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When Should I Run My Pool Pump? The Ultimate Guide
To enjoy all the benefits that come with owning a swimming pool, you must first get your head around the maintenance.
One of the big players in keeping your pool clean and functioning as it should is the swimming pool pump.
Running your pool pump at all times isn’t necessary, and doing so can quickly rack up your electric bill. So, when and for how long should you run your swimming pool pump for optimum performance?
Pumps are essentially the heart of your swimming pool, keeping the water circulating through the various cleaning systems. A pool pump pushes water through the skimmer baskets and then through the finer filter before being released back into the pool.
The pump also helps evenly disperse any chemicals that you add to the water.
Ultimately, your swimming pool pump is vital to keeping your pool clean and healthy. While your filter removes the dirt, water cannot get to it without the pump!
In an ideal world, yes. In reality, no.
Only while the pool pump is active and circulating water can the filter effectively remove dirt. Therefore, you should ideally run your pool pump for as long as possible to ensure your swimming pool stays clean throughout periods of use.
However, the reality for many pool owners is that we simply can’t afford to have a pool pump running continuously. Not only is it expensive, but it’s also not strictly necessary to be on 24/7. Furthermore, most domestic pool pumps are only designed to run for 8-10 hours a day (this can vary, so check your pump first).
You won’t be running your pump for 24 hours straight, so how long should you aim for? This will depend on several factors, including:
Once considering these factors, there are some general rules to follow that’ll help ensure your pump is run for as long as is necessary.
Commonly, people will talk about running a pool pump for eight hours a day. However, it’s more important that all your water is getting adequately cleaned, experiencing ‘turnover’ once a day or twice when in heavy use. It usually works out that this takes eight hours.
Turnover refers to the cycle your water takes, making one full circuit from its start point, flowing through the entire system and returning to where it began.
How you work out when your pool has completed a full turnover relies on the flow rate.
One of the biggest indicators of how long to run your pool pump will be its flow rate. Sometimes called the circulation rate, this refers to how much water your pool pump can send through in a certain amount of time.
The flow rate is usually represented in gallons per hour (GPH) but can also be in minutes (GPM), depending on the size. Your filter may also have a max flow rate which you need to consider.
Once you have established your pump’s GPH or GPM and your pool’s water volume, you can work out how long it will take for the water to complete a turnover. Divide the volume by the flow rate.
While you can run your pump while taking a dip, it is not necessary so long as it has been running recently enough to ensure the water is clean and debris-free. On the other hand, you may want to keep the pump running if lots of people are using the pool for extended periods, as it’ll help circulate water to remove dirt and bacteria as the pool is being used.
It is recommended you use your pump for around eight hours every day, so no, you should not really have days when the water is not being circulated. Standing water quickly becomes prone to accumulating dirt and bacteria, leading to the need for additional chemicals and cleaning.
If you do not run your pump for the requisite number of hours per day, your water will not be able to circulate through the filter system. This means debris and bacteria have free reign to remain in your pool, contaminating the water and making it unsafe to swim in.
Even if you have dosed your pool with the correct chemicals, if the pump has not circulated them throughout the water, they will not be able to function as intended, and you’ll likely end up with algae and unsanitised water.
In most cases, it is fine to run your pool pump during the rain. In fact, this will help rapidly circulate and filter out any impurities the rain has added to your water.
It’s often recommended to run your pool pump during the evening or at night as these are outside of peak times. However, the most important thing is ensuring your water stays clean, so if you prefer to run it during the day and when the pool is in use, that’s perfectly fine too.
As mentioned above, it’s okay to run your pool pump whenever it works for you, so long as it is running long enough to turnover at least once during a 24-hour period. So yes, it is okay to turn off your pool at night, but there are several reasons you might not want to in order to make the most of this time.
Using your pump during off-peak hours can help you reduce your electric bill and overall swimming pool running costs. These hours are usually overnight.
To ensure chemicals are dispersed evenly in the pool, most suppliers recommend you run your pool pump while adding chemicals to the water. Therefore, if you balance your chemicals after a day of swimming, you’ll want to run your pool pump later in the day.
This above point is especially important when using shock as you’ll always tend to add this later in the evening to ensure it is not burned off by the sun.
Although you will want your pool pump to complete a full turnover cycle – usually eight hours – this does not mean you have to run it for eight consecutive hours to achieve a clean pool. You may choose to run the pump for several hours in the morning and make up the rest of the hours later in the day if this works better for your routine.
Now you know what to do when running your pump during the swimming season, but what about when winter rolls around?
During the off-season, you’ll want to continue running your pump, just for less time than before. Running your pump even when the pool isn’t in use is essential for multiple reasons, including:
If you’ve thoroughly winterised your swimming pool and have closed it with a winter cover, your pump may only need to be run an hour or so every now and again to keep the water and chemicals ticking over.
Hopefully, we have addressed all your pool pump concerns here, and you can now go forth and run your pump with confidence! If you’re in need of a new pump to keep your pool at its best, check out our buying guide to choosing the best swimming pool pump.
