What is The Ideal Run Time For My Pool Pump

Simply put, no matter how long you run your swimming pool pump, you will not get all of the water from the pool, through the filter, and back out again. So does run time matter? Yes and no. Technically speaking you should try to get at least one cycle of water through the pool, 2-3 cycles all the better as you can see from the study I am referencing below.
00:00 Introduction
01:09 Run Time Rule of Thumbs
04:15 Scientific Study of Turnover
09:20 Reasons for Pool Turnover
12:08 Running Longer Higher Electricity Cost
13:25 Off-Season Run Time
14:40 Study Results Point to Better Filters
16:20 Ideal Time of Day to Run the Pool
18:09 Upgrade to a VS pump with a Flow Meter
20:11 Reasonable Run Time
To calculate a cycle of water you usually need a flow meter attached to your pool equipment. As a rule of thumb 50, GPM is about the average with a single-speed pump running at the full 3450 RPM. You can get a ballpark and use this formula if you do not have a flow meter on your equipment.
Pool size/ 50 Gallons Per Minute/ 60 minutes. Here is an example with a 20,000-gallon pool:
20,000 Gal / 50 GPM /60 minutes = 6 hours and 30 minutes
So a cycle of water will go through the pool once every 6.5 hours. But how much pool water actually will go through the filter and then back into the pool? Here is the study abstract for you.
The primary objective of this study was to conduct a quantitative analysis of the hydraulic efficiency of a 1:25 bench-scale swimming pool and to determine whether the recirculation efficiency could be increased by modifying parameters such as turnover rate, inlet/out configuration, and extent of mixing within the pool. Salt tracer studies were conducted using KCl to determine the residence time distribution and describe the hydraulic characteristics of the pool. The results indicated that the removal of the tracer always followed an exponential decay curve, i.e. 63, 86, and 95% for the first, second, and third turnover periods, respectively. In the majority of experiments, the exponential decay rate matched the inverse of the theoretical hydraulic detention time of the system. The results showed that none of the investigated parameters had any significant impact on the tracer removal efficiency. Increasing removal efficiencies of current treatment technologies such as sand and cartridge filters from approximately 25-90% would provide significant improvements in the rate of removal of Cryptosporidium-sized particles. Improving the treatment efficiency beyond 90% would have little additional impact, but further improvements could be achieved by decreasing the system turnover rate.
Read the full study here: iwaponline.com...
Does this mean we simply give up on the one cycle through the filter since it only gets 63% of the water through and will never really reach 100% (based on the study only 95% can be reached)? Certainly not. Since the whole reason for circulation is to prevent bather to bather disease the longer you can run your pool increases the prevention of disease. You also prevent algae and poor water quality (cloudy water) by running your pool as much as possible each day during the season.
This study just shows that you need to be aware of the fact that short run times are not effective for your pool. The longer run times the better. If you are worried about electricity costs switching to a Variable Speed (VS) pump would be a smart thing to do.
Visit my Website: www.swimmingpoo...
eBook: www.swimmingpo...
UA-cam Video Index: poolmandave.blo... - A list of all of my videos.
Blogger: poolmandave.blo...
Facebook: / swimmingpoollearning
Twitter: / mrdgvb1
Join me on Patreon: / poolguycoaching
Podcast: www.buzzsprout....
Podcast Website: www.thepoolguy...
Coaching Site: poolguycoachin...
Shop at Leslie's: Leslie’s Pool Supplies has been do-it-yourselfers and pool trade professionals trusted partner since 1963, providing quality products and services to make pool care easy and solutions and expertise to do it right. lesliespool.com...

[@rickhanna2606]

Hi David,thank you for all you do to help people who have pools and that take care of them,we are new pool owners and I have been taking care of it myself for about 4 months,I run our 19k gal pool 4hrs at 3450,3hrs at 2500 and 4 hrs at 1800,we live in nor/Cal and its hot most of summer,that seems to be working so far,I bought Bob Lowrys books for pool care and listen to your podcasts and utubes,thanks for everything,you've been a real help to me

[@mayorb3366]

The short, and very ambiguous answer is to run your pump as long as it needs to.
Bather load, dogs, ambient fauna, all factor in. Low stressed pools can run on as little as 3 hours a day in summer. Once water temps get below 70, a few hours a week.

[@drdrew3]

The only way to know with certainty how long you must run your specific system would be through simple experimentation: Each week drop the run time by an hour. When you start to identify problems you revert back the the prior week’s run time. That way you use only the electricity that you need and maximize the service life of your pump motor.

[@socratesvela8285]

My experience is , if you don't run it enough cuz you worry about saving money on electricity, it will cost you in chemicals. One year, i was trying to get away with just running all night, but eventually i got the green monster. Greem monsters alway will cost $$$ to get it out.

[@giovannidigitalart]

I've been running the pool at night 12am to 3am and then at 10am to 1pm. I brush the pool at 10am. Thinking al those brushed particles will go through the filter. I live in Vegas. This is a 12000 volume pool. Does this make sense? Feels like running over night might not be right.

[@SPL]

Would suggest running it during the day and also trying a suction side cleaner.

[@giovannidigitalart]

@@SPL thanks. I'll switch back to day time

[@Fgalvezpool]

One problem running at night is that something may break or large leak and you provlt be sleeping

[@619caliman]

3 hours if your pool is balanced if used longer.