Pump set up

[Backyard fun]

So I have one of the bigger intex pools with a salt system. The problem I had last year was if the water goes low in the chamber on the salt system it will shut it off. At first I was trying to run the intex robot and the filter at the same time and the salt system would shut off because of low water level in the chamber. The intake for the pump was set up to have two inputs from the pool. This caused a lot problems with the filter being able to keep the chamber full for the salt system. So I changed the set up to just use one input instead of two. That was a big improvement and the salt system seemed to work fine. The robot for some reason seems to stop working after about an hour which for the life of me I can’t figure out why. I can feel the water pushing out of the robot but it doesn’t go anywhere. I only thing I can think of is the sand filter packs in tight and I get a little less water flow. The other crappy thing is the way the pump is designed. There is no timer I can set you just set the amount of hours you want the pump to run then turn it on when you want it to start and it will start at the time every day. If I want to run the robot to clean the pool then I mess up the start time for the filter. I also made a solar heater but again in order to run it I mess up the start time for running the filter. Another problem I have is the way the skimmer sits in the pool if I try to run it with the solar cover on it seems to mess with the flow that the pump gets and then I get a low flow alarm on the salt system. I know intex tends to give you an undersized pump. Trying to figure out how to set all this up so I’m not constantly messing around. Basically I need to run the filter and salt system. The skimmer and robot at one point. The solar heater in the afternoon. Don’t know if I should just get a new pool pump or try to run two pumps. I can get an external pump and run the heater and robot off of it. I also have a slide that I would like to possibly run water to. It would probably be about 8ft tall.

 

[kellyfair]

We need a lot more information here. Size of pool, size of pump and filter, etc. Can you post photos of your set up as well? I’m very concerned with your low water level... in a system that is set up properly, you should not have low water anywhere. No air pockets at all.

 

[Backyard fun]

The pool is a 24x12. I think the pump is 1600gph and the salt system is rated for 200 to 3200gph pumps.

 

[kellyfair]

That is the pump/filter that came with the pool, correct? Intex is notorious for undersizing their equipment, and that’s just for normal operation. When adding all the bells and whistles, you just don’t have enough pump to run them all.

When you connected everything, did you bleed out the air before starting everything up? I can’t tell by looking at your photos but there should be a place prior to water entering pump that you can loosen to let all the air out. Then you can start pump.

I would disconnect everything except pump, filter and SWG and get that working properly, and I would use both intakes. Then we can talk about solar heater, fountain, etc., but you are likely going to need a bigger pump. Most of us that have Intex upgrade to better pump and filter.

 

[Backyard fun]

Yeah I tried to bleed the air several times. The problem is the pipe on the salt system wants to be all the way full or it shuts down the salt system. After the pump runs for a while I end up with a small air bubble at the top. When it gets warm I think I’ll try and put the hose on it and get rid of the PVC. I’m wondering if the PVC is to big and I don’t have enough flow to fill the pipe all the way. I got the salt system to work fine it’s just touchy. The reason I’m not going to go back to two inputs is because the skimmer seems to work worse and I get a lot less flow from the pump so everything works worse.

 

[kellyfair]

There won’t be any air at all in your salt cell if the system is working right. Is air getting in somehow? Water is at least halfway up skimmer? All hoses tight, no air entering at connections?

 

[kellyfair]

Sorry, I just realized you are using the over the wall skimmer. Is that your only intake?

 

[Backyard fun]

The skimmer stays full. Everything is tight and has gaskets.

 

[Backyard fun]

I tried to run both originally but once I changed to just one everything started working a lot better. The hose is smaller then the PVC I added so I’m guessing that will help. This is very much a DIY pool.

 

[kellyfair]

Somehow air is getting in, or you wouldn’t see air in salt cell. Your pump is undersized... mine is 2150 GPH, .75 hp and I have it on a smaller pool! Your pump is not up to running all the extras you want to add.

Here is my current set up, or at least it was before I started taking pool down a couple of days ago! It’s adequate for my pool and the Intex auto cleaner works fine on it. As you can see, I have two intake (counting skimmer) and use both. I can shut one to halfway or altogether closed if I need to. The Auto Cleaner requires a strong enough flow to make it run properly.

 

[kellyfair]

Calling @mknauss in to assist.

 

[kellyfair]

And @jseyfert3

 

[Backyard fun]

If there was an air leak on the input side I would think I would see air bubbles not just one big bubble. If the output was leaking I would see water spraying.

 

[jseyfert3]

If you are getting air in the pump inlet filter basket, you have an air leak somewhere. This could be the lid to the pump basket or in one of the hoses. Sometimes big leaks will start dripping if your shut your pump off, so I’d try that first. A new pump will not fix an air leak, you need to find and fix air leaks no matter what pump you have.

The pump should work the same or better, not worse, with two inlets vs one. If worse with two inlets, something is wrong, like an air leak. Two inlets worked great on mine, eventually I went to one cause I added a through wall skimmer, same model as @kellyfair showed above, and ran all the flow through that. A through wall skimmer should solve your solar cover issues, I used a solar cover with mine with no problem. I think it will also work better than the Intex one, but I have no experience with the Intex one.

Honestly your solar heater is not going to make a noticeable difference in pool temp, so I wouldn’t bother trying to run the pump specifically for your heater. I can bring some math in if you want proof but the general rule of thumb is not to bother with solar heaters unless they have a minimum surface area of approximately 50% of the surface area of the pool. So for a 12x24 pool the smallest solar heater worth bothering with would be 12x12, or 6x24, etc.

A different pump can be useful in many ways, but keep in mind unless you bonded your Intex when you set it up, replacing your pump with a non-Intex will require bonding your pool. This is not a huge issue but just something to be aware of. Basically what I’m getting at is your have a couple things to look at before you run out and buy a new pump.