumps most efficient speed .... assuming it is enough flow for you.
1000rpm is that pumps most efficient speed .... assuming it is enough flow for you.
When you say efficient, what do you mean? At 1000 rpm with my new pump, my filter's gauge reads 0, so if I run that then my filter might never give indication of when it needs backwashing. Should I take my filters pressure into consideration or not? I read the Pool School article and it says basically "You don't have to turn over one pool volume in a day, but you are on your own to figure it out". I can deal with that, so I posted this hoping to find out what others are doing and the process they used to get to that point if there was one.
That is where it moves the most water per $.
You have to do pressure checks at a high enough speed to get a good reading.
You have to do pressure checks at a high enough speed to get a good reading.
I have the same pump.
There are so many variations of how speed and for how long to run the pump its sort of ridiculous. Basically, you need to figure out what works for you.
I run mine at 1500 RPM 3 times a day for 2 hours each time. I chose this because I have a SWG and that RPM and those times work well for me.
I run an additional 10 hours at 900 rpm (using 100 watts), just for skimming purposes. I dont like anything floating on top of my water except for a good lookin woman.
One neat thing about the pump, is just for fun, you can turn up the speed make really make the water in the pool move...sort of like a big whirlpool.
There are so many variations of how speed and for how long to run the pump its sort of ridiculous. Basically, you need to figure out what works for you.
I run mine at 1500 RPM 3 times a day for 2 hours each time. I chose this because I have a SWG and that RPM and those times work well for me.
I run an additional 10 hours at 900 rpm (using 100 watts), just for skimming purposes. I dont like anything floating on top of my water except for a good lookin woman.
One neat thing about the pump, is just for fun, you can turn up the speed make really make the water in the pool move...sort of like a big whirlpool.
Yes, on high that thing really cranks! I see you have a cartridge filter, no use asking you how you check your filter pressure….
I am wondering…would it be better to start out under pumping and wait for growth (of alge) to occur, or start out over pumping and the cut back time/speed every couple days until I see growth (of algae)?
What growth are you taking about?
Cartridges have filter pressure gauges too, if that is what meant.
Cartridges have filter pressure gauges too, if that is what meant.
…Growth (of algae) because the pumping protocol is inadequate. Growth of algae seems to be the only measure I can think of to tell whether your pump protocol is good.
(I have edited my previous post to clarify what I meant.)
Knowing how one gets pressure measurements with my pump in a cartridge filter doesn't help me much is what I meant there.
The pump has very little to do with algae. Algae is a chemical problem ... not enough FC for your CYA level.
Have you read the article in Pool School?
Have you read the article in Pool School?
I have tried different settings with my VSP. On my pool, I do not get adequate movement to keep the surface skimmed at much less than 1500 RPM, so this is my "main" speed. I run the pool 3 hours in the morning (9am - Noon), during which I run the cleaner for an hour, 3 hours in the evening (4pm - 7pm), and 2 hours at night (1am - 3am), during which I also add my bleach via the Stenner pump. In spa mode, I run the VSP at 3100 RPM for the extra jet pressure.
Thanks Telnet, so far I also see that I don't get much skimming If I go below 1500, so I have been running at 6 hours 2100 rpm, then the rest of the day at about 1000 RPM. I haven' figured out how to program the pump for as many speed changes as you have over a 24 hour period, If I use the electricity timer box, then as I understood the instructions the pump default program will reload every time and I don't want that.
Yes, of course I have read pool school. Even so, nothing in the pool school leads me believe that the pump is not important to prevent algae growth. The pump is critical for distributing the chemicals evenly, as well as removing dead algae and their spores that can be chemical resistant and bloom at a moments notice. Without pumps you would probably need overly high chemical levels to ensure high enough concentration everywhere in the pool since in large volumes like a pool diffusion and natural currents unique to each pool may be very inefficient at distributing chemicals. Therefore it is completely reasonable to me that too little pumping can probably allow growth when we are trying to use the minimum amount of chlorine to keep the pool sanitary. I am of the opinion that it is quite likely that the chlorine/CYA chart in pool school ASSUMES adequate pumping to distribute chemicals evenly.
