Opening + Other Questions

[Patrickoleary]

Opened our pool here in PA today. Crazy cold, but thanks to TFP our water is blue and clear at open. One year ago I was having buyers remorse with the new house with pool. The water was black. This year, I'm happy and ready to have a great year.

I'm assuming my next steps should be:

- Clean up any debris
- Check my chemistry
- Balance chemistry (lower PH for SLAM)
- SLAM if needed, pass OCLT
- Enjoy

I did also invest in a new Hayward variable speed programmable pump and a new heat pump. Any thoughts on best practices? For example, run pump fast during day and slow at night? Run heat pump during day, not much at night?

Thanks!
Patrick

 

[Texas Splash]

You have it about right. Just make sure to let the water mix for a good 30 min or so before grabbing that first water sample for testing.

For the VSP, a humble rpm of about 1200 or so should be adequate unless you are running a cleaner or something else that demands a higher rpm. The amount of run time will vary based on FC production required for your SWG. You'll have to play around with that for a bit.

Opening your pool- An easy to follow guide

Opening your pool can be stressful. This Pool Start Up guide teaches everything from start-up chemicals, covers, and more for your start up.

www.troublefreepool.com

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

 

[Patrickoleary]

You have it about right. Just make sure to let the water mix for a good 30 min or so before grabbing that first water sample for testing.

For the VSP, a humble rpm of about 1200 or so should be adequate unless you are running a cleaner or something else that demands a higher rpm. The amount of run time will vary based on FC production required for your SWG. You'll have to play around with that for a bit.

Opening your pool- An easy to follow guide

Opening your pool can be stressful. This Pool Start Up guide teaches everything from start-up chemicals, covers, and more for your start up.

www.troublefreepool.com

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

Playing around with it real quick, it looks like the Heat Pump needs about 2000 rpm to trigger it to run.

How does this sound?

9 PM to 6 AM Run <1,500 RPM No Heat Pump
6 AM to 12 PM Run 3,500 RPM (or whatever max is). Run Heat Pump
12 PM to 9 PM. Run 2,000 RPM (or min for Heat Pump) Run Heat Pump

Trying to minimize the sound during the key swim hours of the day and save some electricity. Ideas?

Thanks,
Patrick

 

[gonfishin]

I don't see any real need for the pump to run at maximum RPMs since you have a robot cleaner. If the SWG needs fewer RPMs than the heat pump, run it at the lower RPM level and just bump up to 2000 or 2100 RPMs when you plan to have the heat pump run.

 

[Patrickoleary]

I don't see any real need for the pump to run at maximum RPMs since you have a robot cleaner. If the SWG needs fewer RPMs than the heat pump, run it at the lower RPM level and just bump up to 2000 or 2100 RPMs when you plan to have the heat pump run.

We have a fair amount of trees around us and I used to run the single speed pump 24 hours a day. Every morning, our skimmers would have a decent amount of debris. We normally empty them morning and night. Minimum of once a day. Thus, I was thinking I need to run full out to keep up with that. Not sure if required though.

 

[Texas Splash]

I'm in the country and keep mine on low speed 24/7 for surface debris. But to each their own whether speed or run time. Do what works best for you based on local conditions. You can always adjust it as you go.

 

[gonfishin]

I think you'll have to try different things based on your skimming performance needs.

I too like to run the pump 24/7 for constant skimming and circulation. Last year, I tried a 3/4-HP 2-speed pump motor. For skimming purposes, it worked well enough in the spring for pollen and light tree debris running at low speed 24/7. I had to swap back to my 1-HP single-speed due to a leak I just couldn't get fixed any other way.

 

[Patrickoleary]

Thanks for the perspective.

Thoughts on only running the Heat Pump during the day? I was assuming that because you would want to run it when it is most efficient.

 

[gonfishin]

Patrick, I want to optimize my bang for the buck when running the heat pump, like you do. Last year, I would only run overnight if temps were predicted to be in the mid to upper 50's while I was trying to bring the pool temp up so we were close to our target swim temperature. For most of the summer, I seldom needed to run the HP overnight to make sure the water was at our desired swim temperature but I would start it up in the morning to make sure we could swim when we wanted to.

 

[Patrickoleary]

24 hours after opening and everything is looking great. Water is crystal clear.

 

[Texas Splash]

Looks great!