Pool Pump Size Calculator: Whats The Best Pump Size For Your Pool
Are you having a hard time selecting the best size pool pump for your above or inground pool? It doesnt have to be complicated anymore.
Your best pool pump size must meet your minimum and maximum flow rates, which you get by finding the pool volume first. And for you to get all these, you have to do a series of calculations. In the end, you will have the ideal min-max flow rate range to help you find the perfect pool pump size for your swimming pool.
Below are few calculations that will break down the search and give you enough certainty that youre buying the right size pump.
Cost Of Pool Maintenance And Swimming Pool Size
Being a pool owner is one of the greatest feelings in the world, but its also important to remember that maintaining the cleanliness and pH balance of your pool will take some work. The larger your pool, the higher maintenance costs may be, whether you do it yourself or hire someone for the job. This probably wont be a substantial amount, but its still a factor you should consider when deciding on the swimming pool size.
Calculate The Minimum Flow Rate
Now that you have your pool volume, its time to move to the next step calculate the minimum flow rate to expect from your pool pump in Gallons per Minute . You could also use the Gallon per Hour .
The minimum flow rate gives you the number of gallons pumped per minute or per hour to meet the pool turnover.
The pool turnover rate gives you the minimum time it takes for the whole pool water to be pushed by the pump through the filter and back to the swimming pool.
Here you will need to use the pool capacity and the number of your pools turnover cycles per day. Experts in the industry recommend you give your chlorine or saltwater swimming pool two turnovers per day.
When determining the best turnover for your swimming pool, you have two options:
- Run the pool pump for 24 hours per day, which decreases the flow rate needs.
- Run the pump twice a day with a turnover rate of 6-, 8- or 10-hour cycles.
What you need to do here is to consider balancing electricity consumption with the pump horsepower. If you use a low horsepower pump for long, you gain better water chemistry balancing. However, your electricity bills will be over the roof.
With higher horsepower, the run time reduces as doing so, the power consumption decreases. However, the pool chemistry balancing doesnt do well.
If youre a hands-on kind of a guy, here is the formula for calculating the minimum required flow rate:
Pool Volume / Turnover rate = Min Flow Rate Pool Volume / Turnover rate = Min Flow Rate
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How Are You Going To Design The Area Around The Pool
The area around your swimming pool in Toronto will also influence its size. Furthermore, you must choose your pool layout and other indoor landscaping features as per the building codes and safety regulations. You can adorn the area around your indoor pool with greenery, stone decking, or more, depending on how you want to create the ambiance. The more elaborate the surrounding area, the larger the size of the pool is going to be.
Two Different Depths With A Drop Off
If your pool has a drop off that separates two constant depths, its best to treat them as separate pools. Go ahead and use the calculation above for constant depth twice, one for each depth, and then add the two totals together to know your combined gallons. I know, double the work. But hey, youve got a pretty cool pool!
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Calculate Your Pool Volumewithout Math
So youre really not into algebra, huh? Thats totally okay. Just find the size of your pool on one of these charts, and youll find the average gallons for that pool. Since not all pools have the standard depth, these numbers are not exactbut approximate. But hey, if you just came here to get a general sense of how many thousands of gallons your in-ground or above-ground pool contains, just check out these charts and youre off scot-free.
How To Measure The Size Of Your Pool And Why Its Good To Know
Whether youre dreaming about having a brand-new, pristine pool installed in your backyard or you already have your oasis in place, being able to measure the size of your pool is basic knowledge every pool owner needs to know. The size of your pool dictates the size and type of many different support systems vital to maintaining a sparkling, well-functioning pool, and how much it will cost to get a pool cleaning service.
In this post, well cover several aspects of pool measurements so youll always have the perfect set of dimensions to make sure your pools equipment and accessories are the right size for the job.
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Build Your Dream Indoor Pool In Toronto With Our Professionals
Land-Con is a reputable pool company in Toronto with experienced professionals and landscapers to help you build your dream indoor pool. From modern pool styles to customized pool shapes, we will accommodate your every pool requirement.
Being a prominent name in the pool building industry, we offer custom services that are budget-friendly and convenient. For a quick consultation, call us at to get started!
Are You Planning To Use The Pool For Exercise And Swimming Laps
Serious swimmers who plan on regularly doing laps need to get a pool thats long enough for that purpose. Very few homeowners have space or money for an Olympic-size pool, but if you plan to use your pool for swimming laps, youll want one designed for that purpose.
