Aquarite + Variable Speed Pool Pump - flow switch not closing during slow speed => no salt production for most of the hours it runs

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S

spannertech

Member
Apr 22, 2019
6
Los Angeles, CA
This is my 2nd only post to this forum, so I apologize if this has been already answered elsewhere. So the title pretty much describes my problem. I know enough on the electrics side that there's an electrical way I can detect whenever the pool pump is running at all to short out the flow switch so the Aquarite will make salt but is there a better, or more elegant solution? Is it possible eg to modify the flow switch to be more sensitive? Thanks in advance OP, Studio City, CA
 
ST,

NO!!! Never modify the switch.. You simply need to increase the speed of the pump

Tell us more... What kind of VS pump do you have? What RPM are you running that does not close the flow switch?

The best way to do this is slowly increase the RPM until the flow light, or indicator, on the control box comes on.. Then add 100 RPM just to make sure. That speed is the lowest speed you ever want to run as it does not make sense to run your pump if you are not making chlorine.

I run mine at 1200 RPM because I have a large VS pump and no heater.. If I had a heater, I would have to run at 1500 or maybe 1800 RPM. Even at 1800 RPM you will still save a bundle on your electrical bill.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Thanks Jim R. Of course adjusting the speed never even occurred to me, but it's the obvious thing to change. It's a Pentair VS and my speed 2 (which runs for most of the time within the cycle) was set to 500RPM. With a bit of experimenting just now I found that at 850RPM flow remained detected when reducing speed down from speed 1 so that's how I've programmed it. Thx again OP
 
S,

The other side of the coin is that going too low in speed will not allow your skimmers to skim well .. But all pools are different, so you will just have to experiment to see what speeds work for you..

It sounds like you already know, but just in case, you can set the speeds you want the pump to run when you push the 1, 2, and 3 buttons on the display... You don't have to use the default speeds.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Jimrahbe said:
That speed is the lowest speed you ever want to run as it does not make sense to run your pump if you are not making chlorine.
Click to expand...

Sometimes there is a reason to run the pump low enough to not produce chlorine. My wife likes to swim laps at 5:00am in the morning. If I turn off the VSP in the evening, it'll run at 100% for the several minute priming stage when it comes back on at 5:00am. At 100%, the VSP is pretty loud. If instead I run it at its lowest setting, it only uses 23 watts and still runs quietly when raise the speed up to 50%. My neighbors master bedroom in on the other side of the fence. I'm sure they appreciate the lower noise level.
 
Home,

I was talking about the other 99.99% of pool owners that are not married to a crazy lady...

On second thought, that might need to be 50% :mrgreen:

Obviously, there are some special cases, for special wives..

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
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