Reasonably priced peristaltic pump

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mas985

mas985

TFP Expert
LifeTime Supporter
May 3, 2007
16,895
Pleasanton, CA
Pool Size
20000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
If anyone is interested, I found this on Ebay:

DISHWASHER RINSE CHEMICAL DOSING PUMP 110V | eBay

Bought one a couple of weeks ago and it has been working pretty well. It has a a water resistant housing, speed control and a geared drive so very low speed is possible. Lifetime is TBD but it does the job.

I think the seller has more than one left because one was left when I bought it too.
 
I'm interested in this as a stenner pump alternative.

Have you ran it at full speed to see how many gallons per hour? I see it is about 1 gallon per hour at max. I need around half a gallon per day and I wanted to do that amount over 2 hours so I wonder if it can manage to do that.

What are you using as a fluid reservoir?
 
Have you ran it at full speed to see how many gallons per hour?
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No I haven't tried that. I am running at slower speeds because it is being used to dose acid. However, if you inject into the return pipe, you can start the peristaltic pump before you start the pool pump to get more chlorine into the pool but you would need a separate timer.


What are you using as a fluid reservoir?
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Two Lowes buckets teed together.

BTW, a 1/2 gallon of chlorine seems like a lot. Are you diluting it?
 
mas985 said:
No I haven't tried that. I am running at slower speeds because it is being used to dose acid. However, if you inject into the return pipe, you can start the peristaltic pump before you start the pool pump to get more chlorine into the pool but you would need a separate timer.


Two Lowes buckets teed together.

BTW, a 1/2 gallon of chlorine seems like a lot. Are you diluting it?
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Half gallon of 10% is what I used on the worst days. Although my CYA last year was low (20-30) so I suspect that the sun was eating most of it. It has no shade.

I would likely use a separate timer and just happen to have it run when the pump is running.


Lowes bucket is a good cheap idea. I think if I can seal off the lowes bucket lid at least mostly I could do the same. Really wanted a stenner pump, but I'm too cheap and this would likely let me be creative enough to do an adequate solution.
 
1/2 gallon of 10% is 3 ppm per day which is really high even for 30 ppm cya. You may of had some other issues going on.
 
mas985 said:
1/2 gallon of 10% is 3 ppm per day which is really high even for 30 ppm cya. You may of had some other issues going on.
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Midwestern pools get a lot of bugs and organic debris blown in compared to many others, so there is some extra consumption in my experience.
 
I grew up in the tri-state area so I am very familiar with the conditions. My parents had a pool and algae was a constant battle. But they also used tabs and strips so no surprise there.

But I guess it would depend on the target FC level. If the target is 6 ppm and it drifts down to 3 ppm each day then that is a 50% extinction rate which I think is still a little on the high side even for that area but probably not totally unreasonable either. However, a 4 ppm target drifting down to 1 ppm, a 75% extinction rate, which to me might indicate an issue.
 
I'm fairly confident it is the sun that burned FC out.

I would bet the CYA was likely closer to 20ppm (at best). CYA was 0 to start since all fresh water. I used almost 4.8 pounds of trichlor pucks as a method to get CYA in the pool(over 2 month period). So if the math is right that is almost 20ppm. I tried to keep it around 5ppm of FC (maybe slightly over like 6ppm).

Then I also had to drain due to some heavy rains. So I would guess 10% less CYA from draining the pool.

So before winter I would estimate the CYA to be 18ppm (AT BEST).

I was fearful of getting to the sky high CYA stories I've seen. The test kit I tried to measure CYA once and it was always clear so I know it was low and not measurable.

Right now the pool is drained 1/3rd of the water for winter. Some people say CYA can get broken down over winter. So I'm thinking I will be starting out at 10 ppm this year. I'm going to use pucks again this year as a CYA contributor but not as the primary source of chlorine, I've calculated around 7.5 pounds this season to be safe on the CYA going up to 40ppm. The pucks also help with acid some ( my TA was sky high at 300 last year caused from city water, MA lowed the TA quickly but very nasty stuff). So not perfect when it comes to chemical balance, but I always have been on the higher levels of recommended FC.

I hope the increased CYA this year will help FC burn off slower. I also know when I put on my solar cover my needing to dose daily to every other day (sometimes 3 days). Whether the solar cover FC loss change was from less contaminates or sun protection is hard to be certain.

All in all I probably over complicated it by not allowing more CYA and by using pucks for CYA, however I know that high CYA isn't worth the headache as well. So if CYA really does protect FC from the sun, my experience would be a great lesson of why to not keep CYA less than 20ppm. I will definitely find out this year since I plan on reaching 40ppm. Just don't want to be a horror story with 100+ppm of CYA.
 
Received the peristaltic pump today.

I noticed that it didn't have a "ground" wire like the stenner pumps do.

Is there any concern for this item not having a ground wire? It would be connected to a GFCI plug, but I'm not a pool electrician expert to personally know about this potential situation.
 

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A grounding wire is necessary when you have a metal housing but in this case it is all plastic so there would be no way to ground it. The GFCI is sufficient protection.
 
Are you planning on doing a write-up soon on how you're implementing this into your system? I'm tempted to pick one up for MA dosing but I don't really have a good idea of what other parts I'd need: presumably this pump, a reservoir, and then a line that is drilled into the plumbing right before the pool return? Is that right?
 
bizzle said:
Are you planning on doing a write-up soon on how you're implementing this into your system? I'm tempted to pick one up for MA dosing but I don't really have a good idea of what other parts I'd need: presumably this pump, a reservoir, and then a line that is drilled into the plumbing right before the pool return? Is that right?
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Yes, that is correct.

The setup is pretty simple. I use two Lowes buckets with lids and a TEE between the lines to the pump but almost any chemical resistant container would work. The injector into the pipe is pretty much the same as a Stenner setup but there are probably alternatives for that as well.
 
JohnFoe said:
I'm interested in this as a stenner pump alternative.

Have you ran it at full speed to see how many gallons per hour? I see it is about 1 gallon per hour at max. I need around half a gallon per day and I wanted to do that amount over 2 hours so I wonder if it can manage to do that.

What are you using as a fluid reservoir?
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I found an identical pump from the same seller for $5 dollars less with the only apparent difference is opaque tubing instead of clear. The capacity is listed as 7l/hr which is 1.85 gal/hour.
 
In addition to the flow rate difference, 7 LT/HR vs 3.5 LT/HR, there is also a difference in max pressure, 1 BAR vs 3 BAR.
 
The real difference between the pump is that they have different gear ratios. The slower pump is going to have higher torque available so the motor is less likely to stall at slower RPM.

So unless you actually need such a high flow rate, I think you are better off with the higher torque which is why I chose the version I posted.
 

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