If you plan to swim laps regularly, the pool should be at least 30 feet long. However, this is the minimum I would recommend, and you can most definitely go for a longer pool if you have the space and budget.
Another popular form of exercise in pools is aquatic aerobics . In this case, the depth of the pool is more important than the length or width. Most exercises require roughly shoulder-deep water , while other exercises may work better if you cant touch the bottom of the pool.
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Finding The Flow Rate
The flow rate is the measurement of how many gallons a pool pump can process every minute or every hour. We can use the pool volume and desired turnover rate to calculate what flow rate we need.
Flow Rate = Total Gallons / Turnover Rate / 60
Flow Rate = Flow Rate / 24
When window shopping through potential pool pumps, you should be able to find the gallons per minute listed within the product specifications.
If you already know the turnover rate that you want and your pools volume, you can use the chart below to find the GPM that you’ll need.
Required Flow Rate to achieve desired Turnover Rate
| Gallons |
|---|
| 83 GPM |
Calculating Your Swimming Pool Surface Area
Understanding the surface area of your swimming pool can be very helpful if youre hoping to learn more about evaporation rates, or thinking about purchasing a new swimming pool heater. You can easily calculate the surface area of you have measured the length and width of your pool:
Swimming Pool Length X Swimming Pool Width = Swimming Pool Surface Area
If you have a very unusually shaped swimming pool, this simple calculation may not give you an exact measurement of your pool surface area. You may need to divide your pool into separate sections to make the correct calculation
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Variable Depths With A Gradual Slope
If your pool has more than one depth , youll need to do a little more math. First, determine the pools average depth. To do this, add the shallow end depth to the deep end depth, and divide by 2.
÷ 2 = average D
For example, lets say your pools shallow end is 3 feet, and the deep end is 9 feet:
÷ 2 = 6 feet
Next, measure the length and width to calculate the surface area of the pool. Then youll multiply that number by the average depth to calculate the volume in cubic feet. Then multiply that figure by 7.5 to calculate the volume of the pool in gallons.
L × W × average D × 7.5 = V
Lets assume your pool is 32 feet long, 16 feet wide, and has an average depth of 6 feet:
32 × 16 × 6 × 7.5 = 23,040 gallons
How Does Your Pool Measure Up
Have you realized that youve been adding too much chlorine to your pool? Not enough shock? So much salt that you can no longer submerge? Yup, using a pool calculator will do that for you.
But at least now you know youll have your measurements correct, your water clean, and your pool ready for the season.
Happy Swimming!
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Min And Max Flow Rate Range
Almost there! Now that we have the minimum and maximum flow rates for your pool setup, put them together to get to your flow rate range: one of the two main specs for determining the pool pump size you need.
So, lets say you have a 15,000 gallon inground pool. With two turnovers per day, your minimum flow rate comes to 20.8 GPM.
Lets also say that you have a 2.3 square foot sand filter and 1.5 plumbing . You have to take the lower of those two values to make sure you dont overwork any components of your pool, so your maximum flow rate comes to 43 GPM.
In this example, our flow rate range comes out to 20.8-43 GPM.
Lets figure out the last main spec you need for your pool pump: total dynamic head.
Kidney Or Irregular Shapes
There are two methods used to calculate the capacity of irregular shapes. First, you can imagine the pool or hot tub as a combination of smaller, regular shapes. Measure these various areas and use the calculations described previously for each square or rectangular area and for each circular area. Add these volumes together to determine the total capacity.
0.45 x x length x average depth x 7.5 = volume
The total of measurement A plus measurement B multiplied by 0.45 multiplied by the length gives you the surface area of the kidney shape. . The rest of the calculations you are now familiar with. Try this volume calculation:
0.45 x x length x average depth x 7.5 = volume
0.45 x 18 ft x 25 ft x 5 ft x 7.5 = 7593.75 gallons
Parts Per Million
One of the most important calculations you will use is parts per million . The amount of solids and liquids in the water is measured in parts per million, as in three parts of chlorine in every one million parts of water, or 3 ppm.
To help, this list shows common terms and their equivalents:
Square foot = 12 inch wide x 12 inch long
Cubic foot = 12 inch wide x 12 inch long x 12 inch high
Cubic yard = 36 inch wide x 36 inch long x 36 inch high
One cubic foot of water contains 7.48 gallons
One cubic foot of water weighs 62.4 pounds
One gallon of water weighs 8.33 pounds
One part per million represents 8.3 pounds of chemical per million gallons of water.
