Best Times To Run Pool Pump

[vistana]

I would like some advice on the best times of day to run our pool pump, as I have been getting a lot of conflicting advice!

We currently run it for 6 hours a day: 8am to 11am and then 5pm to 8pm.

Its a salt water pool with a capacity of about 10,000 litres.

Any advice would be welcome from the pool experts out there.

Regards

[johnnyk]

10,000 litres is a small pool.

Mine is about 20,000 litres and I run the pump 4 hours in every 24 (7-9am and 7-9pm) which is sufficient for that size.

[Naam]

10,000 litres is a small pool.

Mine is about 20,000 litres and I run the pump 4 hours in every 24 (7-9am and 7-9pm) which is sufficient for that size.

the size (water volume) of a pool has nothing to do with pump running hours which depend on up to a dozen different factors such as pool pump capacity, exposure of pool to sunshine, water temperature, number of persons using the pool, etc., etc., etc.

the OP claims he has a "saltwater pool" which is a general and often used misconception/misnomer. what he has is a chlorinator which generates chlorine by deriving it from salt by electrolysis. in that respect he is bound to use his pump for a certain minimum time to make sure enough chlorine is generated. as far as the timings (when to run the pump) are concerned the factors mentioned above apply. rendering general advice is not possible.

[vistana]

Sorry guys.... given wrong info, the pool is about 33,000 litres and as Naam stated yes it is a salt water Chlorinator, so we do have to run the pump for about 6 or 7 hours, but what I want to know is what is the best time of day to have the pump running. Some people say you should have it running during sunlight hours while others have said run it late afternoon when the sun has gone down.

So any advice on what other people are doing who have a similar salt water Chlorinator would be most welcome.

[tollgate]

I'm no expert on this. I have had my pool nearly 5 months. It's 43,000 litres, outdoor, but not salt water Chlorinated.

I've been running the pump for 5 hours a day - 10.00am - 12.30 pm and 3.00pm - 5.30 pm and it's been working fine for me. This turns over the water almost twice.

If we swim in the evening I turn the pump back on to help skim off insects attracted to the lights.

As Naam says, you cannot generalise and I think you have to experiment a bit to find out what works best for you, but I beleive it's good practice to run the pump enough to turn the water over twice per 24 hours.

[cheshiremusicman]

I'm no expert on this. I have had my pool nearly 5 months. It's 43,000 litres, outdoor, but not salt water Chlorinated.

I've been running the pump for 5 hours a day - 10.00am - 12.30 pm and 3.00pm - 5.30 pm and it's been working fine for me. This turns over the water almost twice.

If we swim in the evening I turn the pump back on to help skim off insects attracted to the lights.

As Naam says, you cannot generalise and I think you have to experiment a bit to find out what works best for you, but I beleive it's good practice to run the pump enough to turn the water over twice per 24 hours.

My pool has a capacity of 100,000+ Liters and has been in operation for some 5+ years now. I took advice when I moved into the villa and added 'Cyan auric Acid' to the pool. This acts like a kind of 'sunscreen' and helps to reduce the rate at which the chlorine is reconverted back into salt by the action of the UV rays and therefore you can reduce the pump running time because of this. I have got some notes somewhere regarding the parts per million that was recommended and I think from memory it was 50ppm. Again from memory, you only put the cyan auric acid in once (unless of course you drain your pool for any reason), but I suppose that it would be wise to check the ppm after a few years to see if you need to add some more, because of top ups etc. I run my pump for 4 hours a day morning and late afternoon, when presumably the reconversion of chlorine to salt is at it strongest.

[vistana]

Thanks for the advice, I will try to find a pool shop in Hua Hin that sells stabilizer/conditioner.

How do I test how much if any is in the pool already? can you buy test strips for this.

Keep those replies coming.

Regards

[cheshiremusicman]

Thanks for the advice, I will try to find a pool shop in Hua Hin that sells stabilizer/conditioner.

How do I test how much if any is in the pool already? can you buy test strips for this.

Keep those replies coming.

Regards

I have never seen test strips for this, but GDL pools have a tester that uses the opacity of the solution in a test vessel to determine the ppm's. I am still trying to find my notes, but I seem to remember that I have put 2.5 kgs into 100,000 Liters.

The advice I was given, was to make sure that you DO NOT overdue this, and it is better to put half of the calculated amount in and retest after about 4 weeks and then increase it again if required.

[vistana]

So if we took a sample of our water to GDL they could test it for us?

Any idea about costs involved in buying stabilizer/conditioner.... as our pool is a lot smaller than yours we would need a lot less than the 2.5 kilos you put in your pool.

Thanks for your help.

Regards

[cheshiremusicman]

So if we took a sample of our water to GDL they could test it for us?

Any idea about costs involved in buying stabilizer/conditioner.... as our pool is a lot smaller than yours we would need a lot less than the 2.5 kilos you put in your pool.

Thanks for your help.

Regards

Yes, as far as I know they are still capable of testing for this.

I have just found my notes and this is the way that you calculate the weight of 'cyan auric acid' required in grams.

50 x volume of water of the pool in liters / 1000.

So if your pool is 33,000 Liters it would work out at 1,650 grams or 1.65 Kg, say 1.5Kg.

Cost wise, it was 1,000 Baht per 1 Kg in 2007.

I bought this as a powder and mixed it well with water to form a light 'sludge' and then added it slowly to the skimmer boxes of the pool from a bucket, to help it mix in and left the pump running for 12 hours afterwards. I see from my notes that I started with 2.5 Kg and added another 1 Kg about 5 weeks afterwards.

I hope this info helps.

[vistana]

Thanks very much for that helpful information, i will go and buy a couple of kilos of it and try it out.

Regards

Vistana

[robertsonmartin]

Good information on quantity of cyanuric acid to use in the attachment. It has tables at the back to show what quantities of chemicals to use depending on what you want to raise or lower per pool size. It might help a few people.

Pool Manager Handbook (LaMotte).pdf

Edited August 20, 2012 by robertsonmartin

[David006]

don't have pool here but in tropical Queensland ran my salt water chlorinator /filter pump/waterfall about 4 hours in the evening on the advise of pool shop..whenever it started to look a bit sick just took a bottle of sample water from about 2 ft down to shop and they decided what treatment was necessary ( of course they were selling the chemicals etc..lol) ..Whatever they told/sold me to do seemed to work so .....?