In order to keep your pool consistently clean and clear it’s imperative to have the correct size pool equipment. If something is not the correct size it could hinder the ability for the pool to stay clean and clear. Here’s a few examples out on my route. Both of these pool’s have issues.
One particular account has a 20K gallon pool with an attached spa. It is also plumbed for a a suction cleaner which is in use (at least trying to be in use). It has an 120 sqft cartridge filter and a 1hp pump. More importantly is the location of the pump. The pump is about 40 feet away from the pool and is also elevated about 6 feet above the surface of the pool. What’s wrong with this picture?
The pump is incredibly too small for this system based on not only size of the pool but location of the pump. It really should be running at least a 1.5hp pump at a bare minimum. Where the location of the pump is it will not prime on it’s “own” for lack of better words. Instead, the previous owner plumbed in a Jandy valve that essentially is used as a manual check valve. You turn the pump off, close off the valve, then open the bucket and filter. If you forget to do this it will not regain prime unless you close the valve off and fill the basket. When you go to turn it on you have to open the valve quickly and then turn the pump on. Finally, you have to wait around 2 minutes before it primes.
Even after it primes it barely gives the filter 5 psi of pressure. When the system is on the suction cleaner isn’t moving at all. If a larger pump was put in originally you could forgo all of these steps to make the under powered pump work. In addition, the water is also having a hard time staying clear because even at longer run times it has difficulty turning the water over. So with all that to say the pump needs to be upgraded.
Another account has a 15k gallon pool, a 2hp pump and a 24 sqft sand filter. The water has a hard time staying clear. Why could this be?
The filter is too small. What happens is more water is being pushed into the filter than it can handle. With sand filters it’s easy to cause channeling when too much pressure is getting into the filter from the pump. When channeling occurs in the filter the quality of the filtration is not as good. There are steps you can take to get rid of the channeling but it will always be an issue because the pump is too large for the system.
There are a million of other scenarios but here’s a few that you can see at homes if you are servicing pools.
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