Filter Run-time Schedule

[chinewalker]

Hey everyone-

We just set up a used 18' round pool. (approx 7000 gal) I've been getting great info on getting the chemicals figured out. Everyone has been a great help.

Now I have another question: What kind of schedule should I be on for running the pool filter and what external factors should alter that schedule? For example, today it is rainy and storming. Should the pump be running during all of that? Is it acceptable to set it up on a timer and then override the timer when necessary? Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Keith

[Watermom]

Typically most people run the pump for 8-10 hours per day. You can break it down into two 4 or 5 hour sessions. I have mine on a timer and usually just run it from about noon til 8pm. I sometimes override the timer but even if it is rainy, I still run it but with my solar turned off. Rainy days are often when algae gets started from lack of attention from the pool owner and the chlorine getting too low and also from lack of circulation if the pump is off. You don't really want to go all day with no circulation.

Currently, my pool is too hot (91 degrees) so I am not running my solar for a few days. 91 is ok for a nightime swim but too hot for a daytime swim. I looked at my thermometer on my deck a little earlier this afternoon and it was 99.4. HOT!!

[aylad]

PPhhhttt.......that's a cold front....my thermometer reads 104!!

[Phillbo]

your pool is 104 ? you in Iraq?

[aylad]

lol, feels like it sometimes!! Actually my pool temp was 94....air temp 104, heat index 109. It's HOT down here!

[CarlD]

Worst day I ever saw was in NYC in 1975...on Staten Island. It was 114 and the air was so thick you could barely see the sun. I was working as a stage-hand (like a roadie) for the New York Shakespeare Festival's Mobile Theater and we were setting up the theater in a parking lot near the beach. Guys would work for 30 minutes then go sit under the boardwalk and try to hydrate and recover--and we had been doing this most of the summer.
There was nothing called a "Heat Index" then...it was just HOT!!!

Growing up in the NY area, and then later living in NC and then the DC area, heat and humidity ALWAYS came together. No such thing as "dry heat" wherever I lived so, when they say "It's 90 but with the heat index it feels like 97" I say, no, this is what 90 ALWAYS feels like to me...97 feels much, MUCH worse than this. Maybe in Arizona and New Mexico they can get that "dry heat" that doesn't feel so hot, but I've never really experienced that. So I never pay attention to heat index calculation.

(all I can think of is Robin Williams in "Good Morning, Viet Nam!" saying "It's Hot! It's always Hot!")

Meanwhile, the idea is to circulate your water at least twice a day. How long is kind of complicated because you have to figure flow rates of the pump, the filter, the ACTUAL flow rate of water through the system in gallons per minute, then how many minutes it takes to process all the water in your pool and how many hours that translates to (if your pump moves water at 30gpm, it takes 4 hours to do one cycle of 7000 gallons). So it's probably safe to figure two 6 hour cycles per day. If that's not enough, extend the daylight one to 8, or 10 (if you do 10 or 12 day hours that you can try cutting the night hours to 4). You'll learn over time what is "not enough" time.

Carl