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I have a salt water pump system - the Krystal Clear .3 hp 1,600 GHP system flow, and I'm trying to figure out how to setup my DIY solar heating setup for the summer for our above ground pool.
Here is what I did last summer -
The pool has two 1.25" intakes for unfiltered water leading to the pump. I took one of them and routed to an old intex 1,000 ghp pump and the idea was to use this to bring water up about 12' to the roof of our garage where I had about 200' of 1.25" sump pump hose interwoven with concrete patio blocks, the idea would be that the intense sun (it's Los Angeles after all) would heat the stones along with the tubes. This all led to a final stretch of hose that dumped directly back into the pool. I put the pump on a timer with 5 minute intervals during daylight so the water would sit for a bit before being pushed back to the pool and eventually installed a check valve at the exit of the pump so the water wouldn't flow backwards when the pump shut off. I think the system was not very air tight as I was constantly finding that no water was flowing due to a build up of air. I'd hoped that the return of heated water being below the water line of the pool (used a bottle filled with sand to weigh it down) would create suction and this would help with the overall moving of the water, but I suspect that the size of the tubing plus the height I was trying to push the water just didn't work out. The old intex plump just wasn't strong enough and it only would really work if I baby sat the thing. When it worked, it was pretty decent though. In the end, it proved too much work and all that weight on the roof made me worry at night.
[img]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/m_LUIqLQJmevQtR4_7twgNbgZD-LlGdoImGnJUz31L2rNwqQhtcfWim3x_ueY1XHGj_ds8mGzBWFJNG_b8oDVw-fwwGzKTfEwwy9F-JevnU4585GThC_gSlpxQjy2cGRqWiScunfUVUTan-BnL9uU52yJ5sbtP9rbG6e7km7wUnkrP4gHsDnGnkkwIiNoOFTzkve5lZRVKC2SaTnxV7_Jj8_zu8eXic-u__m9ifXhj7UCw-PemoxzS9HT14Wm88bDJTE7hWyYjpw8trtGEuEulsdjdykHHjRPKSjCWuu3Ig0VMUr6IsdEawXjKSvRCXsd5CyYmsdqAM7w2XEv4cHE5xwo-Sr7LPWGfBQ9wVarg-dMHotKcYimKbzaEJeJLcqQh70arXc6albCrSucIJUeGQRcz12laIAQLopf519f2rMApn4hF03OLU1YGOkPM8TGZJ_2ims7K7c-vhrXt80xk_0wqjhkCSXbUB1DVH0cotu8pMqTvrqf747rCLRkXhU5wnJNCA47IucW-tLHdftA7c9bPQM6qwPCXPzZL9FRya2vGkd1rakq5dUH4UPI578LcjyQzn0OP5I5AD8chfjAuc7HyZEYG7eXd9bwN6xOC2SaALK-wb4qe30tvhTEqiINnKvxbp9XcPU2AwFt-Gs2DS9KZhJrnI=w480-h640-no[img]
Now we have a new summer ahead!
I'm thinking of scratching the old Intex pump and just taking the return from our pool filter, running that through some 2" PVC with a diverter valve that splits the flow off so that part of it goes back into the pool and part of it goes to a 1/2" adapter and then to 1/2" irrigation hose that runs up to the roof where I'll have coiled it and then have it return back to the same PVC and have it incorporate back to into the filtered water return. The only thing this means it that I'm spending more money on irrigation tubing and paint and all that which I'd love to avoid...
My question is - will my existing pump have enough power to make this happen? it's about a 12' rise to the roof. I did see a $50 fresh water pump that has 1.5 hp that I could get. But maybe this is overkill?
Also, anyone with knowledge reading this - what did I do wrong with my setup using the 1.25" hose? was it too large or was it the air leaking in that caused the problem? If I had a stronger pump would that have worked better?