Re: FlowVis for In-floor Cleaning System Tuning
Just for arguments sake, I'll say again that the only doubling that happens is possibly IF the pop-ups are still throwing their max rated amount. And in your case, you haven't proven that they are. My feeling is the "effectiveness" in your analysis is rather unscientific.
Dodger, I agree with everything! But, just for arguments sake (haha) suppose I had decided to run my “new improved cleaning system” (final version with the 2-notch Jandy) at the 95% Pump Max number rather than the 80% number that I have decided to try. Here is what that the data would look like:
| | Pump RPM | Watts | GPM | Gallons/KWh |
| 100% Cleaning (Original Configuration) | | 2760 | 873 | 40 | 2749 |
| Jandy 2 Notch (New Final Configuration, 50%/50%) | 3278 | 1878 | 95 | 3035 | |
I can guarantee you that my pop-ups in this “new final configuration” outperform the pop-ups in my “original configuration”. Yes, I am still basing that on my “feel” (darn, I wish I had one of your pressure gauges ), but it would not even be close. In this scenario, I might be brazen enough to claim a 2.5 effectiveness increase but I’ll stick with the doubling claim.
[As it turns out, my "guarantee" was wrong and the "feel" test using my sensitive fingers was not as accurate as I thought they were. The key to understanding flows out of the manifold to the cleaning heads is to have a PSI gauge at the manifold which allows more accurate comparison.
As it turns out, for the case I chose equivalence in feel, about 27 gpm were coming from the floor popups and 53 gpm were coming from the wall returns, roughly a 37%/63% ratio, I am not fixing any of the discussion that takes place based on my original assumption
The measurements of the manifold PSI in later posts show that the PSI in the 1st case was 18 and in the 2nd case was 15.5. Both of those numbers are probably higher than what I need in the manifold to properly drive my popups, recommended pressures are usually below that, but my system is older and I don't know if it has any official requirements: A&A type 1 popups]
In addition, using that operating point, I can still claim an improved power efficiency (whatever that term means…Mark has me questioning that, haha) of 10% (2749 Gallons/kWh > 3035 Gallons/kWh).
If we can agree on that, then there is a middle ground between my chosen point and this not-chosen point where my pop-ups work as well (or better)
[we know the flow was not as high so this claim is false, how much this compromised "throw" of the cleaning heads is not clear as I was overdriving them to begin with; my later experiments showed that both of these PSIs are higher than I really needed in my system] than my original configuration AND the water is filtered at a 2X+ rate. I am going to call that doubling the cleaning system’s effectiveness, you can call it what you want
I concede, after your posts and Mark’s posts, that the pressure in my in-floor manifold (Mark’s term for the dome/cleaning system valve) must be reduced in my final chosen scenario (have I said I wish I had one of your pressure gauges?).
But I suspect that it is on a point on the curve where higher pressure has flattened manifold output OR that the drop in pressure is relatively small and so is not impacting the manifold output significantly.[Both of these claims were wrong, we now have a pressure gauge] No I can't prove either of these because I don't have a pressure gauge!
By the way, after the next monsoon…I am definitely going to run my "new cleaning system" with my pump at 100%...efficiency be darned (it x'd out my original word)! I’m gonna see how fast I can clear up that 1/8
th inch of mud that settles on the bottom of my pool overnight.
