Pentair Intelliflo and pentair Sperflo VS

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Kinglangon63

Kinglangon63

0
May 1, 2014
42
Ontario,Canada
i have 2 pumps on my pool, both Intelliflo connected to Intellitouch. One works off the drains and the other one is for the sheer descents using the skimmer. I have 3 sheer descents and even running the pump at full speed I can barely get the middle sheer to shout water out as my pool builder used 1.5" plumbing for the sheer rather than 2". My pool equipment supplier said i should use a Superflo VS pump and it will work, is this correct? Middle sheer is 3' and the two outer sheer's are 2'. Let me know your thoughts.
 
King,

The SuperFlo is a much smaller pump than the IntelliFlo, so that does not sound right to me.

What you need is a pump designed to be used as a waterfall pump.

I'm not up on waterfall pumps, but we have some pretty sharp people here who are..

Let's see if we can get on of them to chime in...

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
You should use Pentair's AFP series waterfall pumps as they are designed for low head, high flow rate applications. Standard pool pumps are not suited for open pipe water features.

Do you have independent control over the sheer descents?

What are the manufacturers suggested flow rate?


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Unfortunately given the pipe size, this is probably not a low head application. If the intelliflo can't produce enough flow rate, I doubt any pump would.

Do the sheers share a single line or are they separate?
 
Assuming a 3' elevation and an 18" projection, you would want about 105 gpm for 7 feet of sheer descent.

Assuming 100' of 1.5" pvc, the velocity would be 16.56 feet per second and the head loss would be 61 feet.

The IntelliFlo can do 105 gpm at 78 feet of head, so something doesn't make sense. Maybe the pump is cavitating. Is the pump loud?

If you're using unfiltered water, the sheer might be clogged with debris.

The suction plumbing should be 3" and the discharge should be 2.5" pvc.

Can you give a detailed description of the system in all detail?

All suction plumbing. All return plumbing. Filter make and model. Sheer make and model. Sheer height. Sheer elevation, distance from pump to pool. Etc.

If you combine all suctions into one pump and use a big cartridge filter, you might be able to make this work with one pump.

If you have a single 1.5" line to all three sheers, that's a bad design and would be difficult to make work. If you have a 1.5" pvc pipe to each sheer, that's much better.

In any case, it sounds like the system was so poorly designed that it might not be possible to make it work without serious renovation.

Pictures of everything would help.
 
James the picture in my photo shows my design. not sure of the sheer descent mfg, they are about 50'. the two footers are about a foot off the ground and the three footer is about two feet from the ground and all the sheer's are connected together so yes bad design. Would the option of putting 2 valves on the two outer two footer's work. close the valves abit and get more to the center sheer? the sheer descents pulls water from the skimmer.
 
The pump is strong enough to power the sheers.

I think that I would use just one pump. Put all suction to the one pump. Push through the filter and have valves control how much goes to each sheer and how much to the returns.

The slit at most sheers is thin. If you're pushing unfiltered water, the slit might be clogged with debris.

Is there just one 1.5" pvc line to the sheers that branches under ground?

Where would you put the valves to control the outer sheers?

Which model filter do you have?
 

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The question is are there three lines going from each sheer all the way back to the pump and combined there OR are the three sheers combined somewhere underground and then only one line goes back to the pump?

Also, when the pump is on full speed and you are running only the sheers, what is the filter PSI?
 
The single 1.5" suction is insufficient for the flow rate. I would combine all suction plumbing into 1 pump and eliminate the second pump.

Push the water through the filter so that the water going to the sheers is clean.

I would check the sheers for debris because unfiltered water was used.
 
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