figuring out pump flow rate

[Melnic]

OK,
Maybe I"m over thinking this or not thinking at all. I have the Intelliflo VS2 pump that is 3HP
My original pump was a 2hp fixed speed pump (I still have the pump, had a blown capacitor but I wanted to upgrade anyway)
I read the pool school page on pumps but still don't know how to figure out my flow rate.

So, I have no idea how to figure out flow rate but I did do a test today to see how low of an RPM I can go before the Heat Pump shuts down.
It shut down when I dropped to 750RPM and it then turned back on when I hit 850. The heat pump manual says the cut off point is 30gpm
So at least I have a guess on where I am at there.

But how do I figure out my flow rate at say 1250rpm? 2650rpm? 3000rpm?

One thing I"d like to know is what RPM would give me 80gpm, the Intellichlor recommends a bypass if the flow rate exceeds 80gpm

 

[Jimrahbe]

Mel,

It just does not really matter... You really don't need your pump running unless you are generating chlorine, so the low speed for you will be where the IC40's flow switch turns on plus 100 rpm. For me this is 1200 rpm, with a heater I suspect yours will be more like 1400 rpm or so...

I think to get over 80 gpm, you would need to run full out at 3450, which I just can't see any reason to do.

Of course your pool is different from mine and so your speeds would be somewhat different, but I basically have 4 speeds that I use most of the time... See the list below...

I run most of the time at 1200 to generate chlorine. A couple of times a day I increase the speed to 1500 (Skim Low) to help with skimming.. I used to use 2000 (Skim High) but only use it manually now for things like adding CYA etc... And finally I ramp up to 2800 to make my waterfall wall look the way I want...

I have never had a reason to run faster than 2800...

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.

- - - Updated - - -

I don't have an in-ground spa so I am using the spa circuit for something else... so you can ignore the Spa speed...

 

[Melnic]

Thx,
We seem to have a similar set up other than I have a DE filter.
1200 was what I was going to target for my normal run RPMs, but I was curious how many hours a day to run it once I get the chemistry settled.
That got me wondering about flow rate.
When I got the pool, I was told it was 30,000 gal, then the pool company told me it was 35,000 gallons (that's the jokers who sold the Mineral Springs to the previous owner and what I used last summer). I think they wanted it on the record as a bigger pool so they could charge more for stuff. Well, the new pool guys thought it was more like 25,000 by looking at it.
I took some measurements and estimated it at 25,000. Owner left a ton of documents so I was going to try to search through it sometime this weekend.

 

[CJadamec]

You only need to run the pump long enough to generate enough chlorine for the day. If there is a lot of pollen or dust that needs to be skimmed one day maybe run it a little longer. It only takes about 30 min to circulate the pool well enough to mix chemicals added by hand.

 

[Reed Kadavy]

If you are really interested in the flow rate I installed a Jandy FlowVis flow meter. You can tell your flow rate at any pump speed.