What Pump/Filter Should I Purchase?

[Russ.Stevenson]

Hello Everyone,

I bought a bank owned house with an inground pool, the size of I which I guess to be 15000 gallons. The pool was a real mess, with three or four feet of mud and frogs and mosquitoes. But the biggest problem is that the pump and filter are missing. The 1 1/2 PVC appears to be intact.

I've never had a house with a pool and I have lots of questions, the first of which is what type of pump and filter should I buy?

Thanks In Advance For Yor Help
Russ Stevenson

[Poconos]

Hi Russ and welcome to the forum.
First, congrats on the house. Hope it works out well for you. What kind of pool is it? Liner, fiberglass, concrete? You mention the plumbing looks OK but could there be hidden freeze damage? Should probably pressure test the lines to be sure. With that much mud it may be easier to just rent a sludge pump to get rid of most of the crud. As for the pool pump and filter, go sand. A sand filter is best when dealing with yuck. Cheap to maintain and easy to backwash. They do a good job of catching things but won't do as good a job as DE or a cartridge for water clarity. However, you can improve the filtering by adding a little DE to the sand filter and get the finer filtering benefits of a DE filter. You're far from being concerned about that though. As for the pump, what is your budget like? Also, the power to the pump is it wired for 120 or 240 volts? If you just have the pool and no additions like waterfalls and your budget allows it, then probably a 1 HP 2 speed should work. Others may have different suggestions. The other thing to consider is you can never go too big on the filter. I don't know the prices or specified flow rates but I think I would go with a 300 pound sand filter. Again, others may have different ideas. Let us know if we're heading in the right direction and we'll home in on a solution.
Al

Edit: Just saw you're in Floride. Forget anything I said about freezing. You still may want to pressure test though.

[Russ.Stevenson]

Thanks for the reply.

The pool is a gunnite, kidney shape about 8 feet deep in the deep end. No spas or waterfalls - just the pool. It is powered by 240 volts on a double 20 amp breaker (which I will change to a GFI). I rented a pump and had a heck of a time getting the sludge out, but I finally got it empty and pressure washed and acid cleaned. It looks pretty good. I will do a pressure test on the plumbing.

Back to the pump and filter, Lowes and the Depot around here sell Flo-Tec and they seem expensive compared to what I find on the internet. I would like a two speed pump and I am leaning toward a Hayward. I had a fella quote $1100 to install a 1 hp single speed pump and an oversize cartridge filter. I would rather do it myself, though. Seems like it would be a good learning experience. Is Flo-Tec a reliable brand?

Thanks Again,
Russell

[aylad]

I'll have to leave the Flo-Tec question to someone who knows the answer, but I just wanted to encourage you to compare the cost of a cartridge filter against a sand filter. Sand filters are the best if you have messes to clean up, and I'll put my water clarity up against any DE or cartridge filter's water anyday. (Ask Poconos and Watermom, they've both seen my pool in person!). With sand, once you get the sand in the filter, there's virtually no maintenance except an occasional backwash, and if you do have an issue with clarity, you can always toss in a handful of DE to get the clarity of a DE filter. I have just read so many posts about people having issues with having to clean/soak/replace the cartridges, that I would really think through that before you commit to one. My down the street neighbor has an Intex pool with a cartridge too, and after helping her clean up a bad algae bloom last year, swore I'd never own a cart filter.

Just a suggestion.....

Janet

[Watermom]

I am going to second (or actually third) the recommendation to go with a sand filter rather than a cartridge filter. It does a good job and is way less trouble than a cartridge filter.

[mas985]

Sorry but I am going to have to defend cartridge owners everywhere. I find a cartridge to be much lower maintenance then some of the others at least from some of the postings that I have read but the key is to oversize the filter such you don't have to clean it so often. I clean my filter twice a year and I never close the pool. Each cleaning takes about 45 minutes so overall, I bet I spend less time per year then many sand filter owners. Of course following the great advice about maintaining pools from this site has resulted in an algae free pool for the last 5 years so I have never had to fight that problem. But I do agree that could be a problem with a cartridge.

[CarlD]

I've got a sand filter and both Poconos and Watermom have seen mine and know it's clean.

I have the Hayward 1hp 2speed super pump and run it with a 200# Hayward sand filter--and it's fine, no problems at all. But for that pump I would not go lower than the 200# filter and the 300# certainly wouldn't hurt.

All 3 kinds of filters do a fine job if properly sized and maintained. All three will give you headaches if you don't.

The thing about cartridge filters is that IF (and it's a big if) you know what you are doing and all the tricks for cleaning, it's probably the easiest of all to maintain. mas985 is telling the truth about this. There are some super tricks and techniques than can reduce maintenance to amazingly low levels. Those who master them, LOVE their cartridge filters.

But it's like learning to ride a unicycle--lots of fun and easy if you can learn to do it. IF, however, you DON'T master those techniques (and many people don't), you will curse it and rue the day you ever put it in! We have far more complaints per # of owners about cleaning carts and damaged media than we do about sand or DE filters.

Still, with our cart owners, like mas985, you should get the guidance you need.

OTOH, if you go the sand route, there are plenty of us with barrels of experience with them. My time spent on maintenance is higher than mas985's, but I just backwashed my filter for the first time in 2 months--and it took less than 15 minutes. I DO have to do beginning and end of season maintenance because I live where it snows--but all filters need to be shut down for winter here.

The two biggest drawbacks to sand are the filtering quality and the weight. The first is easily dealt with by using a little DE in the filter (My 10# box is still going strong after 3 or for years, using only 1/3-1/2 cup after a backwash--and 10# cost $8), skimmer socks (which everyone should use), and proper pool vacuuming (which, again, we should all do).

As for the weight, I don't move the filter much. You have to drain it and cover it for the winter so it doesn't ice up, where you can just drain a DE or cart and put it in the basement.

As an aside, I MAY have to change my sand this season! Why? We are doing construction and after I close we need to relocate the filter. It just may be easier to empty it and move it...but I don't want to damage my laterals. I hate, Hate, HATE doing it as my sand is nice and old and dirty and filters far better than it did when it was new. I'm going to try to avoid it!

[aylad]

You have to drain it and cover it for the winter so it doesn't ice up, where you can just drain a DE or cart and put it in the basement.

This poster lives in Florida, though, so I doubt closing the pool will be a problem for him. In addition, being that close to hurricane landing zones, I can see the potential for messes that need to be cleaned up.

[CarlD]

No snow????!?!??!!

[Shredhead]

I would get a variable speed Pentair pump with whatever filter you choose. I have a cartridge and works well for me.