VS Pump with Polaris/Booster dependencies

[paulmaz]

Hello,
When I bought my pool, It had a single speed pump, and had two Intermatic timers, one for the filter and one for the booster pump. It is wired where if the filter timer is off, the booster can't turn on (but timer runs) This is great as ensures the booster does not run without the filter on.
Fast forward to now...my single speed died and I replaced it with a Pentair VS pump. This unit no longer requires the Intermatic timer, as I use the onboard controller to set the times to run the pump. So the filter timer is always "On" As far as the Booster timer, I set it to run when I know the pump is on. This is all great in a perfect world, but I had two issues arise at different times. On one occasion I did not tighten the "Off" marker on the timer enough, and the booster stayed on all night, with no filter. Also had an issue when electricity went out during a storm.
Does anyone have any ideas on how I can setup my booster to only run when my filter is running? I did some researching on the VS pump, and it seems pretty complicated, with setting up an external controller for the pump. Is there a simpler solution out there?
thanks in advance!
Paul

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Nothing simple. This is unfortunately the problem one runs into when upgrading to a VSP without an automation system. The EasyTouch is designed to “integrate” all the components and make everything, well....easy. However, if you add on items piecemeal, then it gets complicated. Pentair unfortunately forces a pool owner to use all Pentair solutions.

You might look around the Intermatic website or other web searches to find a suitable digital timer that can handle switching on a pump and has some battery backup in it to retain settings in memory. Your current solution works fine for when things are all working properly but, as would happen, things don’t always workout.

One work-around for your setup, but again...complicated, would be to install a pressure switch on your plumbing between the pump and the filter (close to where the Polaris gets it’s supply from) and have that pressure switch control a 240V/30Amp relay (assuming the booster pump is 240V). You’d power the relay after the timer so that way the booster pump can’t turn on unless the timer is delivering power and the pressure switch relay is satisfied.

 

[Rocket J Squirrel]

You can run the VS pump as if it were a single speed pump. You could disable the pump’s internal timer and continue to use the Intermatic. I ran that way for several years before upgrading to EasyTouch automation.