Any recommendations on type or size of trash pump for draining a pool?

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anthonypool89

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Aug 26, 2016
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Berks County, PA
I'm asking because I may be doing at least a partial drain - maybe about half the water. My only experience with one of these was whatever the pool company brought along to drain my pool prior to renovating 6 years ago . I know nothing about these, so thought I'd ask.....thanks.
 
The rate of drain is dictated by the size of hose used as opposed to the size of the pump. I did a lot of testing to get my water transfer balanced. Connecting a 3/4" hose as opposed to the standard 5/8" hose nearly doubled my GPM using the same size pump. Using a 1/4 HP pump as opposed to a 1/6 HP pump on the same hose only increased GPM by 15%-20%.

Don't use an expandable 3/4" hose - it restricts flow to a large degree. A 3/4" expandable (or pocket) hose provides less flow than a vinyl or rubber 5/8" hose.

I found that if I use the 3/4" hose with my 1/6 HP pump, and use two fill lines with 5/8" hoses from my home, it's nearly perfect. When I used the 1/4 HP pump, I could pump out faster than I could fill :)
 
I just came back because I realize I also have no idea what sort of hoses hook to these. I seem to recall the pool company used something like what a fire company has - pretty wide hose. I gave up on those pocket hoses a few years ago. Great idea but none of the ones I had seemed to last real long. Standard 5/8" hose seems like it would take pretty long since that's what I use to drain smaller amounts - hooks right to the faucet at the filter.
 

2 1/2 to three hours and your pool is a fair bit drained. Keep an eye out also as often Harbor Freight offers coupons to make this even cheaper.

Just read part of the owner's manual - says it should NOT be used for draining swimming pools (?) Also says not to use with water over 77 degrees. My water is close to 90 of late. Wonder why the temp restriction?

Checked with local rental company - they have a trash pump that does 200-300 gpm. 3" hose. I really can't see the point of buying one since I'd probably never use it except for this one time.
 
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I use this same pump from HF. I have such hard water we have to partially drain every few years, so it comes in handy. I made a 1" connector with PVC pipe about 3' long then a connector to a garden hose. I found that connecting a garden hose directly to the pump tended to interfere with the float and would shut it off prematurely. The flow rate will also depend heavily on how high it has to lift the water, so if you put it in the deep end it will take longer to drain than if you have it in shallow water.
 
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Are you finally starting over or are you sticking with Baqua ? If you are renting a pump you can be darn near empty in a matter of hours and it would be easy to SLAM whatever is left when you refill.
 
I'd like to ride out whatever path I started on when adding the Line Cleaner (7/15) and see where it goes. Oxidizer level is coming down albeit slowly. When it gets to where I've typically had it and if there is still a smell, etc., then I'm thinking of doing at most a partial drain. I know it'd be a good time to fully drain, but if we keep these sustained high temps it won't do the plaster any good for the length of time it's exposed, plus I'm behind on so many of the usual summer maintenance issues around the property. I can't work out in 90+ degrees to do much of anything like I could 20 years ago, or else I don't feel too well the next day or so. IF the water settles down back to a 'normal' state, I'm leaning towards finishing the season with baquacil and then decide over the winter. I was really hoping to see how things worked out with the Line Cleaner but then - from everyone I've talked to - I screwed up by adding all the other stuff almost immediately after instead of waiting 24-48 hours. So not sure this is a fair test of it. I DO consider Line Cleaner the last attempt to continue on with biguanide, so a turning point is definitely looming. The random element, of course, is whether or not I still would have wound up with this rather bizarre and totally unprecedented water situation even IF waiting to add the CDX and Oxidizer. Yet another variable is having added the heavy algae treatment the day before the Line Clean - surely WAY too much stuff too close together. Quite honestly, I'd rather put more money and time into a conversion in spring with the pool full of water then run whatever risk there might be to the plaster by draining this summer. There has been no trace of mold whatsoever, and the current filter cycle is now 2 weeks - the longest of the entire summer. As posted in another thread I started, the ammonia in the water is between .5 and 1 ppm - so I don't know if that could be considered high or not. If the water does not normalize fairly soon, however, then I am looking at doing a partial drain but returning to finish the season with biguanide. So much depends on my schedule next spring as well. With this COVID situation and all the unknowns it holds, my travel schedule is being decimated, so trips that were scheduled for this year are all being moved to next year - no idea how that might even impact when I open the pool and how much time available to work with it especially in the event that we would have to schedule one of the trips during the early part of the summer. Too many variables at this point to commit to anything. Thanks for asking though. Taking it one day at a time for now. I increasingly understand, as time goes on, what my Dad always meant when he said the older you get the faster the years go. I'm finding myself swamped with work I haven't even touched yet and it's already near August. (I KNOW what you're thinking....by at least simplifying the pool schedule via using chlorine instead of baqua, it would leave more time for other stuff!!) 🤔 I get it...and believe me....it (conversion) is now a more serious contemplation of mine than it probably ever was. See how things go .
 
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Now HERE's something interesting that I'd like explained to me. In gathering info on the potential draining that I might do - I just talked to Aqua Duck (who delivered my water back in '14 following the reno). He said there is between 1 and 2 ppm of chlorine in the water they deliver for pools. Given that 1 is actually an acceptable level for a chlorinated pool, why then didn't I see any sort of reaction when I started adding my baqua chemicals after the fresh fill???? Lee was explaining to me how I could see what happens - in terms of the incompatibility of chlorine and biguanide - by adding a bit of bleach to a bucket of pool water and yet, as I recall there was nothing unusual that happened back in '14 when I started adding oxidizer, etc.
 
I thought about this same thing after posting and seemed to remember inquiring about this six years ago! Weird how I'll come up with a question, do a search, and it links to something I posted here going back a few years!! Guess this speaks to a declining memory unfortunately 😟 But, thanks for the reminder....I apparently need them.
 
The primary reason to use a pump with a garden hose and not a pump with a 2" or 3" discharge hose is to perform a water transfer. It's virtually impossible to balance the fill rate with the discharge rate when using a pump and hose that big.

You indicated that you are concerned about exposing your plaster for any length of time - you should do a water transfer instead of a drain and fill. The rental will most likely cost you more than the pump I mentioned above, and you'll then have it forever.
 
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