Pump Schedule Question / Poll

[roll tide]

What is / are the best times to run the pump? I've generally been running mine from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. However, I'm considering a switch to 10 p.m. to 10 a.m.

Is it better to run it at night, daytime, etc? My heaviest use times are afternoons. My kids, even though they and their mother are home all day in the summer, don't swim much until after 4 p.m.

Thanks for the help.

18 x 36 rectangle pool with a vinyl liner, Polaris AutoClear SWG.

[tonyl]

I tried running ours at midnight to 8 a.m. for a month and didn't care for it.

We didn't like that swimming at 4pm with nightly pump ops there are big time hot spots in the water.

I went back to 9am to 5pm. I'm in full sun but didn't see any problems with night vs. day. We just preferred circulation during pool usage.

Hope this helps, Tony

[dawndenise]

According to one of Ben's articles on maintaining an algae-free pool, he recommends running the pump at least 6 hours per day in 2 different time periods.

That said, I'm a new pool owner and my pool is just over a month old. The first 2 weeks were 24/7. I'm currently running my pump from 7PM to 5AM and again from 11AM to 1PM for a total of 12 hours. Basically, it's because the best time for me to add chlorine and any other chemicals is about 7 or 8, after the sun is off the pool. Then, of course, I want to keep the pump on so the chemicals can be adequately dissolved and dispersed. We're also open to the great world of wildlife behind us as our landscaping project finishes up, so I really want the noise of the pump (not much, really) to hopefully deter any critters from coming to visit. Knock on wood, so far, so good.

The 11-1 period is just for me, so I have a chance to see the waterfall during the day, as it's on the same pump as the pool.

When the fence is back up and we have a barrier to wildlife, I'll probably adjust my run times to 4PM to 1AM and 8AM to 1PM. As the weather gets "cooler" all run times will be adjusted downward, maybe even earlier. Right now, I just do not want any algae, so I'm probably overdoing the pump time but my electric company loves me .

[aquarium]

Two runtimes:

4 AM to 7 AM

3 PM to 8 PM

For a total of eight hours. I run the booster pump for the Polaris for two hours in the middle of the early morning runtime so that it is running in an off-peak electric demand period.

[aylad]

I'm somewhat lazier--I turn mine on when I get home from work in the morning, and off when I leave for work at night (or go to bed, on my off days). So I guess it averages 8 or 9 AM to 6 or 7 pm. The exception to this is during the hottest part of the summer, because I'm in Louisiana and my pool temp right now is in the 90's (read: hot tub) so I turn it on when I leave at night and off in the morning. Helps cool the water.

Janet