Help...I'm not sure my pump motor is powerful enough...

[AUspicious]

I had an in-ground pool installed this past August/September. I've been very happy with it so far. It's an 18x40' with oval ends and steps in the shallow end, about 32k gallons. There are two returns in the steps and a return in both the shallow and deep ends. It's a salt system, it's been really easy to maintain, the water is beautiful, but it's already getting too warm. I'm in north Alabama and the pool's water temperature late in the day yesterday was about 87 degrees. It's only mid-June, so I figure by late July the water will be unpleasantly warm and not refreshing at all, unless I can find a solution. To remedy that, I purchased this...a waterfall pool fountain. I was told it would reduce the temperature by several degrees. But the streams of water are not going very high into the air. I have closed off the two returns in the steps, but even with that the water only sprays about 8' into the air.

I have a pentair Sta-Rite SuperMax pump. Specs are below. It's a single horse motor.

Product	Model	Voltage	Full Load Amps	HP	SF	SFHP	Primary Listings and Certifications3	Port Size (NPT)	Carton Wt. (Lbs)	Curve Key
PHK2RA6E-102L	N1-1A-HP	115/230	14.2/7.1	1	1.25	1.25	UL1, NSF2	1.5" x 1.5"	38	G

It's mated to a Criscal-Flo II top-mount sand filter.

CRISTAL-FLO II TOP-MOUNT SAND FILTERS

				Turnover Capacity (In Gallons)
Product	Effective Filtration Area (Sq Ft)	Max Pressure (PSI)	Flow Rate (GPM)	8 Hour	10 Hour	12 Hour	All Sand Required (Lbs)	Carton Qty	Carton Wt (Lbs)
145362	3.15	50	70	33,600	42,000	50,400	300	1	58

I think I have at least two options here...I could try and choke down the flow by replacing the other fish eye with one that has a smaller opening. The other solution is to replace the motor and impeller, which could cost up to $400. The pump and motor seem to work perfectly for cycling the water, but it doesn't seem to do the job for getting the water to spray up in the air to cool off the pool. I'm going to try the cheaper option first of replacing at least the one fish eye, but does it seem like the 1hp motor is underpowered?

Thanks in advance for any input/advice. Please keep in mind that I've never had a pool before, so all this is very new to me and I'm trying to learn. Thanks, everyone!

 

[Teald024]

Hello and Welcome to TFP!

How high do you want to the water to spray in the air? 8 feet seems like a good height to me. What fountain are using? Many smaller jets are better than one large jet.

 

[AUspicious]

Thanks for the reply, Teald024. The setup wasn't cooling down the pool very much, so I thought maybe the fountain needed to spray a little higher for the evaporative cooling to really happen. I changed out one of the fish eyes to one with a smaller opening, which helped a lot with the spray height...it's reaching around 12' at its max. The filter pressure with that setup is 20 psi, which I guess is okay. The maximum working pressure on the filter is 50 psi. Click here to see the fountain I'm using. I'll try this for a while and see how it works out. I still may try to fabricate a different fountain attachment that produces finer streams of water (smaller water droplets). At any rate, I'm now thinking the pump and motor are adequate, given the use of the smaller fish eye. Thanks again for the reply.