Help Pick A New Pump?

[ThrottleAbuse]

So my old pump a DuraGlassII 2 hp units motor died the other day. I took the motor off and noticed the start capacitor was melted. After talking to a local pool shop the said I could replace the capacitor, but the armature was probably toast and was causing the short. So I know I can get a new motor for about $270 shipped. I was thinking with the rebates, my high electricity bill ($500-600/month), and old pump design that it may be worth looking at a new pump. The guy recommended I go with a Jandy Stealth 2 speed in 1.5 hp. He quoted me about $850 for the pump, $200 for a relay, and 2.5-3 hrs for the install. ~$1300 total and I would be up and running with a more efficient setup. Said I could save anywhere from $35-$100/month in electricity.

So I got my gears turning and wanted to do some research on what to do with this. And I rather try and do it myself as I known I can find better deals (quoted me $350 on the motor) on stuff and can figure out how to install it with a little help from the web. So here is the rundown on my pool. It is a 14,000 gallon pool and hot tub combo. The tub has a separate pump (dynaglass IIRC) for the jets. I have a heater, and a solar cell on my roof on the second story. The pool also has a second waterfall (tub to pool being the first) and is cleaned with a Polaris 360 all running on a Compool 3600 unit. It is also a salt pool with a turbocell and aqua rite control and a sta-rite system 3 modular media filter. The second waterfall is turned on manually when I want to turn off the cleaner. The Compool is setup to heat the pool with solar till its whatever temperature I set then there is a automatic valve the shuts the solar off. Also turning on the spa is automated and fires up the heater and controls two other auto valves.

So I am thinking I could get a 2 speed or variable unit and try and hook it up so that it runs the Polaris cleaner and solar for a few hours a day to keep the pool warm for the kids then run at a lower setting for the rest of the day keeping the pool filtered and chlorinated. If I do this it will maybe make the pool a little cooler as I generally run the solar all the time so the pool is warm 85 degrees plus here in San Diego. Is there maybe a better alternative? If I go for this setup with the current controller how would I set it up. Should I be looking at the Intelliflo, stealth 2 hp 2 speed, any others? What do you guys think? Anything I am missing or should look for? Is it worth the upgrade? Thanks.

[soxlover]

I say go with the Intelliflo VF. I'm not sure if it will communicate with your Compool, but it doesn't matter since the VF model has it's own controller built in. You can program all of your equipment to turn on and off whenever you want directly thru the pump's software.

[ThrottleAbuse]

So I spent the last 5+ hours looking at all this stuff. LOL should have just paid someone to look at it and give me a recommendation. That is if they knew wtf they were talking about.

Before I found the intellicomm thing I was thinking I would simply get a Intelliflo VS+SVRS unit for $1155 with the timer and set it up so that is would run for about 2 hours in the morning pushing Polaris around and pumping into the spa to pool overflow, solar, filter, etc. Then I can get a high speed pump relay for about $110 to run a high speed then see if I can get the solar valve actuator to trigger to the lower speed for when the solar isn't running. This would be a much more efficient setup for $1265 bucks. Or I could do a similar setup to this without the timer for the pool cleaner and a Intelliflo VS 3050 model. Simply have the high speed for when the solar is on and the low speed the cleaner, filter, spa to pool overflow, etc. This would run me about $870 for the pump and $110 for the relay and a total of $980

I had not realized there was this Intelliflo VF model out there. Looks like it can be had for about $1265. I could simply set the flow rate and be done right? I was thinking if I could get the Compool unit to turn the spa/pool cleaner valve as a separate program I would be set. Doesn't look exactly possible without another valve actuator, but I am going to call pentair tomorrow and ask. This would further increase the savings and not need to be interfaced. I could simply set the timer on the Compool to correspond to the VF's timer and have the VF turn on and do its thing. This way when the solar would be off it would lower its speed. When the cleaner was off it would reduce even further. Only odd thing would be when running the hot tub it be flowing a ton of water, but I guess thats probably good because it would heat the water as my old 2 hp pump did right?

So I can get the intellicomm II unit to interface directly with my compool and they are both pentair products so it will work pretty well. Now I am wondering if I really need to connect the two. The Intellicom II interface is about $229 so it may be worth it in the first two systems, but probably not the VF system. I missed the intellicomm idea in the other pump thread that I saw that was here the first time I read it. Any reason to get the VF and the intellicomm II module? I am hoping I don't need it and the system will still function. I am going to ask the pentair guys tomorrow. Sure looks like the VF is the most energy efficient way of doing it and if I can skip the extra $229 for the interface that would be sweet. From pentair site it says I am doing 8 hrs and 2.98 turns a day for a cost of ~$2000 per year at the $0.32/Kw I am getting raped at. They say I should only run it for 2.7 hrs a day and a cost of $658 a year. It says the intelliflo VF would run for 5 hrs a day for 1 turn and cost $158 a year to run. So I figure if I ran it at the 3 turns a day like my current pump I would still be at only $474 a year and saving ~$1500 a year.

Am I missing anything? I just don't want to buy something that I don't need or won't work right.

[Pathfinder]

When you call Pentair speak to someone from tech not customer service & if they cant answer your questions ask to be referred over to someone in commercial tech. You may have to leave your number but they will call & you will get proper answers. The folks at Pentair when I call are awesome I hope its that way with the public as well.

[jughead]

i would be careful doing all this spending to save a buck . last i heard from my distributor is that there is only a 1 year warranty on the intelliflo pumps . also i heard pentair might not continue making replacement boards for the compools but another company might pick it up . reason why i am saying this is i would be more concerned that the pool is running at its best and with a polaris 360 and i think you say 1 solar panel ( it works out ok with just one ? )on the second floor roof you are going to need some good flow . i know im a bad saleman but its just my opinion that making sdg&e and pentair happy is great but making up for the cost of all this is not gauranteed . with the title 20 law unfortunatley you will have to go with a variable or dual speed if you decide to switch out the pump .not sure if they are inforcing that yet but it is the law . usually on a pool/spa combo a 2 pump system works great alowing for a small hp circ pump and a big hp jet pump but the polaris 360 and the solar screws that up

[Pool Clown]

When you call Pentair speak to someone from tech not customer service & if they cant answer your questions ask to be referred over to someone in commercial tech. You may have to leave your number but they will call & you will get proper answers. The folks at Pentair when I call are awesome I hope its that way with the public as well.

From reading this forum for a while, i'm thinking not so awesome. Pentair is always great to me too. You would think it would be in their best interest to be more helpful to the public, I hear owners barely get what they need as far as diagnosis if they get through (long wait times).