Pump RPMs

[etherscreen]

I have a VS intelliflo pump that circulates my water. Last year I planned on backing off of the 2600 RPMs that the pool builder sets when opening to a lower more cost effective RPM of 1200-1500. We have a spa that overflows into the pool and when the pool worker came out to do some work last year he said my RPMs where way to low and turned them back up. I believe he based this on the fact that we didn't have much water spilling over from the spa to the pool. Does anyone have any insight on if this is correct advice. Here is what I am thinking...

1. Run the pump low speed (~1500 rpms) from 10Pm until 8AM.
2. Run cleaners (higher speed) from 2am until 6am.

I am doing this because I read and article about SWG and it recommended these settings to keep water flowing continuously for atleast 8 hours. How about just running my spillway feature for an hour a day to turnover my spa water?

 

[Ankrumfishing]

How you have it seems pretty accurate. No reason to run the pump at a higher speed other than for cleaning and/or some of the features. My question is, are you running a control system for your pool equipment? (Easytouch or Intellitouch). If so, you can program features independently and set schedules for them. When a feature is turned on, it will automatically turn on the filter pump for that spillover feature, but the system does not activate the Intellichlor cell during these.

 

[etherscreen]

How you have it seems pretty accurate. No reason to run the pump at a higher speed other than for cleaning and/or some of the features. My question is, are you running a control system for your pool equipment? (Easytouch or Intellitouch). If so, you can program features independently and set schedules for them. When a feature is turned on, it will automatically turn on the filter pump for that spillover feature, but the system does not activate the Intellichlor cell during these.

Yes, I have a Easytouch 8 and plan on setting schedules once I have repairs done. I also have a robot so I might just not run my infloor cleaners (they just seem to blow stuff around) and run my pump on low for 10 hours at night.

 

[Jimrahbe]

E,

We normally recommend that owners do not run their spa spillovers on a continuous basis.. Your idea to run the spillway mode once or twice a day, is exactly what we recommend.

The key is to just test the spa a few times and make sure it stays well chlorinated.. Just like your pool, you never want the FC in your spa water to drop below your minimum for your CYA.

You can just shut off any valve that controls the continuous spillover and schedule your spillway mode to run when you want.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Ankrumfishing]

I would still run the higher speed cleaning cycle of the pump for 4 hours as you have originally set up. This will ensure that your pool is getting a good circulation and that the skimmers are giving the surface water a good cleaning. You can then run the robot as needed to keep the floor and walls clean.

You can program your features into the additional functions that are provided with the ET. You will need to go into the Menu > Settings > Circ. Functions and scroll down past Aux 7 until you hit Feature 1. You can then change it to 'Spillover'. Then go back and go into Circ. Names and change Feature 1 to Spillover. After that, you can go into schedules and select Spillover to create run schedules, egg timers, etc.

 

[Ankrumfishing]

E,

We normally recommend that owners do not run their spa spillovers on a continuous basis.. Your idea to run the spillway mode once or twice a day, is exactly what we recommend.

The key is to just test the spa a few times and make sure it stays well chlorinated.. Just like your pool, you never want the FC in your spa water to drop below your minimum for your CYA.

You can just shut off any valve that controls the continuous spillover and schedule your spillway mode to run when you want.

Thanks,

Jim R.

As Jim stated, here's a thread I started last week dealing with Spillover schedules. Just note, this will not turn on your SWG cell, so leave your pool schedule the same.

Runtimes for Pool/Spa combos?

Hey all, So I've recently installed a new pool/spa combo with a spillover feature as I mentioned in my introduction thread. My question is, what run times and modes are typical for keeping the spa turned over daily? During the warmer parts of the year, I just want to maintain the chemistry the...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Jimrahbe]

E,

Each pools is different of course, so you will have to experiment to see what your pool needs..

My pump never runs faster that 2000 RPM and most of the time at 1200 RPM and my pool skims just fine without running any faster.

Since you have an IFCS, it just complicates the pump speed issue. Unless your IFCS works really well, I would think about just shutting it off and just use your robot.

I would adjust your speeds based upon how your pool works..

Thanks,

Jim R.