Pool Pump Update

[crokett]

The pump is circulating the water right now. I got the inlet hooked up to the drain and it works right nicely. Now I want to see if I can get the basket hooked up to the inside.

Irony is I treated the water so after digging post holes and pouring concrete today I couldn't go swimming.

[jAngiel]

What was the obsticle for going through the drain? I haven't tried it but is seems that you could rig up something with pvc that goes like 1 inch to 5/8 to 1 inch so that the 5/8 would fit snug through the drain (maybe use some teflon tape) and then use an "reducer" fitting to increase it up to an inch or inch and a half to attach the hoses.

Yeah, I know ideally you wouldn't want to reduce the pipe size for a pump but in reality the pump is sort of a POS pump anyway and I don't really think it would hurt it. You do lose a little of the volume but you would get a little boost from the static (I think) pressure pushing the water into the pump via the drain being on the bottom of the volume of the pool.

That was just my thinking on it anyway. BTW are you trying to go over the top with the hoses or are you going through the existing ports which would make it at least a little closer to the water and thus easier on the pump?

[crokett]

I was using the existing pool ports.

Issues with using the drain are that the threads on the outside of the drain are non-standard. I looked at it but do not want to put a piece of pipe through the drain since no high-confidence way to make sure it does not leak. It just seems easier to rig something for the sump pump. Plus since the sump pump moves 1800 GPH and the pool pump only moves 800, it will filter the water in less than half the time of the pool pump.

[Jeffrey Schronce]

The pumps that come with those pools are practically worthless. Your idea of attaching another pump to the filter is a good one. As you noted in the other thread, I would have this unit unplugged while the pool is in use. The revised pump should actually be able to clean the pool a little. The original pump likely did nothing more than circulate the water.

[Dirty Dave]

David,

I would be willing to bet that your filter is matched to the pump provided. You may be able to push a little more water through it but you will probably not see the results you expect by trying to push 225% more volume through it.

I have been in the pump business for over 26 years and have experience in almost every type of pump application there is so the advice I gave you didn't come from out of the blue.

You said you got the original pump primed. Did it run contineously or did it just pump a slug of water through it? I still believe that your best bet given what you are wanting to do with using the pool at a lower water level, is to adapt the suction and discharge pipe so both are below the water level. Evacuate all of the air out of the suction line and the pump case making sure they are full of water. When the pump runs it will fill the discharge side. Once that has happened, the system should work and you will not have to re-prime the pump.

[crokett]

Dave,

A slug of water. I connected a hose inside the pool that ran down to the water but at one point it came out of the water and air got in. The next time after I turned the pump off all the water drained out of that hose and I had to reprime when I restarted the pump.

There is not a way to rework the ports except to maybe use the drain as the intake. I don't see a way to do that because those threads are non-standard.

I don't want to have to reprime each time but more importantly this needs to be simple enough that my wife can do this. She can certainly handle putting the sump pump in the pool and plugging it in.

I don't really care how long it takes to filter the pool - I'd always planned to put the pump on a timer and run it overnight anyway. So if the filter only lets the 800 gph of water through, that is fine with me.

[Dirty Dave]

So you are able to run the pump once it primes. Without seeing what you have, it is difficult to give you good directions on how to connect things. Is it possible to get a rubber pipe connector that is used with clamps in a size close enough to your discharge connections that you could thread it into the pool opening using the pool fitting to cut the threads into the rubber? You could then slip a piece of plastic pipe into the connector and clamp it.

I'm thinking more on the discharge port threading a rubber 90 into it and a pipe down below the water. When the pump is shut off and the water drains back out of the inlet as you discribed, it will pull the same amount of water back throught the discharge pipe if it is submerged keeping the lines and the pump full. Another option would be to install a check valve (or anti syphon valve) in the discharge line before it goes through the pool wall. The check valve lets the water flow in only one direction. When the flow stops, it closes and prevents the line from draing much as putting your thumb over the end of a full soda straw. You could add a weight to the inlet hose to prevent it from poping up or pipe it in a similar manner.

I sincerely believe that will work for you and the pump will operate on a timer as you planned. If it is not possible to somehow connect into the ports in the wall of the pool, your sump pump seems to be your only other option. My caution on pushing too much through the filter goes to damaging the filter or forcing so much through there will be no actual filtering done.

[crokett]

Is it possible to get a rubber pipe connector that is used with clamps in a size close enough to your discharge connections?

D@mn. I don't know why I didn't think of a fernco. I stared at the pool for about an hr last night. I bet that would work fine on the drain, if I can find a coupler that the diameter is close enough. So a fernco on the drain to a short stub to the intake on the pump and the water will gravity feed as it is supposed to do. If I am really good I can figure a way to get the basket filter connected too...

[Dirty Dave]

I'm sure you're good enough to figure it out!

[jAngiel]

I'm curious about the non standard threads, I hooked mine (yeah I used to have one before we had in inground put in) to a garden hose to drain the pool in the back part of the yard.

I see the advantage of the sump pump but was just curious about what you meant by non standard threads.

[crokett]

I'm sure you're good enough to figure it out!

I dunno Dave... I went to Home Depot tonight with the hoses. After 20 minutes messing around all I found out was that a fernco fit the hose but not the drain. I ended up munging something together that would work IF I could get the drain to accept a garden hose. I brought my kludge home, it didn't fit (of course). After some swearing I decided that if I were engineering the pool I'd make the drain to accept a garden hose. So I decided to call Intex to see if they had an adapter. Then I decided to check the box first and lo and behold....

So now all I need is a shutoff and my teflon tape. Only other question is my kludge is a smaller dia. than the pump hose so dunno if it will let enough water into the pump.

[Dirty Dave]

As long as you don't go too much smaller you should be okay. There will be an increase in the volocity and friction in the inlet pipe. If the restriction is too excessive, it can cause cavitation. You can easily tell because the pump will sound like it is pumping marbles. A similar sound occurs when the pump is priming and there is air in the system. Should cavitation occur it can damage the internals of the pump. If you start up and the pump smoothes out, you should be home free.