New Pool Owner

[swimmerpool]

We have new salt water pool and spa with Jandy JXI400NK Pool and Spa heater and Jandy Proseries VSPLUSHP Variable Speed Pump Model # VSPHP270AUT.

What speed should I run for Pool and for Spa? Please see attachment. And how long should I run it daily? Continously?

How expensive is to heat the pool or how much gas does it need to heat the pool and spa? Anyway to calculate it?

 

[kevinskii]

I run my pump at the lowest speed that will still produce a slight pressure on my hand from every return, and will also cause surface debris to gradually float toward the skimmer on a still day. For me this is around 1700-1800rpm. If you don't have a raised spa you can probably run a bit slower.

Assuming you have a saltwater chlorine generator, you need to pump long enough for it to maintain a sanitary free chlorine level. This level depends on a few different things, so please read through the "ABC's of water chemistry" articles in the Pool School if you're unsure. For most people it's probably around 10-12 hours a day in the summer.

The "how expensive to heat" answer also depends on a lot of different factors, like how big the pool is, whether you cover it at night, how much wind you usually get, etc. I heat my pool with solar so I can't be sure how much gas heating costs, but I've heard numbers around $100-300/month for southern CA.

 

[iflyjetzzz]

You're going to want to put all of your pool details in your signature block.
Speed to run your pool and spa ... check your SWG's manual (you didn't list the details on your SWG). For Pentairs, the manual states that the minimum flow is supposed to be a minimum of 25GPM. I don't know what RPM that will translate to for your pump.

Daily run time is very much dependent on the individual pool. The general rule of thumb that I've read in the past (I don't know if this is an outdated concept) is to turn over the water at least twice daily. So for a 10K gallon pool and running one's pump at 25GPM, the minimum run time would be 800 minutes or 13 hrs 20 min per day. Again, I don't know if this is an outdated concept.
And since you've got a SWG, you need to figure out how much you need to run the SWG daily in order to maintain your desired chlorine level. Keep in mind that a pool's chlorine demand varies significantly depending on time of year and pool usage so don't plan on running it the same amount year round.
Since it's easier to lower your chlorine level by dialing down a SWG than to raise your chlorine level, I'd recommend you start out at 100% chlorine output with the pump running 24 hrs daily. Check your FC levels and when it gets a bit high, reduce the number of hours daily until you get your FC level stable where you want it. Once you've got that dialed in, you can vary your SWG output and pump usage to whatever combination you like. For instance, running the pump for 12 hrs daily at 50% SWG output is the same as 24 hrs daily and 25% SWG output for chlorine production.

I don't know how to calculate gas usage for heating the pool or spa. I heat my spa all of the time and don't worry about the cost. My house's gas bill is still under $100/mo so I don't worry about it. If you are going to heat the pool and/or spa regularly, you are going to want to get a cover for your pool/spa. They really help reduce heat loss.

 

[kevinskii]

I followed the "turn over water twice daily" rule of thumb for the first few months of pool ownership, which for me required pumping around 45gpm for >12 hours a day. Subsequent reading on here, along with my own experience, suggests that it isn't necessary. I now use less than a third of the electricity and my pool is still sparkling clean. Just my two cents. I certainly don't consider myself to be an expert and I'm always happy to be corrected.

 

[iflyjetzzz]

I followed the "turn over water twice daily" rule of thumb for the first few months of pool ownership, which for me required pumping around 45gpm for >12 hours a day. Subsequent reading on here, along with my own experience, suggests that it isn't necessary. I now use less than a third of the electricity and my pool is still sparkling clean. Just my two cents. I certainly don't consider myself to be an expert and I'm always happy to be corrected.

LOL! That's funny because I also ignore the 'turn over the pool twice daily' rule. I've also found it to be overkill, but I wasn't sure of current thinking on how much to turn over pool water.

In the OP's case (swimmerpool), his daily run time is likely to be determined by how long he needs to run his SWG daily.

 

[anre5180]

My humble $0.02 cents

I have a 16k aiming for 3 turns overs (48k) a day avoiding FPL (south florida) peak times:

My Zodiac MX8 Elites takes about 2h to vaccum the entire floor... and this way i wake up to a clean pool (skimmed and bottom) to have breakfast next to it.

i use that time to test with Aqua7 strips on some quick days or LaMotte kit on others and do a quick add since i am still running at 50GPM and then off to work. re-test next day.

 

[mknauss]

I have a 16k aiming for 3 turns overs (48k) a day

Turnover is a myth.

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

 

[anre5180]

Turnover is a myth.

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

would this thesis for a Master of Science in Civil Engineering be considered then a myth-buster?

"A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF SWIMMING POOL RECIRCULATION SYSTEM EFFICIENCY IN RETURNING WATER TO THE TREATMENT SYSTEM"

Quote of interest:

"Salt tracer studies were conducted using KCl to determine the residence time distribution and describe the hydraulic characteristics of the pool. The results indicated that the removal of the tracer always followed an exponential decay curve, i.e. 63, 86, 95% for the first, second, and third turnover periods, respectively"

PDF is too big to attach:

https://repository.uncc.edu/islandora/object/etd%3A1068/datastream/PDF/download/citation.pdf

 

[mknauss]

http://consensus.fsu.edu/FBC/Pool-E...4_study-efficiency_of_circulation_systems.pdf

 

[kevinskii]

would this thesis for a Master of Science in Civil Engineering be considered then a myth-buster?

Thanks for sharing. The main premise of the thesis seems to be that chlorine is insufficient to remove some water-borne pathogens in rare cases, and the best supplemental precaution is faster turnover so that filtration can remove more of the contaminants.

The thesis appears to be targeted towards very large water venues. For example, if you're operating a water park that is indoors with hundreds or thousands of swimmers doing god-knows-what, then you may indeed want a higher turnover rate. But that isn't the situation for most residential pools which are outdoors, have a light bather load, and are operating under known conditions. If I have an algae bloom or sustained chlorine drop, I'm probably not going to swim for several days afterwards even if the water looks clear. If someone poops in my pool I'll hopefully know about it and take precautions accordingly.

Finally, for what it's worth, there is lots of collective experience to back this up. I no longer turn over my water 2x-3x a day. I doubt many of the thousands of members on here do. None of my neighbors or friends with pools do. And yet our water is sparkling clean and we aren't getting sick. If that changes on my end I promise you'll be among the first to know, assuming I survive long enough to update this thread. Welcome to the board, and thanks for your vigilance.