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How To Size Pool Heaters Like A Pro
Solar heaters, electric pool heaters, gasoh my? As with most things when it comes to pools, youll have a choice of a variety of pool heaters and the size of the heater depends on the type you choose. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages but all rely on how quickly they can heat your pool as indicated by their British Thermal Unit rating.
A general rule is to have at least 50,000 BTUs per 10,000 gallons of water. So with a 30,000-gallon pool, youd want 150,000 BTUs.
Free Form / Oblong / Kidney
x x x = Pool Volume in Gallons
Free form pools are more and more popular these days. Unfortunately they are also more difficult to measure the volume on. If you have a free-form pool, contact the pool builder, and hope they saved the volume of the pool from the design software they used. Otherwise, you’re going to have to do the best you can with dimensions you can measure.
The general idea is to try to get the area as accurately as possible, then multiply by average depth, and again by the volume factor . To get area on a kidney shaped pool, Measure diameters across each of the main round areas. Add them together and find the average diameter, which will function as your approximate width. In the diagram here, A and B represent two diameters across the pool.
= Average Diameter = Approximate Width
Then simply multiply the “width” by the length to find your area. Take your area, multiply by average depth and the volume factor, and you have an approximate pool volume.
Alternatively, if you have the time and the patience, there is a chemical way to measure pool volume within a very small margin of error. It involves diluted water samples and alkalinity testing.
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How Does The Pool Volume Calculator Work
The pool water calculator is a tool similar to the volume calculator it also uses also the formulas from the square footage calculator.
Finding the volume of a pool is a simple matter of getting the area of the surface of the pool and then multiplying that by the average depth.
- Start by entering the pool size .
- Then add its depth at the two endpoints.
- If there is both a shallow and a deep end, enter the shallow depth in the first field and the deepest point in the second. Otherwise, enter two identical values.
- If the depth of your pool changes drastically instead of gradually, you may want to consider dividing it in half, with a separate pool calculator measurement for each part .
You could go one step further and, knowing the density of water , work out how much the water in such a pool would weight.
Understanding Pool Cue Size
There are several varying traits that can cause one cue to perform better than another.
When it comes to pool cue sizes, there are three critical factors that you will need to understand:
- Pool Cue Length
- Pool Cue Weight
- Pool Cue Tip Diameter
Those factors affect a pool cue affects how it feels in your hand and how easily you can perform accurate shots.
The sections below will show you how these two characteristics can differ for a standard pool cue.
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Common Freeform Pool Dimensions
Freeform pools come in all sorts of sizes and shapes, but generally, they all have rounded edges. There is not a standard size chart for freeform pools, but the most common sizes are as follows:
- 16 feet wide by 30 feet long
- 15 feet wide by 35 feet long
- 18 feet wide by 40 feet long
- 12 feet wide by 30 feet long
- 12 feet wide by 27 feet long
Variable Depths With A Drop
If, instead of a gradual slope down to the deep end, your pool has a definitive drop between the shallow and deep ends, the average depth will be different, even if the shallow end and deep end are still, for example, 3 feet and 9 feet, respectively.
It may be easier, in this case, to treat the shallow and deep ends as separate pools. This will allow you to apply the volume of each section using the constant depth formula.
Once you have the volumes of both parts, simply add them together to determine the volume for the whole pool.
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Pros And Cons Of A Heavier Cue
The main benefit of using a heavier pool cue is that the added weight will allow you to impart more force on the cue ball. This will increase cue ball speed for your shots and is beneficial whenever power is your goal.
However, this additional power comes at a cost. Heavy cues also decrease the control you will have over finesse shots. That lack of finesse can make it extremely difficult to make shots that require the utmost accuracy.
Power and finesse aside, there is another reason that players might choose a heavier cue. These players feel that a heftier pool stick exhibits less motion during the stroke.
That lack of motion is what some players need to maintain control over each shot. But, again, this is another matter of personal preference.
How Much Entertaining Do You Like To Do
Pool parties are awesome. Especially if you really kit out your backyard with the works: barbeque grill, cabanas, and maybe even a slide. Your acreage and budget will dictate the limitations of your imagination here.
A good rule of thumb to keep in mind is that even if you do like to have big blowout parties, usually no more than 50% of your guests will ever be in the pool at a given time. Even if you have tons of parties, you dont need to build a monster pool to accommodate your buddies. Even being near a pool lends a relaxing ambiance that really classes up any outdoor gathering all by itself.
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