Do you have your filter on a timer?

[Watermom]

Carl, why would it be part of the building code and required? That seems strange to me. My timer is also wired into my breaker box but I'm not using it too much these days. My geeky friend Poconos installed some kind of outlet control software on my laptop when he was here visiting one time that allows me to turn my pool pump on and off from my computer. How is that for the ultimate in laziness!

[Anonymous [GDPR] European in Spain]

Watermom, perhaps you could get a program to allow "virtual swimming" that way you could save washing towels etc.:-)

[PoolDoc]

Timers are required in "We're your nanny" areas of the country, like California, as a means of enforcing energy savings.

[CarlD]

Carl, why would it be part of the building code and required? That seems strange to me. My timer is also wired into my breaker box but I'm not using it too much these days. My geeky friend Poconos installed some kind of outlet control software on my laptop when he was here visiting one time that allows me to turn my pool pump on and off from my computer. How is that for the ultimate in laziness!

I'll have to look into that!

I don't know why it's code, but it is. And codes about pools are enforced to a very high level. We couldn't build a balcony off our bedroom until we clipped the corners off it and slid it over so that a 10' radius from the corner of the pool couldn't reach the balcony...fear of someone trying to jump from the balcony to the pool? I don't know, but every part of the balcony had to be 10' or more from the water!

I couldn't build the pool closer than 50' to the property line because TECHNICALLY it's attached to the house (it's attached to the deck)...but had it been free-standing, with a path rather than a deck to it, I could have gone to 20' of the property line. I also had to have it parallel to the house, not perpendicular...then my back-fence neighbor was allowed to build THEIR pool perpendicular!

Sometimes, building codes just "are"--can't even put a "nanny state" spin on them because THAT at least has SOME logic, whether you agree with it or not. We have codes that have no discernible reason for existing, but you just have to follow them anyway!

[Gretzky99]

does it matter what time of day you have the timer set for?

[PoolDoc]

2x per day is better than 1; in our area, having an evening run to catch debris from thunder storms (if any) is important.

Just noticed the DE filter -- many DE filters do not handle cycling super well. You'd be better off with a 2-speed pump.

[Leehicks79]

My pump only has one speed. I have been running it 24/7. Will an outdoor timer for Christmas lights work? No codes where I live.

[PoolDoc]

Will an outdoor timer for Christmas lights work? No codes where I live.

Almost certainly not -- a pump timer MUST have a horsepower rating. If it does not, attempting to use the timer will probably just destroy the timer, usually fairly quickly.

[CarlD]

If the pump's draw on electric is too great it could burn out the timer. Depends on how many amps the timer can handle.

[PoolDoc]

Carl, it's more complicated than that.

When you CLOSE the contacts, to turn the a pump motor ON, you can have a high current inrush that is sometimes a full multiple of the maximum running amps. But what tends to kill timers and relays is the induced current overload that results when you OPEN the contacts, to turn the pump OFF. This results in the timer (or relay) having to BREAK a much larger current than the maximum current the circuit carries.

This is the reason a relay that is rated for a 30A resistive load may only be rated for 1HP 110V motor load -- that is nominally about 8 or 9 amps. If you try to use a 10A resistive relay for a 1HP 110v motor load, you'll tend to burn out the contacts very quickly.