Pool pump schedule thoughts (night time shut-off)..

[Brick81]

Good day,
I know it all depends on your pool and I am slowly starting to get to know mine (ie. Once a week add 32oz of muriatic acid to keep ph level in check).
My question is regarding my pool pump. Currently it runs 24/7 with the following schedule:
6-11 2400 rpm
11-5 1700 rpm
5-10 2700 rpm
10-6 1300 rpm

Now the main reason I do this is because wife and kids like the jets running while swimming (and it's impossible to guess when they will be taking a dip). Schools out and they are off for the summer, so no heavy use on weekend less use on weekday swimming schedules.

With my SWG set at 50% my levels are:
FC 5
pH 7.8
TA 140
CH 150
CYA bounces around 60/70
Salt 3100 ppm

Thinking of changing my schedule so pump turns off from 12am-6am (6hrs). Once I do this I know the heater won’t kick on in the middle of the night. This would also help with evaporation wouldn’t it??? Don’t have and won’t be getting a pool cover, and pretty sure I read somewhere that have the pump running at night helps speed up the process of evaporation (also my liquid cover says still water is better)???

Thoughts/comments??

Please and thanks

 

[elwood58]

I would look at running the lowest speed that your SWCG can live with for most of your schedule, and then 3000 RPM for 4 hours. I currently run 22 hours per day. 18 hours at 1500 RPM and 4 hours at 3000 RPM. The system is off from 1 am to 2 am and 6 am to 7 am. High speed runs 2 am to 6 am.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Brick,

Each pool is a little different... You generally run a pump for three reasons:

1. To keep surface debris moving and being pushed into the skimmers. The more debris the more often you need to run the pump.

2. If you have a Salt Water Chlorine Generator (SWCG) you'll need to run it long enough to generate the amount of chlorine needed.

3. To circulate the water to ensure the chlorine is effectively distributed throughout the pool. Fours hours per day is all that is needed for this to happen in most pools.


If this were my pool, I would run the pump as slow as possible and still make chlorine.. I would then program a button that my wife or kids could push whenever they wanted to use the pool, that would increase the pump speed to whatever works best for them. This is really what automation is all about.

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.