On Fri, 16 Sep 2011 06:19:20 -0700, Winston
wrote:

wolfgang wrote:

(...)

To run the pump is about $400 for 6 months. I've tried to put the
pump on a timer but during hot weather the water doesn't like it and
turns green.

It appears that a larger pump and an extra inlet/outlet would be the
fix for that. The small one is just not up to the job.


I wonder if adding ozone to the water would allow you to run the
pump less?

http://www.aqua-pool-warehouse.com/c...Generators.asp

I know nothing about these units but they look promising.

Dad had an ozonator on the spa he had and it worked fantastically. It
allowed him to minimize chlorine and other chemical use.

He also had a 100' length of plain old 1/2" poly tubing stapled to a
black painted sheet of plywood which he used as a solar heater. It
dropped his heating costs to zero about 10 months a year, but that was
in sunny LoCal.


I'm afraid to cycle the pump more than once every three
hours or so as this shortens the starting switch life expectancy.

We had our pool pump on a daily timer for about a decade.
The motor was perfectly fine throughout that time.

Our first house in CA had an in-ground pool, and I think the filter
ran 4 hours a day. It was a 16x24' oval with an 8' deep end. Pool
timers are built for that.

--
Self-development is a higher duty than self-sacrifice.
-- Elizabeth Cady Stanton