Pentair Easytouch PL4/PSL4 - different pump speed schedule partially working

[MrCota]

Hello folks. This is my first time posting here, though I owe this group for everything I learned about taking care of pools. We are new-ish pool owners. Our pool was built in October 2020. Since then I've used a pool company to take care of the pool, while I learned everything about it on the side. Since last March I've been taking care of my pool and so far I've learned even more.

The pool company set my pump (Pentair Intelliflo VS+SVRS) to run at its highest (3450 rpm) all the time. I found that my pump had different speeds 3 weeks ago. Since then I started playing with it and was able to lower my energy A LOT by running the pool 24 hours on 3 variable speeds. Since we have solar energy, I was able to measure a huge difference between now and last week, when the pump was running for 12 hours at 3450 rpm.

However, it's been a nightmare to program the 3 speeds that allow me to have 3 turnovers. I've tried to run the lowest speed from 8 am to 7:59 am (24 h) and then add schedules to run the pump on high and medium speeds throughout the day. The problem is that the Dang thing works whenever it wants. Yesterday I saw the schedule being followed and both high and medium speeds kicking in. However, this morning it didn't happen. It was supposed to kick in high at 1 PM but it didn't. I'm sure that I'm doing something wrong.

I've got to the point that I've been considering having only one schedule, to run the pump at its slowest speed and add both the high and medium speeds to run once every day.

This is the schedule and as you can see it was 2:08 pm and the Skim High of 1 PM didn't run nor did the medium (Pool) that was supposed to start at 2 PM. I'm pretty sure that the schedules of 5AM and 6AM didn't run either. What I don't understand is why yesterday evening both schedules for Skim High (9 - 10 PM) and Pool (10 PM to 12AM) ran perfectly and then switched to the lower RPM for the night. I'm sure missing something here.



This is the schedule that I'm expecting to achieve:

Skim High - H - 3 hours per day
Pool - M - 4 hours per day
Skim Low - L - 15 hours per day

This is my circuit setup:


My pump speeds:


Can you guys see what I might be missing here?
Should I overlap or create separate schedules for each speed?

Thank you in advance and apologies if I forgot to add more info.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Mr,

You have an EasyTouch "lite".. It has a max of 4 schedules and any egg-timers not set to the default of 12 hours. The problem is that ScreenLogic will let you enter a billion schedules, they just won't work.

If you want the pump to run 24/7, then you should set Pool to run 8 am until 8 am..

Also your Pool speeds should be the slowest speed you ever want to run.

Keep in mind that if the pump sees two or more speeds it will always run the fastest one.

If the pump is running at 1750 and you turn on skim low at 1250, nothing will happen as the pump will run the fastest one.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[MrCota]

I made one last change, assign both the high and medium pump speed as features, and left the Main Pool running on low. Let's see if this makes any difference tonight.

 

[MrCota]

Mr,

You have an EasyTouch "lite".. It has a max of 4 schedules and any egg-timers not set to the default of 12 hours. The problem is that ScreenLogic will let you enter a billion schedules, they just won't work.

If you want the pump to run 24/7, then you should set Pool to run 8 am until 8 am..

Also your Pool speeds should be the slowest speed you ever want to run.

Keep in mind that if the pump sees two or more speeds it will always run the fastest one.

If the pump is running at 1750 and you turn on skim low at 1250, nothing will happen as the pump will run the fastest one.

Thanks,

Jim R.

Thanks, Jim. This makes sense and explains a lot.
I changed the Main Pool to run at the lowest speed and for 24 hours. I had no idea about this limitation of 4 schedules. Does that include the run-once as well?


Thank you.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Mr,

I am not sure you understand..

If you schedule "Pool" 4 times, you've used up all your schedules.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Mr,

Looks like we both posted at the same time.

The 4 total is any combination of Schedules, Egg-timers not at 12 hours, and run-once items.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Mr,

I run my IntelliFlo 24/7 mostly at 1200 RPM for less than $20 bucks a month. I can't believe that your pool builder set yours up to run at 3450.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[MrCota]

Mr,

I am not sure you understand..

If you schedule "Pool" 4 times, you've used up all your schedules.

Thanks,

Jim R.

Now I got it. I'll play with it and see how I can make this work.
I assume that the only way is to upgrade to the bigger Easytouch right?
Thanks again, Jim.

 

[MrCota]

Mr,

I run my IntelliFlo 24/7 mostly at 1200 RPM for less than $20 bucks a month. I can't believe that your pool builder set yours up to run at 3450.

Thanks,

Jim R.

Tell me about it brother.

So many things that I found out on my own. I just started messing with this because our solar production went way down when the Texas summer hit us. I've been running the pump 24 hours since last Sunday and my solar system says that we already produced more than the last 2 weeks together.

Yesterday I was reading a post where you were trying to help somebody who was trying to schedule 3 speeds as well. (I didn't realize the 4 schedules limitation, thus this new thread). And you mentioned something about the fill line. I noticed that there is a splitter on my backyard hose and when the pool was built they put a pipe there. Yesterday I connected the dots and found out there is actually a fill line going to one of my skimmers. I've been using a hose for almost 2 freaking years.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Mr,

Speeds and schedule are not the same. I think you can have 8 speeds assigned, but you can only "schedule" 4 of them. You could manually turn on the other 4, if you wanted.

My pool also has a fill line in the back of the Skimmer. It works, but I am not a fan. Better than a hose, but I have to put a brick on the skimmer door to keep it down when I turn on the fill line.

Thanks,

Jim R.