New Pool Owner - Variable Speed Configuration

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Turk10mm

Member
Apr 12, 2021
22
Houston
Hi, I'm a brand new pool owner, first post. My pool has had water in it for a month and I'm just now getting to the point of learning about my pool. The startup was smooth and my pool looks great and I'm testing it weekly at my local supply store and treating it appropriately. My pool builder suggested I continue to run the pool 24/7 but that has some downsides. The pump equipment is behind the master bedroom wall so we hear the pump at night and I just don't think its worth the money to run it 24/7 at any significant RPM. He suggested setting it up to run at a low speed overnight 1200, medium speed in the morning and evening 1800, and higher speed in the hot of the day 2400 (Houston, TX). For the life of me, however, I can't figure out how to schedule different RPM's to run without having any free relayed circuits. I have an EasyTouch PL4 panel and with no free relayed circuits. The circuits in use are Pool, Spa, Blower, Waterfall, and Lights. I can add Aux circuits, but those won't actually activate on the schedules. The only circuits that will show as schedule running are the 5 existing circuits.

In settings, I assigned pump 1 to aux 4 with a speed of 1200, aux 5 with a speed of 2400, and i set the standard POOL circuit to 1800 in hopes of making this all work, but it doesn't. The only schedule that actually turn on and off on schedule is the POOL. I can manually run the Aux4 and Aux5, but they won't run the following day. If i had a PL8, I would have extra relays where I could use the default Pool High and Pool Low circuits. Without these, I'm just stumped.

Am I just being dumb in trying to figure out the settings/schedules/circuits? Its a bit convoluted, but after an hour standing at the panel, I think I understand the mechanics. Maybe not.

Thank you for your help.

Houston
16000 gallons
Chlorine Tabs for supplemental Chlorine (2 tabs lasts about a week)
Currently using Liquid Chlorine as a new pool before switching to powder (pool supply company suggestion)
750 gallon hot tub
EasyTouch PL4
Intelliflow VSF
 
Welcome to TFP.

Do you have ScreenLogic?

Part of your problem is the Lite version only comes with 4 schedules/programs and only 1 or 2 feature circuits.

@Jimrahbe will be by soon to try and help you as much as your Lite system can do.

Your pool company has not given you good advice, including the way you test your water chemistry and chlorinate your pool. But that is another discussion.
 
Turk,

Show us a pic of your EasyTouch.. I want to make sure it is a PL4.. The "L" stands for lite as in the kind of salad dressing no one likes. :mrgreen:

The lite model of the EasyTouch only has a max of 4 schedule or programs, so you have to program carefully to make things work. It also only has 2 Feature Circuit..

If you have ScreenLogic, it will allow you to enter a bazillion schedules, but of course only 4 of them will actually work.

You really don't want to waste relays and buttons to change pump speeds.. That is what Feature Circuits are for.

Show me the following ScreenLogic set up pages...


Set up page 2.JPG

Set up page 2.JPG



Set up page 4.JPG

Set up page 4.JPG



Once we understand what you have, we can get you pointed in the right direction..

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
ajw22 said:
Welcome to TFP.

Do you have ScreenLogic?

Part of your problem is the Lite version only comes with 4 schedules/programs and only 1 or 2 feature circuits.

@Jimrahbe will be by soon to try and help you as much as your Lite system can do.

Your pool company has not given you good advice, including the way you test your water chemistry and chlorinate your pool. But that is another discussion.
Click to expand...
@ajw22 My pool builder is a nice guy, but he's not much on after care. He just got it all set up and said here you go. When I asked him how to do this he didn't know and suggested that he would need to call his Pentair rep. That's when i figured I'd come here. I've been reading the documentation here and I'm seeing that it sounds like there's a lot of overdoing things coming from his suggested configuration. That being said, my spa does have a tiered spillway, and it is a nice feature to have running, if only for ambiance. So I'm not adverse to running the pool more in the summer since its brand new and we're in it every day enjoying the newness.

