We have a lovely sparkling pool, but the filter runs for about eight hours every day, even when we are not there. My cousin has friends living in Spain permanently and he says they run their filter for just two hours each day, and this with using the pool daily. Am I being excessive or are they taking risks??? Just wondering what other folks do.

hi, we run our filter for about 8 hours per day, we had a chap fm the local swimming pool company tell us to do this at this time of the year because of the heat. Apparently you should have the filters on for at least this amount of time

Eight hours is not excessive, even longer in extreme heat and lots of use.
Sometimes we have 30 to 40 people use the pool a day in July and August and at least once a week I leave it on 24 hours.
Always keep the chemicals up to what they should be also.

Mines on for about 8 as well, but in two sessions.

In Florida we run 8 hours daily...
except june july aug 10 hrs daily
heavy use 12 hour daily

2 hours a day is totally insufficient....

JDR .. sounds a good routine

I tried running mine at about two hours per day,, and found that the water would get quite dull,,, I have now set my timer to come on at 8Am for two hours then back on again at 11am for 4 hours and then again at 6pm for two hours,, the difference in the pool is fantastic,superclean and sparkles ,,,, You can now buy solar pool pumps which run all day when the sun shines,, and that solves this type of problems,, expensive to buy though.. In the winter when I have it covered I run for an hour a day,
always keep my chemicals at the right level,,winter and summer,, but going for a salt system bynext year as i BELIEVE this keeps the beasties and the wasps away!!as well as maintaining correct levels automatically..

It depends on what you mean by a risk.

The filter keeps the water clear but doesnt make it safe. Its the chemicals that do that.

I dont understand why you have all that on and off ..
I have had a salt system installed for 3 weeks now ..so far so good ..

Cos I can, and I like the pool without the filter running when I am using it

Using it ..is the time it should be running ...
But whatever works for you ..

My property is in the Chiclana area and I have an 8x4 pool. The first two years I ran the pump for three hours per day-two in the evening and one in the morning and had no problems, however the third year doing the same the pool became murky and a bit green. After treatment I increased the running time to six hours and everything was fine. This year we set the programme for four and a half hours- three in the evening and one and a half in the morning, with no problems so far. I use a pool cover during the winter also put in a winter chemical which lasts for three months ie: doing this twice over the winter period. I think possibley in the hotter parts of Spain it may be necessary to run a pool pump for maybe eight hours per day, but not in the Chiclana area. Naturally at the end of the day it is just 'trial and error' but as yet have not come across anyone that runs their pump anymore than a maximum of six hours per day.

I should have said the pump runs for 1hr a day during the winter.

A pool pump is designed to be run 24 hours per day and, indeed, it is law that community pools must be continuously filtered. Filtering a domestic pool for a reduced time is obviously possible but in the summer the pool should be filtered for at least 8 to 10 hours per day depending on the bather load AND at any time that the pool is being used and for an hour or so afterwards.

A salt water pool may have to be filtered for a longer period in order to produce sufficient chlorine to keep the pool sanitised depending on the capacity of the equipment. I have a friend with a salt water pool and he has to filter it for 24 hours per day and, even then, he has to add chlorine granules every few days in order to maintain the chlorine level.

The crystal clarity of a pool is very subjective. I know people who insist that their pool is crystal clear and a deep blue colour but it is not possible to see the joins between the tiles at the deep end and the water only looks blue because it is disguised by the colour of the tiles.

There are very few pools that I would swim in other than my own which has white tiles that do not disguise the colour of the water!

I don't understand it either.

If your water is turning "dull" after running the filter for six hours or so, then you may need to add some flocculent. One tablet in a skimmer, every few weeks, will do it. This should cluster up the fine particles and allow the sand filter to remove them. If you have a DE filter, it's no quite so critical. Always backwash once a week, or if your filter pressure rises too much.

Rule of thumb for the summer, in my book, is cycle your pool water through the filter twice, each day. So a 50m3 pool (50,000 litres) with a pump flow rate of 15,000 litres/hour will need 6 hours 40 minutes minimum.

I also have a salt water system, by the way, which seems to be working out very well (pool built and in use about 2 months now). For my size pool and pump schedule, the salt water chlorinator is set to run 50% of the time, keeping the chlorine level very constant - another thing that helps control strange water situations developing. The salt levels are 0.3%, which gives the water just a little taste of salt.

What I am finding, however, is the pH unit (it has an automatic pH sensor and dispensing pump) is struggling to maintain a pH of 7.2 to 7.4 (tap water comes out at about 7.6 here), which is the ideal pH for the salt-water chlorinator. In one month the system has used 20 litres of 10% sulphuric acid (pH down solution).

Finally, remember, as noted above, it's the chemicals that keep the pool safe. The filter removes rubbish so that the chemicals don't have to work so hard (and you'll need less as a result).

:scared:

If you are using a liquid pH reducer should it not be muriatic or hydrochloric acid?