How Often Should You Run Your Pool Pump

Over the years, we have gotten so many customers asking this question, so we thought it was time we went into the subject a little further so you can make an informed decision on how often to run your pump. So how often should you run your pump?

As much as you can

If your question is “How often should I run my pump to keep the pool at its best?” the answer would be 24/7 for as much of the year as the pool is in operation. However, we realize this isn’t realistic for every or even most pool owners. So instead we will rephrase the question to be “How often should I run my pump to keep the pool looking its best while not shelling out an arm and a leg for energy costs”. Yet, even this is a tricky question to answer, as many people will have different ideas on what is “expensive” for electricity and different standards for the quality of the pool water. So, let’s start with the minimum standard. Every pool should cycle through all of its water at least once a day, so most pool owners will want to run their pumps for at least 4-8 hours daily. But you don’t have to run those 4-8 hours all at once so you can split the pump time up at different parts of the day to ease your energy budget.

When You Need to

The problem with giving a blanket pump run time is that for certain cases you may want to increase the amount of time the pump runs, or lower it in other cases. For example, when starting up the pool, clearing algae, or dealing with other major chemical imbalances, you will want to have the pump run as much as possible to distribute the product and cycle through whatever mess you are trying to clear up. Whereas if you find you are having no troubles keeping up with pool maintenance, or if your pool is indoor and thus encounters less debris and environmental changes, you can reduce pump time until you find the Goldilocks run time that keeps your pool looking perfect while drawing as little power as possible.

As Much As You Calculate You Need/As Much as You Feel

If you were truly feeling industrious, you could calculate how often to run your pool based on gallonage, pump, debris, chlorine, and a host of other factors. Or you could just mess with the dial until you find your Goldilocks runtime. We are big proponents of the latter.

Many new pool owners are worried about how often they should run their pump, but they shouldn’t be. Just start out with 4 hours of daily runtime, and increase or decrease as necessary until you find a happy balance that keeps your pool clean without breaking the bank.