Dual Speed or a Variable Speed for a plain Jane pool.

[Lip Out]

The savings you will get from a two speed or VS speed pump and which pump would be better for you depends on several factors so I have a few questions first:


How long do you currently run your pump?

What is your current pump pressure?

How high above/below is the pump relative to the water level ?

How far is it from the pump to the pool?

What do you pay in electrical costs $/kwh

Does your energy company offer any rebates for VS or two speed pumps?

I run it for 4 hours every night (per the direction of a friend that is a pool guy).

When the DE is fresh it is at 10-12 psi.

The pump sits on grade level. So i would say just a few inches, 8" tops.

The pump is 20'-22' away from the pool.

We have 3 rates, but since I run it at midnight it is $0.103500/kwh.

They do offer a rebate, $200.

Chris

[mas985]

Here are my estimates,

Current Setup:

1.8 Turnovers/day
200 kwh/month
$21/month


Two Speed Pump (WFDS-24):

1.8 Turnovers/day - 30 minutes on high & 6.5 hours on low
99 kwh/month
$10.24/month


Intelliflo:

1.8 Turnovers/day - 30 minutes @ 2700 RPM & 9 hours @ 1000 RPM
61 kwh/month
$6.36/month


So either pump would save you energy costs and the Intelliflo a little more. You could also save even more if you reduced the runtime to one turnover per day.

Given there is a rebate for the Intelliflo and you can find one with a timer for less than $900, it probably makes more sense to go with the Intelliflo.

[Lip Out]

Wow Mark, thanks. I sent some pictures over to the email provided above. Hopefully the plumbing will work with the Intelliflo.

Is there a website that you folks recommend over others for quality, customer service and price?

again thanks.

[PoolDoc]

Your photos:

[Lip Out]

Thanks Ben. I plan on redoing the plumbing and electrical this spring. Is there anything that anybody sees that I should change or add? I am not to sure what that 1" or 1 1/4" is that is capped of. I assume it is for a threaded outlet on the inside of the pool on the side that does nothing right now, but not sure what is supposed to do.

[PoolDoc]

Mark's already started; I'm going to let him work with you on the details if that's OK.

[mas985]

The capped line was probably a pressure side cleaner line at one time. They may have capped it off because it was leaking so if you want to make that active again, I would pressure test the line first to make sure there isn't a leak.

It looks like whomever plumbed the heater took some short cuts. You could fix this pretty easily by dropping the 3-way valve to the same the level as the heater exit so you could eliminate a 90 and the coupler but you would probably need a new 3-way valve to upsize the branch line. This could be a future project at some point since it is completely independent of the pump and I would only redo it if you plan on plumbing in the cleaner line.

As for the pump, the replumb should be fairly simple and you have enough line after the suction side 3-way so you shouldn't need to touch that. Just make sure you use at least 2" line on the pressure side, replace all the pipe from the pump to the filter, and it looks like the suction side may be 2.5" so carry that through the suction side if possible.

Also, do you have a spa? That would change the two speed choice if you decide to go that route. Otherwise the Intelliflo would handle that fairly well.