I understand that the suggestion is to steer away from using tablets because of the stabilizer. My CYA level has been in the 20's since I took over the pool. I've added CYA twice now and I might just barely be over 30. I'll be following up on all the documentation provided here. Thank you for your help.
4.jpg
 
Turk,

Using the PC to program is 10 x easier and almost intuitive...

You actually have a PSL4 (Pool and Spa).. Still a lite version and that is why you only have two Feature Circuits..

Go back and look at my pump speed set up and I'll explain how it works..

The pump will run at the fastest speed that it sees.. This is why your "pool" speed should be the lowest speed you ever want to run. In my case 1250 RPM.

To use the two Features Circuit that you set up, you need to assign them to your pump speed page.. Just like I did for Skim High and Skim Low

You schedule the Pool circuit for the entire time you want the pump to run.. As an example, let's use 8 am until 8 pm

Then you schedule Pool Low (or in my case Skim Low) You can call it anything you want, it does not matter, it is just want you want to call it.
As an example let's set it to 1500 rpm.. Let's say 10 am until 11 am.

Then schedule Pool High at 2000 rpm.. and schedule it for 1 pm until 2 pm..

So.. the pump starts at 8 am and runs at 1250 rpm until 10 am when it speeds up to 1500 (Pool low) until 11 am when it goes back to 1250. It runs 1250 until 1 pm when it speeds up to 2000 until 2 pm when it goes back to 1250 until 8 pm.

If you turn on Pool High, as long as it is on, the pump will never run slower than 2000 rpm..

This example is just to show you how the speeds on the EasyTouch work..

Keep in mind that you only have 4 schedules max and that includes any egg timers that are not set to the default of 12 hours.

I would not schedule the Spa as that it something you manually turn on when you want to use it.

If you want, you can also manually turn on a Feature Circuits at the panel.. Menu, F. Circuits.

Let me know if this does not make sense or if you have any questions,

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
ok, that makes sense. I think. Do i leave the Circuit Function for Pool High and Pool Low to Generic. I think I get it.
These numbers and schedules are just to make sure i have it working.
But i see two schedules running now and the pump is running the pool low configuration.

Thank you very much.
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Turk,

Always leave Circuit "Function" as Generic, unless there is something special about the circuit.. As you can see with the lights having a circuit function of IntelliBrite.. This tells the system that the relay must act a certain way to make the lights work.

Looks like your 4 schedules are used up..

Good job.. :thumleft:

The whole point of having a VS pump is to run at a low speed most of the time.. As long as your skimmers are working, there is no need to run faster. At 1200 rpm, my pump is so quiet that when it was new, I had to touch it just to make sure it was still running.. :mrgreen:

Why do you think you need to run it faster?? If you have a tab feeder, you will need to make sure that you run the pump fast enough to dissolve the tablets...

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
I don't think i need to run it faster after reading a lot of the documentation here about chlorination and bleach vs tabs. The only real reason to run it faster is that the spa fills off the pool circuit and spills over the tiered spillway. If i don't run it at least about 1600 it won't even push the water up over the spillway. If I run it anything under about 2200 the spillway just trickles over. Its mostly for the feature that i would want to run it faster. Maybe instead i run a low rpm most of the time and a higher rpm to just to get some high speed skimming and set up an egg timer for the spillway feature?

I know absolutely jack squat about all this, and there's LOTS of opinions. Pro advice is always welcome?!

Thanks again, you made it easy by introducing me to the windows app.
 
Turk,

Egg-Timers are used when you can't schedule something.. This allows you to turn it on manually and it will shut off XX minutes later.. I use this on my fill line.. I never know when my pool will need water so I just manually turn it on and it shuts off an hour later.

Keep in mind that egg-timer will use one of your 4 schedules.

The Spillover is how your spa gets chlorinated.. If you like it running all the time, so be it.. If not, you can shut off the constant spillover, and then set up a Spillway Circuit, and schedule it to run an hour a day, which should keep your spa chlorinated.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
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