Low head waterfall pump questions

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T

TXtransplant

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Jul 8, 2015
19
Southlake, TX
Greeting TFP'ers!

Does anyone have any experience or advice on low head pumps? I have a waterfall / water feature pump Hayward Superpump II 1.5 HP pump that died and am looking to replace with something quieter and more energy efficient.

From my limited research, a low head pump may be the right solution, like the Pentair Waterfall AFP series, or a variable speed such as the Pentair Intelliflo.

It seems hard to justify the higher cost of specialty pumps, but the older single speed pumps are relatively loud, or poor performers with low head. I like the idea of flow control with the VSPs, but also see that they are inefficient with low head, too.

Are there decent VSPs out there good with low head applications that can be controlled from am iAqualink, should I go with a low end replacement, or experiment with the waterfall specific pump like the Pentair Waterfall series?

Thanks!
 
The trouble with the waterfall pumps is they are very low head pumps meaning if your plumbing is not appropriately sized then the performance will suffer. If the plumbing is correctly sized then they will flow a ton of water quietly and at half the electrical draw of a standard single speed pump.

What is the water feature you're trying to run and what is the plumbing like?
 
bdavis466 said:
The trouble with the waterfall pumps is they are very low head pumps meaning if your plumbing is not appropriately sized then the performance will suffer. If the plumbing is correctly sized then they will flow a ton of water quietly and at half the electrical draw of a standard single speed pump.

What is the water feature you're trying to run and what is the plumbing like?
Click to expand...
There are three rock waterfalls on the side of the pool, two are fed by a 2" line and the larger waterfall by a dedicated 2" line. Both have Jandy valves to control flow after a tee from the pump. Both valves are at roughly 50% open to get the desired flow. Pump is a Hayward Superpump 1.5 HO uprated.
 
If you can put a vacuum gauge in the pump front drain plug hole and a pressure gauge in the back drain plug hole, that could give us a better idea of what the actual head loss is.

You could use a Jandy variable speed 2.7 hp pump and adjust it as needed.
 
There is a gauge on the pump, but the pump is dead as a doornail. (15 years old, rusted motor, etc.) ☹️. I like the Pentair VSPs, and I have a line on one that is used that might fit the bill, but I remain intrigued with low head waterfall pumps. Also not really sure how well the Pentair VSPs perform with low head. The pump curves look sketchy at lower head.
 
The Intelliflos actually do OK so long as you don't run it away from it's suction. I really like the Intelliflo XFs.

In your situation you could probably go with a AF-150 but it might not flow as much as your current pump and certainly nowhere near 150 GPM
 
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The Intelliflo is a good pump but I don't think that it's going to communicate well with the Aqualink RS. You can do on/off or use the onboard controller. There's also an adapter that uses relays.

The water feature pump will probably work but it's hard to tell for sure without knowing the actual head loss.
 
Typically, you need about 10 to 20 gpm per linear foot. At 5 linear feet, that's 50 to 100 gpm.

The suction is good up to about 90 gpm, which is 6 feet/sec in 2.5" pvc pipe.

For lower sheers, you need less flow. For higher sheers, you need more.

I suspect that the water feature pump would probably work. The SWF125 will probably be enough if the sheers are not too high and you don't need a really strong flow.

If you go with the bigger SWF185, that will give you more room to make it work. You might have to choke it back some.
 
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OK, found a gently used Intelliflo VS for $700. Working like a champ, using only 450W @1500RPM to run water features. The ability to have the water features trickle or go full bore is a nice plus. I doubt I will see a cost savings given the low usage, but the noise reduction alone is well worth having a larger pump running at a much lower speed.

As always, I appreciate the dialog from the TFP community as there always seem to be a dozen ways to solve a pool problem!
 
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