Nobody wants to swim in a dirty pool. Your pool might be a carrier of infections like cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, dysentery, among others. Swimming pools can cause many infections like ear, throat, and nose infections and severe skin infections.
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Pool pumps play a critical role in ensuring our swimming pools are well sanitized by guaranteeing the necessary chemicals’ proper supply. It is said that they are the heart of the swimming pool. The water flow starts from the pool to the filter, heater, and later the chlorinator to be filtered, heated, and cleaned before entering into the pools. They have motors that spin the impeller that causes the suctioning. Let’s take a look at some of the factors to consider before buying a pump and this will guide you in making several mistakes.
1. Speed
You first have to know how many gallons of water are in your pool, helping find the turnover rate. A pump should run at the rate of 1 hour for every 10 degrees of air temperature when a single filter pump is used. There are three kinds of pumps; speed pumps, two-speed pumps, and variable pumps. A one-speed pump runs at 3450 revolutions per minute while the variable runs at 600 revolutions per minute. The higher the speed, the higher the noise produced. Therefore, it is advisable to use a lower rate. Running your pump faster will have many benefits like saving energy and money and reducing the noise level associated with the traditional pumps. It expands the life of your equipment by reducing wear and tear. It will thus be less susceptible to algae buildup and, at most, ensuring cleaner water.
2. Size
The volume of the pool determines size. You need to know how many water gallons are pumped per hour to clean all the water in your pool in eight hours. A pool pump needs to be properly fit for the plumbing and filter. Choosing the right pump depends on the measure of your pool, water in the pool, minimum flow rate, and the maximum flow rate. Purchasing a bigger pump will increase the operation cost or even overpowering the filter system. Sizes range from 0.75 horsepower to 2.0 horsepower. The smaller the pool, the more negligible the pump you’ll need.
3. Cost
Installation cost ranges from $700-$1500. A single-speed pump is cheaper to replace, costing as low as $500, while a high end requires at least $5500. You can find both electrical and solar- powered pumps depending on the customer’s preference. Pumps use the most energy compared to the other pieces of equipment, so it’s also advisable to go for the energy-saving with efficient hydraulics and speed to cut energy costs. The electricity bill can go up to $300 per year. Homes with swimming pools are estimated to consume up to 49% more electricity than other homes.
4. Durability
Maintenance always costs more than buying; therefore, it’s good to go for the ones with a longer lifespan. Monitoring the use of your tools results in greater efficiency and durability. There are a few factors that affect how long a pump may last before they wear out. Some of the ways that might cause a pump to fail to include letting the pump run dry, causing a lot of pressure damaging the impeller, or the seal is bringing the pump to a halt. More destructions result from frozen or flooded pumps, wrong size pump, insect infestation, among others. They usually go up to 10-12 years before needing replacement. You’ll know if your pump needs replacement if it starts producing rumbling sounds, grinding and screeching sounds, it may blow bubbles and spitting water, and pinhole leaks.
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5. Vendor
No one wants to buy something that will fail after only a few weeks of service. It is advisable to buy pumps from recognized suppliers. Different vendors use different manufacturing products, which explains the durability of different pumps. Cheap is expensive- you may be tempted to go for the low-priced commodity only to find it requires a lot of maintenance. Reliability, efficiency, energy-saving, and ease of maintenance are additional values that will save on cost. Some companies, through research, can come up with more advanced pumps with low vibrations, a wide choice of flexibility of use, i.e. manual or automated operations.
There are different kinds of pool pumps; booster pumps, self-priming pumps, variable pumps, and flooded suction pumps. A swimming pool is as good as its pump; a higher-performing pump means an efficient pool. The following are among the best pumps you can select; Hayward SP2302VSP (1.5 horsepower and a variable speed), Hayward SP15932S (1.5 horsepower and a dual-speed), Pentair 342001 Superflow (1.5 horsepower and a variable speed), Hayward SP2303VSP ((1.65 horsepower and a variable speed), all the best in your next purchase
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