EcoStar reports 5 watts

IMissNimoy · Mar 17, 2019

Today I went to update my Ecostar pump schedule to accommodate more skimming/filtration for pollen. I noticed it read 5w on the display screen. I wish! I believe the wattage should be 766 for that pump speed. Regardless, 5w is incorrect. The pump was replaced under warranty about 2 months ago due to a bearing issue. I'm not sure if this due to the swap or coincidental. Before I contact Hayward or my pool builder, has anyone seen this before?

jonpcar · Mar 17, 2019

I’ve seen it two times on mine...in fact the 2nd time was today! Both times I power cycled the motor and it went back to normal. Don’t know how often this actually occurs (and I just didn’t notice) but I will find out in the next few months as I will be controlling and monitoring the pump via its RS485 interface (and getting watts as feedback). The first time it happened was about 6 months ago.

I have no idea what would cause that behavior...and am really hoping that it is rare.

By the way...nice signature on your first post!

One question for you as I have seen other ecostar owners posts and it is not clear they see this same behavior: my ecostar floors at 136 watts...at an rpm of about 30% max (1035rpm). Lowering the rpm to 25% or 20% max further does reduce the rpm and gpm flow, but the wattage stays the same ~136 watts. Is that the case with yours? In other words, there is no reason whatsoever to run my ecostar at lower than 30% max rpm, unless there is something wrong with the watts reporting at those lower rpms.

IMissNimoy · Mar 19, 2019

I'm now out of town. My wife confirmed the wattage returned to around 900 watts after she reset the breaker. Very odd. I'll investigate and reply to your low rpm wattage question when I return home. Thanks so much for the help. I'm about to rethink my approach to pump times and rates so your solution came in really handy.

jonpcar · Mar 20, 2019

jonpcar said:
One question for you as I have seen other ecostar owners posts and it is not clear they see this same behavior: my ecostar floors at 136 watts...at an rpm of about 30% max (1035rpm). Lowering the rpm to 25% or 20% max further does reduce the rpm and gpm flow, but the wattage stays the same ~136 watts. Is that the case with yours? In other words, there is no reason whatsoever to run my ecostar at lower than 30% max rpm, unless there is something wrong with the watts reporting at those lower rpms.

Thanks, I have been wondering about this issue for quite a while, but have never gotten around to posting/asking. To quantify it a bit better, my Ecostar wattage actually floors closer to 35% with 141 watts...yes it does drop to 136 at 30%- max but obviously it has already reached its "flattened point" in the watts curve at ~35%. So actually, there is no efficiency advantage to running my Ecostar at less than 35% max (~1200 RPM).

You said you are in the process of rethinking your pump rates/times; there are a lot of programming options/variables/requirements for those of us with In-Floor-Cleaning-Systems...almost too many. I have been working on optimizing my schedule/usage since last summer and have still not yet decided on an exact timetable/rate. Experimenting (mostly for the sake of experimenting, haha) with my pool has become a new hobby. It doesn't look like you have automation, which can be used in conjunction with the VSP flow rates to improve efficiency as well...maybe in the future? Thanks again...

tstex · Mar 22, 2019

All, this pump continues to rear it's not so good head. For anyone w out automation, I would for sure switch to the Pentair Inteliflo, which never exhibits the problems this pump renders...good luck

IMissNimoy · Mar 23, 2019

jonpcar said:
Thanks, I have been wondering about this issue for quite a while, but have never gotten around to posting/asking. To quantify it a bit better, my Ecostar wattage actually floors closer to 35% with 141 watts...yes it does drop to 136 at 30%- max but obviously it has already reached its "flattened point" in the watts curve at ~35%. So actually, there is no efficiency advantage to running my Ecostar at less than 35% max (~1200 RPM).

You said you are in the process of rethinking your pump rates/times; there are a lot of programming options/variables/requirements for those of us with In-Floor-Cleaning-Systems...almost too many. I have been working on optimizing my schedule/usage since last summer and have still not yet decided on an exact timetable/rate. Experimenting (mostly for the sake of experimenting, haha) with my pool has become a new hobby. It doesn't look like you have automation, which can be used in conjunction with the VSP flow rates to improve efficiency as well...maybe in the future? Thanks again...

Mine seems to floor slightly less than yours. You'd think they'd be identical. Let me know if you want me to check any other percentages. Here are my observations:
17.4% = 98 watts
30.4% = 106 watts
50.7% = 305 watts
76.1% = 910 watts

I am looking to change my pump rpms and run times. In order for my O3 venturi to get vacuum and inject, the pump must currently run at 76.1% while diverting a portion of flow through the O3 system. My goal is to establish longer run times at lower rpms to get the same amount of filtration and O3 sanitation but with less pump noise, wear and tear. Hopefully that'll equate to less energy usage as well. Since my DE filtration and O3 are on the same pump, it'll take a bit of tinkering to adjust rpms and flow diversion amount to the O3 to acquire the needed vacuum.

