Pool plumbing question (1.5" to 2")

[BigBessey]

I know this is an older post but I'm considering a similar upgrade and trying to determine if it is worth it. Pool is 16'x32' roughly 20K gallons I believe. I have a new Pentair Superflo VS variable speed pump Model 342001. All of my eyeball fittings are the flexible nozzles that change diameter as the pump speed increases.

The pool has two 1.5" suctions lines (one from the bottom drains and one from the skimmer) that come above ground to a hard tee then go into the pump with 1.5" piping. The entire system is 1.5" piping then it splits off to two 1.5" zones of return jets (one that has 2 jets at the steps and one that has 4 jets at other locations).

I'm an engineer type and I would have thought the improvement going from 1.5" to 2" for the above ground piping would be dramatic. Those tees seem like a serious choke point.

[PoolDoc]

If you are an engineer type, you might be better off using some of the free online pipe and flow calculators to do your own rough hydraulic analysis. There are a bunch of them out there.

But, it's hard to do, with residential gear: the piping is no problem, but the supplied equipment flow data range from poor to unavailable.

I've done such calculations many times, but for large commercial pools. When I tried, this spring, to do them for some idealized residential pool / pump / filter combos, I was stymied by the lack of meaningful data.

I suspect some of this is deliberate: the VS pumps are often way, way too big for the piping or filters with which they are coupled. And when they are occasionally, even by accident, run at full volume, they are bursting pipes and valves, splitting filters, destroying cartridges, and back washing sand out all over the ground.

Obviously, that's not something for which the pump makers want to stand up, and take the credit!