Need to recs to upgrade pump

Jump to latest Follow Reply
mattsmith321

mattsmith321

0
Bronze Supporter
Jul 20, 2017
40
Austin
Hi everyone,

As noted in my profile, I bought and installed the Intex 24ft X 12ft X 52in Ultra Frame Rectangular Pool Set with Sand Filter Pump & Saltwater System last summer. We made it through the summer with a few issues but as noted in my Amazon review i am struggling with the skimmer and pump power:

- The skimmer attachment clamps on the side of the pool but often comes loose causing the skimmer to float up and the pump to take in air. I am having a daily battle fighting with it to stay in place and considering hanging a brick on it or going all out and replacing it with an in-wall unit. See my latest attempts at holding it in place in Pic 17 below.​
- The pump in the product specs here on Amazon indicate it is a 0.3HP pump. My pump is very clearly labeled 0.2HP. Unfortunately, whether it is 0.2HP or 0.3HP, it is seriously underpowered. The skimmer won't actually skim unless you block the second intake hole. And the vacuum won't actually vacuum unless you block the second intake hole. But if you block one of the intakes, the pool isn't able to cycle the water well enough to stay on top of filtering it. So now I am looking to spend another $330 on a larger pump (but I am a little leery as there are comments that the pump is also misrepresented).​
- Because of the pump and skimmer issues, the pool can't be left alone for more than twelve hours without having to adjust or fix something. I went out of town for two days and returned to a floating skimmer and a green pool. I know maintaining a pool takes effort but this current setup requires a lot of monitoring and action.​

Since we hit 90° here in central Texas (Austin) last weekend, I went ahead and uncovered the pool to start getting ready for the swim season. After one hour of fighting with the skimmer and pump again, I am ready to do something to upgrade the system. I have seen lots of posts (from the Sticky) for hard-plumbing the system with a new Hayward pump and that looks ideal. Unfortunately the images on most of those posts are missing due to issues with the image hosting provider. So I am a little stuck on how to move forward without good pictures and guides on exactly what I need to do. Plus, some of those posts are rather old and I am wondering if there are some new devices to consider.

My questions:


  1. How does hard-plumbing work with the Ultra Frame movement on the sides? Does there need to be some flexible aspect to the hard plumbing line?
  2. For my current system which has the sand filter, pump, and salt water generator in essentially two units, will I be able to keep any of it or will I be starting over?
  3. Can anyone point me to any recent threads with good pics?
  4. Anything I can do to help with those great resources that are missing the images?

Thanks everyone!
 
I'm going to talk to myself and leave some notes until some smarter people come along to guide me a little better.

For the skimmer issue, the Hayward SP1091LX Dyna-Skim Above-Ground Pool Skimmer seems to be the go-to skimmer for my pool. For $34 that seems like a no-brainer and would only involve minimal changes to get it integrated into my current system. Maybe something else to get the Intex vacuum to work with it.

For the pump issue, I started looking at the Hayward SP1580X15 Power-Flo LX Series 1-1/2-Horsepower Above-Ground Pool Pump with Cord for $200 and then figuring out how to get connected to the existing Intex sand filter and SWG and figuring out how to hard plumb everything at the same time. And possibly end up having to upgrade the sand filter and SWG just to switch over to Hayward. Or I could just buy the Intex Krystal Clear 2150 GPH Sand Filter Pump & Saltwater System with E.C.O. (Electrocatalytic Oxidation) for Above Ground Pools for $310 and be done with it. Maybe be able to sell the 1yo system for a few bucks.

While there is some desire to make a big project out of it and switch all over to Hayward and hard plumbing, given current time constraints in my life there is also something to be said for just upgrading to the bigger Intex system and calling it a day.

Thoughts?
 
I never thought about movement with hard lines, I don't think it moves that much.

I skimmed your post so point out if I get something wrong.

Toss the Intex skimmer, soen $30 and get a real Hayward one, then try your pump setup.

I have done my pool with 1/3 hp and currently the 1/2 hp Intex cart pump with no filter in it with a small sand filter. Any more so than this is just money out the window. If you add rooftop solar then you will have to do some math for a new pump.

Pump replacement options include a China pump and sand filter set for $120, getting the used Intex pump I have for around $30, or a pump and sand filter set up to 3/4 hp, 1 hp would work but it's costly to run.

If your sand filter is 40 lbs or more you are fine with it, but bigger is better I wish I had at least a 100 lb. I have to backwash weekly at 24/7 or bi weekly at 1/2 time.
 
cfherrman said:
I never thought about movement with hard lines, I don't think it moves that much.
Click to expand...

The Ultra Frame rectangular pools definitely have lots of wall movement by design. The corner brackets just slide in to the side poles and are built to have a couple inches of movement. When you get kids in there jumping around the sides definitely move a good bit. So, wondering if that makes the Ultra Frame a bad candidate for hard plumbing.

cfherrman said:
Toss the Intex skimmer, soen $30 and get a real Hayward one, then try your pump setup.

I have done my pool with 1/3 hp and currently the 1/2 hp Intex cart pump with no filter in it with a small sand filter. Any more so than this is just money out the window. If you add rooftop solar then you will have to do some math for a new pump.
Click to expand...

I am going to try adding the Hayward skimmer as an interim step before I tackle the pump. I ordered it today. But I don't know how much the pump will be running so I may still have a fair amount of vacuuming to do and that is a tedious chore with the current pump.

Thanks for replying.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply