What Size Sand Filter For 15x30 Pool

What Size Puddle Filter Practise I Need?

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The size of the pool filter that you need will depend on the type of puddle you have, the size of your pool besides as the type of filter you lot are buying. Above ground pools accept smaller plumbing systems for the most part than inground puddle installations however the selection and sizing procedure for a new filter looks pretty much the same for both with merely one notable exception. When people talk about a "cartridge filter" for a pool they are normally talking about a robust, expensive filter arrangement that represents one of the best filter choices for any pool.

With above ground pools, and particularly entry level above ground pools, a when someone is talking about a cartridge filter they are not significant a large pressure vessel tank with 200, 300 or 400 foursquare feet of filter media inside, they are usually talking most single paper filter element that is perhaps 25 or 50 square feet of media. This is a point of confusion for some people since yous can end up reading that cartridge filters are the best filter option yous can get for a pool, while likewise reading near how cartridge filters are useless and you need to upgrade to a sand filter. Let's just go ahead and clear up this confusion one time and for all.

Cartridge filters for above footing pools - While cartridge filters can be the best choice for pool filtration systems the ones that typically come up with to a higher place basis pools are unremarkably very pocket-sized. The smaller a paper filter is the less droppings information technology can handle before it begins to restrict flow from the pump. Also the smaller the expanse of the filter paper, the less overall flow the filter will be able to handle. Often above ground pool owners look to upgrade to a sand filter when in reality a sand filter is the lower terminate option of the ii filters. But in this example you are upgrading from a toy paper filter essentially, to an actual force per unit area vessel filter tank filled with silica sand. This is a good upgrade to make for many entry level pool owners, but fifty-fifty better would exist to upgrade from a tiny, toy-like paper cartridge filter to a cartridge filter pressure vessel tank. In the end it all comes down to period rate potential and the amount of surface area of the filter media.

Why are pool cartridge filters and then much better than sand filters? This comes down to catamenia rate potential and how fine the filter media is. When sized properly for a puddle system, unlike the toy filters that come with cheap pools, a cartridge filter is going to remove material up to three times effectively from the h2o than a sand filter can. In improver to being able to filter finer particulate, the cartridge filter also has a better, more than efficient hydraulic blueprint. The multiport valve on a sand filter, which controls the part and flow of water through the caput and body of the filter, is a huge restriction to menses. This makes sand filters able to handle a lot less h2o flow than suitably sized cartridge filter units.

ane) Maximum design flow rate

2) Expected pump output flow rate

3) Book of the pool

4) Desired turnover charge per unit

5) Hours per day you run your pool pump

These five steps are needed for every pond pool owner in order to determine which size of filter you should be getting for your pool. This is not everything that you need to know, but the first calculation that you lot need to do for every blazon and size of pool filter to start answering your initial question "What size pool filter do I need?" If you tin answer these questions and so you are almost all of the fashion there to making an informed conclusion for your next filter purchase.

What Size Sand Filter Do I Need?

If a sand filter is what you lot are wanting for your pool and then yous will see that they are sized by both physical size, similar a 22" filter or a 24" filter, but you volition also run into them designated by weight as in a 200 lb filter, or a 300 lb filter. All of this data is useful but not the starting time thing you need to look at deciding what size of puddle filter you lot need. We need to look at that list in a higher place to offset narrowing down on the filter option.

If nosotros presume the maximum design period rate for a sand filter you are looking at is fifty GPM, which would represent a pocket-sized to medium sized sand filter value, which would correspond to perhaps 150 to 250 lbs of sand (and probably a ane.5" multiport valve). This is a published figure from the manufacturer for every filter, and you lot can even find this value printed right on the characterization on your sand filter.

Next nosotros need to estimate the menstruum value from the pump (or use a flow meter of you lot have one. Every pump on the marketplace has a published period curve available for it. You lot might non exist able to get the maximum value out of a flow curve, only you can definitely brand some educated guesses for menses rate based on what you run across. The menstruation curve will accept flow rate on one centrality, and the other centrality volition be resistance to catamenia measure if feet of head.

Caput resistance - A pool with most no resistance to catamenia would exist 10 or 20 feet of head. Medium head would exist 25 to 35 ft of head, and a pool with a lot going on like waterfalls, flooring cleaners, solar heaters or lots of twists, turns and distance in the pipe runs might have forty, 50 or lx foot pounds of head resistance. You lot can utilise these numbers to estimate how much menses your exact pump might put out for a low, medium, or high head pool which y'all should be able to estimate for yourself. Having a menstruation meter takes out all of this guesswork for pump flow, merely without one this is the best estimation that you tin do. In one case you know your pump model and size in horsepower, you await up the pump curve online and compare your estimated caput resistance to the flow rate that you can expect your specific pump to deliver.

Nosotros were working with the case of a sand filter that had a maximum designed flow rate of 50 GPM. If the pump we had was a Hayward Super 2 pump, 1.v horsepower, and we assumed a medium amount of caput resistance at xxx, then the approximated flow rate co-ordinate to the data posted by Hayward is the pump will deliver a whopping 126 gallons per infinitesimal approximately. That is two and a half times the maximum flow rate that the filter nosotros are looking at can handle! The reason why is that the Super two pump from Hayward is non merely "twice as good" every bit the Superpump. They are fabricated for different applications. If you needed to button against 60 or fifty-fifty fourscore ft pounds of resistance then the Super ii would piece of work well where the Superpump would struggle to move any water at all.

When we switch and look at the catamenia bend for the Hayward Superpump 1.5 horsepower instead we see that at 30 ft lbs of head resistance the pump will likely deliver effectually 73 GPM. What a difference! This is why pool owners who replace their super pump with a Super 2 are almost surely overdriving their filters. The Super 2 is an awarding specific pump for high head applications. Nevertheless, as you can see in this example, even the Superpump is too powerful at 73 GPM. The 1 horsepower Superpump model still would take 65 GPM expected output, then dropping downwards to the iii/4 horsepower model the expected flow rate is around 52 GPM. As you can see when puddle owners shop by horsepower they are almost certainly overdriving their filters, specially if they have a sand filter.

We now have a sand filter that is rated for 50 GPM and a 3/four horsepower superpump which will motion about 52 GPM on a organization with 30 feet of head. Next we need to look at the volume of the pool and the expected turnover rate. You should plow over the h2o in your pool 3 times every 24 hours equally the industry standard to achieve 95% of all of the water in your pool being filtered at least ane time. Assuming a 20,000 gallon pool, which is about a 16 x 32' pool with a 3.5' shallow end and half-dozen' deep stop. At twenty,000 gallons in book nosotros need to aim for sixty,000 gallons daily for filtration totals. And then next, how many hours per twenty-four hour period do you lot run your pool pump?

24 hours @ 60,000 gallons = 41.6 GPM

12 hours @ 60,000 gallons = 83.33 GPM

eight hours @ 60,000 gallons = 125 GPM

What the heck these numbers don't add upwardly at all! If you just ran your pump half of the day you would demand 83.33 GPM in gild to filter enough water. That is more than the filter can handle and more than the iii/iv superpump nosotros chose can put out. Even worse is 8 hours of running time a twenty-four hour period needing 125 GPM to attain the total filtration book. So what is the disconnect here? The disconnect is that largely pool systems are not built efficiently, pool filtration equipment is non sized properly, and puddle owners do non understand filtration volume amounts or pool turnover properly. Really a breakdown in every step of the procedure. No wonder pool owners take so much trouble getting an answer to such equally "elementary" question as what size pool filter do I need?

What nosotros have learned in the above example is that if the minimum turnover charge per unit of three per day is going to be met, 60,000 gallons per day, the pump is going to have to run nigh 24/7 to get in that location. At least one adept affair to say hither is that at least the pump no longer doubles the maximum menstruum the filter can handle, merely as the owner of this pool you might not want to have to run your pump near 24 hours per solar day. This is noisy and expensive for electric consumption. This is why many puddle owners simply ignore the recommended filtration volumes and instead undershoot these values significantly. Information technology is not a adept idea, just it is the answer to why these numbers are so different than what you have been doing to your puddle, or how other people run their filtration system.

Sizing a pool sand filter - When picking a sand filter for your pool it is important to understand that your maximum flow rate will exist an upshot. Unless you lot are as well ownership your pump now and tin size it to the filter, so you must choice a filter than can work with the pump that y'all accept now. It would be a fault to assume the last person who picked your pump and filter had any agreement of this filter sizing process y'all are learning about now. You lot should try to get the largest (highest) maximum design flow rate y'all can observe in your sand filter, and this volition normally be from filters with a 2" multiport valve instead of the 1.5" multiport valve filters. As a loose guide, think along the lines of 150 pounds of sand filter media per 10,000 gallons of h2o. A 20,000 gallon pool would need 300 pounds of sand...merely remember that maximum designed flow rate and turnover charge per unit for your pool book are both more important than how many pounds of sand you have.

Testing for head pressure - If yous want to approximate every bit footling as possible with your system then you do not need to estimate your resistance to flow. If you put a vacuum guess into the suction side of your pump and a force per unit area approximate into the force per unit area side of your pump then y'all perform the following calculation to larn see a snapshot of your total dynamic caput resistance to period. With the pump running multiply the PSI on the pressure guess by 2.31 and then perform a like adding on the suction side of the pump. The vacuum gauge reads in inches of mercury. With the pump still running yous would multiply your vacuum reading by 1.13. Add together both the suction side and pressure side numbers together, and the result is your resistance to menstruum in feet of head.

What Size Cartridge Filter Do I Need?

But every bit with the sand filter example to a higher place when you are sizing a cartridge filter for your pool you volition need to look at the same information. Yous need to wait start at the maximum designed menstruum charge per unit for the filter you are considering. Unlike sand filters all the same yous will find that cartridge filters have vastly higher maximum designed menstruation rates. This is primarily because cartridge filters do not have a multiport valve which ways they have a lot less restriction to menses. Even small-scale cartridge filter have as much or more than menstruation potential than even large pool sand filters.

In the sand filter example the pump had to be downsized to avoid sending far as well much water through the filter. Since cartridge filters have such a high designed period rate, our case filter will exist able to handle 120 GPM even though it is only a medium sized filter at best. Next nosotros have the same 20,000 gallon puddle, which needs the same 60,000 gallons of flow through the filtration system every twenty-four hours. In this instance nosotros practice non need to downsize the pump for the sake of protecting the filter, and then the original ane.v HP superpump at 73 GPM would work fine. Even the Super 2 loftier caput pump from the offset instance at 126 GPM could probably even match upwardly with this medium sized cartridge filter. This would requite you a lot more filter options than with the sand filter which is going to demand to run almost 24 hours per mean solar day. With the 1.v HP superpump here are the 8, 12 and 24 60 minutes turnover values:

24 hours @ 73 GPM = 105,120 Gallons

12 hours @ 73 GPM = 52,560 Gallons

viii hours @ 73 GPM = 35,040 Gallons

Wow, exercise you see how much of a difference the filter makes when choosing betwixt sand and cartridge? With the sand filter we had to run a much smaller pump 24 hours per solar day almost to reach out 3x turnover goal of sixty,000 gallons each day. With the 1.5 HP superpump instead of the 3/4 HP, and with a cartridge filter that can handle college flow, you can now meet your total daily turnover a little over 12 hours. That is an improvement however this is simply scratching the surface of how to make a filtration system more functional, and especially more economical, which you can larn more nearly in this article about how much electricity a pool pump uses. What if y'all had a huge pool volume and you needed more filtering than the Superpump tin can provide? What virtually the 1.5 HP Super 2 that we were looking at that was rated for 126 GPM? If you lot were to run that with the 120 GPM cartridge filter:

24 hours @ 126 GPM = 181,440 Gallons

12 hours @ 126 GPM = ninety,720 Gallons

viii hours @ 126 GPM = threescore,480 Gallons

Holy bananas look at how much water volume that is! On a 24 60 minutes schedule that is enough water to turnover a sixty,000 gallon pool iii times. That is a 30 ten 50' puddle with an boilerplate depthjust over 5' deep. It is incredible to think that you could actually plough over a pool that large with something as small equally a 150 st cartridge filter like this new model from Hayward, the C150S which has a 120 GPM maximum designed flow rate. However y'all would not want to filter a thirty x 50' puddle with a single 150 sf cartridge chemical element even if it can handle an impressively loftier maximum flow rate. You need to consider the effective filration area when sizing a pool cartridge filter. This will determine how long you will be able to go in betwixt needing to open and make clean your filter elements.

Sizing a puddle cartridge filter - Since both a small cartridge filter and a large cartridge filter both have impressively loftier maximum menstruation rates then technically you could use either one on a given pool size. The only factor that would change between a smaller filter versus a larger filter is but the corporeality of time yous go between cleanings. When your filter pressure rises 7 to ten PSI then information technology is time to clean your filter elements. If y'all have a 300 sf cartridge filter instead of a 150 sf cartridge filter so you lot will be able to get twice as long in between filter cleanings. When sized appropriately for the pool a cartridge filter should be able to get months in between needing to be cleaned, assuming the water was clean when you started the clock.

With all of these calculations and variables I am sure you lot are starting to see how dynamic the question really is, and asking what size filter y'all demand is going to get you a lot of information but non necessarily a lot of answers. For the established commercial standards for swimming pool filtration and filter sizing we would use multipliers called FMR - Filter Media Rate. These established standards are practical to the filter media to determine how much (in square footage) y'all demand for your pool filtration system. In club to calculate the actual surface area of filter media you would utilize the equation FA (filter surface area) = FR (flow rate) / FMR (filter media charge per unit).

You can summate the surface expanse for your specific filter, but this information is already provided on the manufacturers label, probably right next to where the maximum design menstruation rate was printed. If your filter provides a maximum design commercial filtration rate, that is the FA = FR / FMR calculation mentioned above. For residential pools instead of ultra-conservative FMR calculations information technology is accepted indusrty practice to employ 150 square feet of surface expanse for cartridge filters per 10,000 gallons of h2o. A 20,000 gallon pool would apply a 300 sf cartridge filter. Remember that cartridge filters are very capable, both small and large, and the only observable number y'all are changing is how long you will be able to go in betwixt filter cleanings.

Besides long, didn't read (TLDR) - In order to know what size filter you demand for your puddle you need to know your pool volume and and then determine if you volition follow the industry standard of 3 turnover of your pool volume daily. Decide on the total volume you desire to filter in 24 hours (or the number of hours yous want to run your pump daily) and have your filtration full in gallons then divide by the hours your pump runs, and divide that number ny 60 to give you your GPM (gallons per minute) needed to be handled past your filter. Cheque the maximum designed catamenia rate for your filter and make sure your menses rate will not exceed this value. Check your pump flow curve and estimate (or calculate) your total dynamic caput resistance (measured in feet of head) to encounter how much flow your pump will output on your organisation and brand sure this matches upward with your maximum blueprint flow rate on the filter. For sand filters sizing is usually around 150 pounds of sand per 10,000 gallons of water where for cartridge filters it is normally around 150 square feet per 10,000 gallons of water.

There is some other way that is much easier, much more simple, removes a lot of these hard limitations and really ends upwardly filtering your pool better for mode less money and that is to go a variable speed pool pump. It will be constabulary July 2021 that all pools must use a variable speed pump (or similar efficiency threshold) and this will permit you to fix flow rates to whatever maximum or minimum value that you need for your pool or your specific pool filter...assuming you lot have a flow meter and know how much water your system is moving.

Match a variable speed pump with a suitably sized cartridge filter (150sf / 10,000 gallons) and you lot accept a monster combination of energy efficiency every bit well as huge potential maximum flow volumes. If you lot want to filter your water efficiently, effectively and for as little coin (and disruptive calculations) as possible, that is the best you are going to do. A variable speed pump, a large cartridge filter and a flow meter and so you can dial in your 3x turnover based on a 24 60 minutes running schedule. It does not get any better than that when information technology comes to pool filtration.

A note on DE filters - I practice not endorse DE filters (diatomaceous globe) as pool class DE is not safe similar food grade DE is for humans. Pool grade DE is toxic, is an airborne irritant, can cause silicosis since DE is not purged from the body and repeated doses can accumulate, which has been shown to cause nonmalignant respiratory diseases as well equally lung cancer. Yes DE filters are even more constructive than cartridge filters at removing observe debris from the water, and yep DE filters likewise typically have high maximum blueprint flow rates similar to cartridge filters, however I do not utilise or endorse DE filters for pools when cartridge filters are a perfectly acceptable and effective option without the constant apply and exposure to things toxic to humans.

Want to see the maximum design flow rates for every brand, make, model and size of pool sand filters and cartridge filters? Pool Filter Menstruation Rates This buyers guide that I put together lists the maximum design flow rates and filtration area for every filter you should be looking at with the exception of the new Hayward C150S that I mentioned.

Pool filter reviews

More info on pool filter sizing

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How much can yous save with a variable speed pump?

Flow rates for common puddle pipe sizes

Variable speed pool pump reviews

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What Size Sand Filter For 15x30 Pool,

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