I am wondering whether if I choose to run the pump at a low energy saving speed, would I run into algae problems before long, even keeping my FC/CYA ratio in good balance?
- Jun 12, 2011
- 3,761
- Pool Size
- 19500
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pureline Crystal Pure 60,000
I recently installed a Pentair VS pump 011018. I set it to run 1 hr at a relative high speed (2700) to clean the pool (in-floor system) then drop back to a slower speed (1500) for a couple hours to keep the SWG making and adding chlorine during mid day, then low and slow (1000 rpm) for ten hours (just because it's cheap at 100 watts and boy does that make the water sparkle).
I also have a "Quick Clean" program available at the push of a button. I set it up for 3200 rpm and 1.5 hrs. It is reserved for a heavier cleaning than the daily program. So far I'm very happy with the results.
I also have a "Quick Clean" program available at the push of a button. I set it up for 3200 rpm and 1.5 hrs. It is reserved for a heavier cleaning than the daily program. So far I'm very happy with the results.
I'm still trying to figure out the best pump settings to keep my Circupool generating fc at a high enough level to replace what the sun is burning up Daily. And running my polaris 280 cleaner 3 hrs/day.
Jason, I'll have to differ with you about the pump not contributing to an algae problem. When my single speed gave out 2 weeks ago, I poured a bottle of bleach (fc 3.3/each bottle) in daily for the 10 days it took to get my new pump installed. Unfortunately with insufficient circulation my pool was green on the day it was installed. It took me 30 + bottles of bleach to pass an OCLT finally a couple days ago after 6 days of slamming. 28 was my slam level. Even running my SWG (12 hrs @ 80%) during the day resulted in most afternoons replenishing about 4 jugs of bleach. A total of around 17ppm loss during a day. Doing an OCLT every morning showed the most was 3ppm. My pool was back to sparkling blue after the first slam. and CCs were less than .5 It was never cloudy at all. Taking that all into consideration a large share of the FC loss during the daylight part of the slam was due to the sun burning most of the 28 ppm slam level FC instead of cleaning the algae problem.Sunday the first day after completing the slam, my FC loss was 10 and yesterday was 8. I'll know today's level in about 7 hrs.
Chief, did your pressure go a lot lower than your previous pump? mine has dropped from 18 to 13 psi since installing mine. I've been running it at speed 3 so far.
Jason, I'll have to differ with you about the pump not contributing to an algae problem. When my single speed gave out 2 weeks ago, I poured a bottle of bleach (fc 3.3/each bottle) in daily for the 10 days it took to get my new pump installed. Unfortunately with insufficient circulation my pool was green on the day it was installed. It took me 30 + bottles of bleach to pass an OCLT finally a couple days ago after 6 days of slamming. 28 was my slam level. Even running my SWG (12 hrs @ 80%) during the day resulted in most afternoons replenishing about 4 jugs of bleach. A total of around 17ppm loss during a day. Doing an OCLT every morning showed the most was 3ppm. My pool was back to sparkling blue after the first slam. and CCs were less than .5 It was never cloudy at all. Taking that all into consideration a large share of the FC loss during the daylight part of the slam was due to the sun burning most of the 28 ppm slam level FC instead of cleaning the algae problem.Sunday the first day after completing the slam, my FC loss was 10 and yesterday was 8. I'll know today's level in about 7 hrs.
Chief, did your pressure go a lot lower than your previous pump? mine has dropped from 18 to 13 psi since installing mine. I've been running it at speed 3 so far.
- Jun 12, 2011
- 3,761
- Pool Size
- 19500
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pureline Crystal Pure 60,000
Pressure depends on what RPM I run the pump. Since I never run it as fast as my old single speed pump, the pressure is always lower. Ten hours a day it's running at 1,000 RPM which barely registers on my pressure gauge.
I'd have to look at the panel attached to the pump for the actual wattage, but I run out Hayward VSP at 80% from 8am to 1pm, then 80% from 9-9:30pm (this is when I add the daily dose of bleach) and then it goes down to 30% from 9:45p to 1am just to stir a bit.
