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Hi all,
I have a polaris 380 with 3/4 HP pump. It appears that the pump is too powerful and enery is wasted (water forced out thru the wall connection). It is also consuming a lot more electricity than it's needed. Does anyone make a smaller booster pump that consumes less power? Thanks.
No body knows the answer? May be I can install an AC motor speed control to lower the power? Somebody must have done that right?
Are you using the Polaris PB-4 pump or something else. The PB-4 is the standard pump for the Polaris 280/380 and works fine in my pool.
I was considering replacing my 3/4 HP booster pump and my current 1 HP main pump with the main IntelliFlo pump I plan to get, but when I looked into it it does not seem that this will be possible because most pressure cleaners expect very high pressures (50 psi) though at low flow rates (12 GPM) and this won't be achievable if you are connected in parallel with returns (most of the water will go through the returns so the pressure won't build up as high as the pressure cleaner wants). You could valve it to operate ONLY (or perhaps mostly) the pressure cleaner, but then won't get the filtering and skimmer action.
I could be wrong about all of this; perhaps someone else knows more about it. It looked to me like using a main pump without a booster pump requires one to use a suction cleaner since they require far less pressure difference (and, of course, you hook up the cleaner to a suction line and could even convert a separate pressure line that was used for the pressure cleaner into a separate suction line so that the skimmer still gets enough suction).
Now that said, if you are truly having lots of water come out of the pressure relief valve, then maybe a smaller sized pump would work in your case, but I don't know if you can just throttle down the voltage to the pump to slow it down or if that causes any damage to the pump, etc. I hate the idea of getting an efficient main pump while still using an inefficient 3/4 HP booster pump for the pressure cleaner, so I sympathize.
Richard
Reducing the voltage too much on an AC synchronous motor with pump will probably damage the motor. Synchronous motors will always try to run at the same speed no mater what the voltage so it is likely the pump will stall and burn up since it does not have enough input power for the impeller load. To change the speed of the motor you would need to change the voltage cycle rate (e.g. 60 Hz to 40 Hz) which is very difficult and expensive to do. Or you need a second set of windings which is what two speed pumps do. I suggest looking for a smaller HP booster pump if available.
There are pressure side cleaners which do not require a booster pump but they generally do work as well. This one needs less PSI than most:
http://www.poolplaza.com/merchant.mv...Category_Code=
The Polaris 360 seen at this link claims to not need a booster pump, but I can't tell what sort off pressure and flow rate it really would need, but I suspect that at worst a split valve that reduced flow to the other return lines (when the cleaner was on) combined with a boost in pump flow would probably work. I just wish the mfgs were more specific with their specs. as it would make things easier to figure out.
Richard
ChemGeek,
Back in November I emailed polaris/zodiac about this unit as I currently have a 1hp pump running my pool. Below is the reply. I have the pdf file still if you are interested.
>>>Polaris Reply<<<<
Thanks for writing. The minimum pump size recommended for the 360 is a 1 1/2 hp, you may be able to get by with your 1 hp, but we can only recommend the 1 1/2 hp. Will you have a valve where you can direct all the water flow to the 360, or will you have to plug your other return lines to divert the flow to the cleaner? If you have to plug those other return lines to direct most of the flow to the 360 then you may want to get a cleaner that requires a booster pump so you don't have to plug those other lines. I attached a plumbing and install guide for the pumps and cleaners, this will give you a better idea how the plumbing should look.
Please let us know if there's any more questions or concerns.
Thanks,
Wesley Brooks
Technical Support
1-800-822-7933
WBrooks@polaris.zodiac.com
>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Caustik
The 360 needs 17-19 PSI while ThePoolCleaner only needs 12. That is 5 PSI difference or about 12 feet of head which for pumps can make quite a difference so I would check into ThePoolCleaner if you decide on a new cleaner without the booster. When I talked to them, they said a 3/4 pump is more than enough for this cleaner.
http://www.thepoolcleaner.com/