How many hours a day should i have my pool pump on?

Question

how many hours a day (or night) should i have my pool pump on?

right now i have it at 10hours. is that to long?

and how much an hour should it be? there charging me 65cents a hour is that normal?

thanks:)

Answer 1

actually the pumps we sell in our store (hayward) are made to run 24/7 but you could save a little on their life when you are in the pool to turn them off because you are stirring the water and keeping things moving and then just turn it back on when you are all out.

Answer 2

.65 cents an hour is not normal.....

i keep mine on 24/7 all summer long

Answer 3

Depends on the type of pump and the way its set up with the filters.  Many pool filters work best if they have water circulation constantly, 24-hours per day, which means the pump should run 24/7 except when down for maintenance or during the off season.

65 cents an hour to power your pump sounds very high.   Are you sure about that figure?  Could it possibly be 65 cents per kilowatt-hour?  That would still be high, but your backyard pool pump could not possibly be consuming that much electricity.

Answer 4

Ideally, you ought to run it 24/7. If you absolutely must turn it off or you have it on a timer, ensure that you at least get 18 hours per day run time. Residential pool pumps are sized so that they will turn over the entire pool volume 1.5 times in a 24 hour period. An 18 hour run time, ensures that your water turns over once. That means that it all gets filtered and sanitized( if you have a inline or offline chlorinator). Pretty important. Not having enough of either may mean that you spend more money on chemicals to keep the pool clear, than you would have in the first place by just running the pump 24/ 7.

65 cents per hour is absolutely insane. Can't be that high. Possibly for a 3 Hp max rated booster pump, but not a 1 or 1 1/2 hp filter pump even if it was wired low volt. They only draw a maximum of 13 amps or so and that's on start up, they usually settle down to under 8 amps.

Answer 5

What do you mean "there charging me 65cents a hour".

Is there an hour meter on the pump?

If it is, a separate charge, then the cost of many different items may be included in the pump charge.   chemicals, replacement of filters, replacement of pump (eventually), maintenance,  etc. etc.

find out the gallons per hour of the pump at the suction and discharge pressures you see, divide that into the total size of the pool to get the number of hours to filter all the water once per day.

Answer 6

I have a salt water pool I have my pump running 15 hours a day on a timer 6am- 9pm during spring, summer, autumn. During the winter I have it running 8am-4pm. When I re-salt and put in the  chemicals I leave it running 24 hours straight. 65cents an hour is really expensive to run a pool pump, they normally only use as much power a very small bar fridge per quarter. A electric bar heater or clothes dryer uses more power in an hour than a pool pump running 24/7 for a week. If your pool isn't used too much 10 hours a day is alright as long as you have a normal ph.