Still have to skim some bugs and flowers out, but the pool has been clear all summer.
Still have to skim some bugs and flowers out, but the pool has been clear all summer.
Well, this morning I finally got around to setting a schedule for my new Intelliflo VS. I messed that up a bit-- I wanted to set my speed 5 for 1500 rpm for the time I was going to run my polaris 280 cleaner. I also set up speed 6 to run at 1000 rpm for the rest of a 24 period. That hasn't run yet because I was trying to set speed 5 to stop at 11 AM and when I got home this afternoon after being away for most of the day I found the pump still purring along at 1500 rpm Seems I had programmed it to stop at 11pm. Also, I noticed that there was hardly any movement of my water. So, having set my SWG to run 24 hrs @ 80 %, When I did my test just a few minutes ago. I discovered my total FC had actually decreased from 10 down to 9 during the (bright sunny) day. I'm wondering if the flow is high enough to get an adequate production of Chlorine. I'm assuming my speed 6 will kick in in about 3 hrs. I'm going to wait for morning to redo my programming, But I'm wondering if I should just give up on 1000 rpm. Like you said, even at 1500 rpm my psi is about 5. I still have 2ppm of FC to work with. I was getting great circulation at speed 3 of 2350 rpm My cleaner did a good job of cleaning up the bottom this morning @1500 rpm too and my swg flow seems to be working albeit not as good as I had hoped for. Your advice is greatly appreciated.
Hi - I am a new pool owner with the same Pentair VS 01118 3 hp pump. Pool is about 23K gals with SWG and 2 skimmers. Would you mind sharing your schedule with RPMs you've found to be most effective? Would like to use these as a starting point. Thanks!
- Jun 12, 2011
- 3,761
- Pool Size
- 19500
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pureline Crystal Pure 60,000
Summer Pump Run Schedule
RPM Wattage Purpose Start Stop Total min flow
S-1 1,000 100 Extra Filtration 4 pm 10 pm 6 —
S-2 1,600 300 Chlorinate 8:30am 4 pm 8 20
S-3 2,800 1,300 Cleaning 7 am 8:30am 1.5 50
S-4 3,100 1600 ——— unused——————————————————————-
External Program
E-2 2,550 950 Solar Controller On Demand 40 gpm
Quick Clean
3,000 1,500 Manual Clean 1.5 hr. duration 70 gpm
RPM Wattage Purpose Start Stop Total min flow
S-1 1,000 100 Extra Filtration 4 pm 10 pm 6 —
S-2 1,600 300 Chlorinate 8:30am 4 pm 8 20
S-3 2,800 1,300 Cleaning 7 am 8:30am 1.5 50
S-4 3,100 1600 ——— unused——————————————————————-
External Program
E-2 2,550 950 Solar Controller On Demand 40 gpm
Quick Clean
3,000 1,500 Manual Clean 1.5 hr. duration 70 gpm
- Jun 12, 2011
- 3,761
- Pool Size
- 19500
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pureline Crystal Pure 60,000
Winter Pump Run Schedule
RPM Wattage Purpose Start Stop Total min flow
S-1 1,000 100 Extra Filtration 2 pm 3 pm 1 —
S-2 1,400 200 Chlorinate 1pm 2pm 1 20
S-3 2,800 1,300 Clean/CH 10 am 1pm 3 50
S-4 3,100 —————— unused——————————————————————-
External Program
E-2 2,550 950 Solar Controller On Demand 40 gpm
Quick Clean
3,000 1,500 Manual Clean 1.5 hr. duration 70 gpm
RPM Wattage Purpose Start Stop Total min flow
S-1 1,000 100 Extra Filtration 2 pm 3 pm 1 —
S-2 1,400 200 Chlorinate 1pm 2pm 1 20
S-3 2,800 1,300 Clean/CH 10 am 1pm 3 50
S-4 3,100 —————— unused——————————————————————-
External Program
E-2 2,550 950 Solar Controller On Demand 40 gpm
Quick Clean
3,000 1,500 Manual Clean 1.5 hr. duration 70 gpm