How long do you leave your main pool filter run? I have heard some people run 2 hours a day and others run it for 8-12. Also when you run it when is the best time to run it, in the morning noon or night . Also our pool is lightly used
How long do you leave your main pump run
- Thread starter Frezel
- Start date
Others with more knowledge will probably reply, but I think the first question is how do you chlorinate?
- Jul 21, 2013
- 53,111
- Pool Size
- 35000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
Determine Pump Run Time
To figure out how many hours you need to run your pump, you need to know how fast your pump works. You can find this here.
www.troublefreepool.com
So, one suggestion I have is to see if your electric company charges you different rates based on different times of day. For example, every day for me my rates TRIPLE during peak hours of 3pm to 8pm. So I just don't ever run during peak hours. However, you are suggested to run your pump during mostly daylight hours because thats when the pool is losing chlorine. So I run as much as I can during the nonpeak hours and then a little at night to get the number of hours per day my pool needs at maximum savings. Most pool folks will tell you to run your pump 8 hours per day or so... or "1 hour per every 10 degrees fahrenheit". If you have a low use pool or a pool that gets low amounts of debris, you can run less. It just depends on your pool. My suggestion would be to run it for that amount of time and gradually cut back 1 hour or so and see if things are still clean to your liking. You can gradually lower things down and go to as little as 2-4 hours a day if you have low debris, low bather load, and are happy with water clarity and not getting algae. If you use a SWCG then you have to run the pump long enough for the generator to sufficiently generate enough chlorine.
cfherrman
TFP Guide
Mine is at 7 hours, I run 3 hours, 7p to 10p as the clorine pump runs at 7:30, then off for the night, then at 6-7 so if I need to test in the morning I can, then 3 more hours spread throughout the day to skim the surface
Thank you for all that responded I will try to start with about 6-8 hours split in morning and night around off peak hours for now. Basically pool is so cold and no one will be swimming for another 2 weeks most likely and once they do I will adjust accordingly to pool load.
- Nov 7, 2018
- 1,049
- Pool Size
- 14000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-60 Plus
Lots of good answers already but I'll throw my schedule in just for additional data. I am running two periods, 8a-10:30a and again from 6p-8:30p. Any chemical additions are made first thing in the morning. Also, if we are swimming then I will run it on low speed. As it gets hotter, I will adjust the schedule to run when the sun is directly on the pool. So far, that has been keeping the pool nice and sparkly...well that *and* TFP methods, of course. 