Is this normal??

[kasparsport]

Thanks a lot poconos..I looked on the sungrabber booklet for troubleshooting & it says I would need a bypass valve if my pump was 1hp. I really thought the 1.5 hp pump would have been strong enough. I will put a bypass valve on, but in the meantime am I hurting my pump..?

As you can tell I am not very pool savy...

[Searcher]

Thanks a lot poconos..I looked on the sungrabber booklet for troubleshooting & it says I would need a bypass valve if my pump was 1hp. I really thought the 1.5 hp pump would have been strong enough. I will put a bypass valve on, but in the meantime am I hurting my pump..?

As you can tell I am not very pool savy...

Your pump motor is over sized for your application; it is TOO STRONG. Plumb the panel, as recommended, so that some water passes through the panel and the majority returns to the pool; parallel and NOT in series. You are getting so much pressure for that simple reason, an oversized motor. A smaller motor would move just as much water with much less strain on your system PLUS it would save you money.

To look at it another way, if you would put a 2 HP motor in place of the 1.5, you would not move any more water but you would raise the pressure considerably more.

No matter what size motor, the panel must be piped as noted. Your documentation seems to not worth the paper it is printed on.

The only thing that should be oversized on a pool is the filter.

Are you hurting your motor? Yes if you consider that I am running a dual speed motor, pushing 25,000 gallons on low speed "1/6th HP" and showing 2 pounds of pressure through an S 200 sand filter that holds 200 pounds of sand.

[Poconos]

Searcher is right in that the pump is oversized IF you direct all the flow through the panels either way they're hooked up, series or parallel. As we said, the trick is to flow enough water through the panels to do the job but no more.

This statement "To look at it another way, if you would put a 2 HP motor in place of the 1.5, you would not move any more water but you would raise the pressure considerably more." is not totally true. At higher pressure you would move more water but in your situation you don't need to do this. Through any pipe or restriction, higher pressure = higher flow.

Does operating at a higher pressure hurt the pump? I'm not really sure but I tend to say slightly. I think the shaft seal is in a high pressure area and if that is the case then running at higher pressures would increase wear and decrease seal life. Motor bearings aren't affected. Running at higher pressure is a waste of electricity however.

I stand by my statement that either a series or parallel hookup will work but parallel is preferred. There is a slight thermodynamic advantage of parallel over series. A simple way to look at it is in series the first panel is preheating the water for the second panel. You get maximum heat transfer (or absorbtion) when you have the largest temperature differential which means you want the coldest water through both panels. Thus parallel wins. In a practical sense, hook them up whichever way is easier and cosmetically better.

Al

[kasparsport]

Thanks for the help guys...