I am investigating hotspot FPH as my pool is permanently under shade and my super long 70s ranch house uses some level of AC all the time. I have also always been a fan of geosink systems and this appeals to that. I have some plumbing questions though. My pool is huge, like 40k gallons and deeper than most according to my pool guy (I don't pay him, we just drink beer together). It's apparently a feature of diving pools and is around 12ft deep below the board near the drain. It's also up and dug into a hill almost at the roofline of my house. The entire thing is piped with 2" pipe for everything. My two skimmers appear to be plumbed to the 2" in series and another seperate 2" on the main drain. Both come together at my pump that is 2.25hp and a DE filter. The only other pipe I know of is the one used to drive the cleaning bot and it's 1.5". I also have two 2" pipes going out to my jets, four jets on one pipe and two jets on the other. My pool guy estimates my flow should be about 60-70gpm and we run the pump for 12 hours a day, just not while we sleep because it's loud and right outside my bedroom window. To get the water from my pump to the AC units and back again is going to be about 60 feet of pipe. As it is a clean filter is 20psi and a dirty one is at 32psi and the jets hardly move at that point.
Here are my issues
My pump will be on at night since we use the AC pretty much all the time while sleeping but maybe I could live with the noise
The ports on the FPH are 1.5" rather than the 2" run for everything else. Hotspot guys say the restriction is not a big deal. My pool guy advises against it due to extra back pressure, wear on the pump, extra noise etc.
It's a really big pump though and would a smaller quieter be better on power bills. However I think FPH requires the pump be installed after the DE filter (I don't see why but OK). If it could be installed before the filter though I think it would be ideal, no DE filter potentially restricting flow. Would a 2nd smaller pump 40gpm or so on the same main drain and skimmer return as the main pump starve out the main pump?
Background on myself, I am a Wireless and automation engineer and intended on doing all but the AC work myself.
When we bought this house and the pool pretty much everything needed to be rebuilt, which I did thanks to youtube and lurking here. New pump motor, New DE filter cartridge, rebuilt the pool robot, rebuilt multivalve, replaced pool light with 12v RGB LED, replaced chlorinator.
Here are my issues
My pump will be on at night since we use the AC pretty much all the time while sleeping but maybe I could live with the noise
The ports on the FPH are 1.5" rather than the 2" run for everything else. Hotspot guys say the restriction is not a big deal. My pool guy advises against it due to extra back pressure, wear on the pump, extra noise etc.
It's a really big pump though and would a smaller quieter be better on power bills. However I think FPH requires the pump be installed after the DE filter (I don't see why but OK). If it could be installed before the filter though I think it would be ideal, no DE filter potentially restricting flow. Would a 2nd smaller pump 40gpm or so on the same main drain and skimmer return as the main pump starve out the main pump?
Background on myself, I am a Wireless and automation engineer and intended on doing all but the AC work myself.
When we bought this house and the pool pretty much everything needed to be rebuilt, which I did thanks to youtube and lurking here. New pump motor, New DE filter cartridge, rebuilt the pool robot, rebuilt multivalve, replaced pool light with 12v RGB LED, replaced chlorinator.
Last edited: