Running pump 24/7 with SWCG, sanity check

[Obecalp86]

Hi all,

Bear with me - fired the pool guy in March and have been managing my pool by myself since then. Water has been pristine and no issues at all. Still learning, though!

However, I’ve struggled with inconsistent FC levels - usually dropping to 3 ppm (once to 1ppm) by the end of the week from 5-8 ppm earlier in the week. I have a SWCG but have been running it at 100% 8-10 hours per day + adding dichlor or trichlor once per week (leftover supply, use it mainly to raise CYA).

I started looking into running my pump 24/7 (inspired by posts on this forum) to consistently produce chlorine from the SWCG and realized that running the pump at 900 rpm (skimming is effective and SWCG running fine) use about 15% of the electricity that running the pump at 2000 rpm does. I calculated that running the pump like this (900 rpm 23 hours and 2000 rpm 1 hour, I.e. 24/7) will cost about $8/month (10 hours at 2000 rpm is about $26/mo - a negligible difference).

However, since I’m relatively new to maintaining my own pool, I don’t always know what I don’t know. Anything I’m missing? Any reason I should not run it at a low RPM?

Thanks y’all!

 

[Obecalp86]

Most recent test results - assume forum members can see my pool math results, but not sure (?).

 

[mknauss]

We cannot see your Poolmath data. Be sure you have enabled Sharing and that your login information for TF Website and Poolmath are the same.

You can certainly run the pump 24/7.

Your SWCG should easily maintain your needed FC levels. CYA of 60 is low for Phoenix.

 

[Obecalp86]

We cannot see your Poolmath data. Be sure you have enabled Sharing and that your login information for TF Website and Poolmath are the same.

You can certainly run the pump 24/7.

Your SWCG should easily maintain your needed FC levels. CYA of 60 is low for Phoenix.

Thank you!

I am raising my CYA using leftover trichlor and dichlor - goal is about 80 ppm.

Is there a problem with running my pump at 900 ppm? In other posts “very” low rpm’s were discouraged, in part because of concern about the SWCG not working properly at low rates, but mine seems to work fine.

 

[mknauss]

As long as the SWCG is happy at that rpm, all is good.

If the SWCG has a 'hump', be sure it is down so the cell stays flooded with water when at low rpm.