When you become a swimming pool owner, you may not think about how long to run the swimming pool pump. You have so many other items to consider that this part of pool ownership may not have entered your thoughts. How long should he pool pump run is something your pool contractor from Advanced Pools, Inc in Memphis, Tennessee can answer for you — with a bit of calculation!
For some pool owners, depending on how often they use the pool, how well balanced the chemicals are and the overall temperature where they live, running the pool pump and filter 24/7 may make the most sense. That can cost you a lot of money, so don’t do that unless you truly need to!
How long should the pool pump run?
The point of running the pool pump and filter is to “turn over” all of the water in the pool completely, at least once a day. The “turnover rate” of the pool can be difficult to determine for the novice, but your pool contractor can help you with that calculation. On average, your pool filter should turn the water over two to three times a day. With this turnover rate, you can rest assured the water is being properly and completely filtered.
If you go with the “average” rate of two to three times a day and that the pool water will turn over every three to four hours, you can calculate that you should be running the filter for at least twelve hours a day. This will depend on the age of your system and the size of the pool and the amount of gallons of water in the pool, but twelve hours is a rough estimate by which you can get started.
The cost of running a filter will also depend on many factors including: the age of the filter, the time you run the filter (electricity is less expensive during the overnight hours) and whether you’re using a variable speed filter (they are more cost effective than other single speed models). Ask us for an estimate on what it may cost to run your pool pump for twelve hours a day.
If you’re looking at a pool equipment upgrade, you will want to consider a variable speed pump because this will make it much more cost effective to filter the water. With a variable speed pump, it will run at a lower rate of speed when it is performing a task like filtering the water and at a higher speed if you’re vacuuming the pool.
Bottom line — the average amount of time to run a pool pump and filter is twelve hours a day but ask us for a more personalized time frame the next time we pay a service visit.