I have just started to explore automation and not sure where to begin. I'm still unclear on the cross compatibility of automation systems with equipment manufacturers. I have not done extensive reading though. My current thinking is that installing a Stenner CL pump would be a safe first step.

jonpcar · Mar 23, 2019

Nimoy, thanks for the info. I have seen other ecostar reporting that also does not match mine...I suspect they have different firmware within them. The wattages at similar rpms will be different between systems. I am perplexed why my minimum max% is 20% of 3450 (690 rpm), my ecostar’s firmware does not even allow a 17.4% as yours seems to do.

You probably already know this, but ozone systems have an extremely poor reputation on these boards. The main problem is that you have no way of knowing how much, if any, sanitizing that the ozone is doing, and therefore must still follow the free chlorine guidelines of the TFP method (which thereby eliminates any need for the ozone). My pool has never looked better since I started this and optimized my in floor cleaning system (IFCS).

I installed a stenner pump for chlorine last year, but a majority on the boards use a swg to generate the chlorine from salt water. I do a combination of higher speed for 2-3 hours a day for IFCS (75% max), and 6-8 hours of skimming/filtering (35% max) which is essentially free at 141 watts (my min wattage, haha). We have low power rates here, so it costs only about $10/month.

I’m not going to be the one to tell you to ditch the ozone (especially if you have to continue the need run your pump at such a high rpm to get it to “operate”), but don’t be surprised when you find no support for it on these boards.

Thanks again for the info...it sounds like you are just starting out in your pool improvement quest. These boards have a lot of knowledgeable people so keep on posting when you run into issues or just want some advice.

IMissNimoy · Mar 24, 2019

I woke up this morning realizing head pressure would impact the wattage vs. RPM ratios in a pump. Duh. Thanks for providing your runtimes. I am curious how you optimized your IFCS. I struggle with a dead spot on the transition slope. At least I only have one spot to grab with the net. Oh and what are your power rates? In summer, my peak is 0.27, and off-peak is .09 so I'll be balancing that in my new runtimes.

Coincidentally, I looked at the drive and display version on my pump when I pulled the RPM wattages. This is a new replacement pump and I did not record the same information on the original pump.
Drive: 1.20
Display: R3.1.0

I'm aware of the O3 sentiment on this forum. I will stay out of those conversations other than to say I have one, like it, but I would not purchase one again. TFP is the way to go for my backyard pool. O3 is overkill unless your source water is laden with CL-resistant critters like cryptosporidium. Actually I do know the amount of sanitizing my O3 does thanks to some really smart coworkers in our water quality and hydrodynamic labs. I also know the O3 gr/hr input and contact time required to effectively sanitize my pool. If I do change my pump/flow regime, it'll cost me several beers to get new calculations and re-run the culture studies. If you want more information I'm happy to share privately so as not to further kick anthills.

I'm investigating a series of things on my pool. Next up, a dirty autofill!

jonpcar · Mar 24, 2019

tstex...eventually the Inteliflow would probably be the way to go, but I will milk this ecostar as much as I can first, haha.

nimoy. Thanks again. It sounds like you have the ozone under control (I have a really smart buddy who swears by his, but his pool is covered and has lots of other gadgets as well). But, I will pass on that info, haha.

My ecostar drive is 1.21 (your is 1.20), my display is R3.1.1 (yours is R3.1.0), not that different. I have one other thing to ask about your pump. Is it running using the RS485 interface (ECOM control bus), or is it running in a standalone timer mode (or possibly using the inputs to select one of 8 speeds? Mine uses the ECOM interface and that MAY impact my wattage floor.

Our electricity rates are similar 8cents off peak per kWH (which in the past I have run on 100%), and as high as 22cents for on peak in the summer. About my In-Floor-Cleaning-System optimization, haha...here is the start of that thread...it is loooong.

Optimize Your In-Floor Cleaning Effectiveness and Efficiency

You probably won't make it through that read so here is a post that may particularly interest you, it has some graphs of the Energy Factor of our ECOstar pump, of course, as it operates in my system.

Optimize Your In-Floor Cleaning Effectiveness and Efficiency

I haven't updated that thread in quite a while and things got really screwed up with the site move (all the tables are garbage). But actually I am continuing optimization work on my system for the heck of it because I am having some fun with programming. I am not sure what a dirty autofill is but here are a couple threads that may interest you.

Pool Fill Control - Hackster.io

Automated Pool Controller