Pentair Challenger Energy Efficient Pump

[DanS]

My 8 year old Pentair Challenger 1 HP Full Rated pump #345204 is now very noisy, and I am thinking it is time to replace it. Pentair makes what looks to be a model with comparable specs that is called 'Energy Efficienct' #345205, as opposed to standard.
The energy efficient model is also about $50 cheaper. Does anyone have any experience with this EE model? I expected it to cost more. Is it a good pump compared to the standard? Thanks.

[Watermom]

Anybody have any opinions? Dan, did you buy something yet?

[mas985]

This might be a good oportunity to switch to a two speed pump. The pump you are looking at is a Pentair CHII-NI-1FE which is a decent pump and fairly efficient.

If you are willing to downsize a bit, the CHII-N2-1A is an uprated 1 HP two speed with a little better efficiency on high speed than the CHII-NI-1FE because it is a slightly smaller pump plus it is two speeds. Running on low speed will save you a lot more in energy costs.

Do you have any other features that you will be running besides circulation? Waterfall, spa, cleaners, jets, etc.

[DanS]

I got the energy efficient version of the same pump. It is on the way, so I don't have any more info yet. Pentair told me that it had all of the same power as the original, so I'm not sure why the would have the standard model.