Good Day folks and THANK YOU for the web page showing the formula for figuring out our pool size and feet of head!
Question is, what pump would be best for our 10,550gal pool with a GPM of 217.7 and feet of head 105.25?
This is our community pool that has been neglected for many years and with 2 differant pipe sizes plus no way of knowing whats below ground from skimmers, the above caculations are based on guessing with a tape measure.
Thank You, papaJohn 
Hi PapaJohn,
Thanks for the kind words! Can you double check your #'s as something seems off? If your pool is 10,550 gallons then normally the pump would be sized to turn your pool over in 6 hours which would be more like 30 gallons per minute. So either the gallons for the pool is off or your estimated GPM is off. Please double check and get back with me.
FYI typically code for community pools state that the pool needs to be turned over in 6 hours and for residential pools this is 8 hours.
Thank You
Patrick
Thank You Sir-Patrick…! Will do!
Delema we are having is the pump we have is not turning the pool over in 6 hours. All caculations are based on best guess for this old girl. There are 2" pipe, 3" pipe, and we have no clue pipe size is from the 4 skimmers. No main drain.
Based on the 30 GPM for the pool of this size, what pump with 3" lines could you recommend?
Look forward to a recomendation kind sir…!!
You’re welcome, could you supply me with the length and width of your pool along with the depth at the deep end and the depth at the shallow end?
Thank You
Patrick
Good evening Sir-Patrick!
Took real measurements witha100’ tape, not the 30’ guessing with the eyeball.
Kidney shaped is 38’ (shallow) 21’ (deep) 73’ (length). Shallow end 3’, Deep end 9’. I’m showing 87,217 gallons ÷ by 6 hour complete turn around = 14,536. ÷ by 60 = 242 GPM, we have 2ea 30" sand filters.
Our biggest question is, with this pool that was built in the 1960s, we can only speculate. Is there 2" pipe running from the 4 skimmers? Who knows what direction to the pump house… There is 4" galvanized pipe coming up out of the floor to 3" into the pump. 3" out to a 2" “T” that feeds both sand filters all PVC. 2" out of filters to 3" return line. Telling you all this to help you understand how we “Assume” feet of head @ 105.25.
Attaching a pic of pump data plate. Poor thing runs so hot it’s scary (for us newbees). We are convinced it’s a curulation issue. Water testing is all in range, sand filters controls rebuilt with the “Right” sand added. She takes 24 to 36 hours to become clear again after our homeowners use the pool.
Thank You for taking the time, this is all new to us. Love learning new things but with all the unknowns, miss match of pipe size, we can only speculate.
I have been in touch with one of our pump manufacturers and they wanted to get the exact total dynamic head (TDH) for your pool, they stated they have an easy process to do this and they emailed over the instructions but forgot to include the attachment in the email with the instructions =(. So as soon as I receive those instructions I will forward them on to you, once we know the exact TDH then we can suggest the correct pump. Have a great 4th of July!
Thank You
Patrick
Thank You Sir-Patrick…!
May y’all have a happy 4th as well 
Ok here we go… the most accurate way to determine how many GPM’s any pump will output is to get a truly accurate TDH. To get an accurate Total Dynamic Head (TDH) you can follow this simple method as shown in this crude diagram below on how to determine TDH. We also wrote and article on How to Determine Total Dynamic Head with Gauges which takes a slightly different approach, both ways will work. If you need these gauges then we do carry the Pressure Gauge here and the Vacuum Gauge here. If you can give us your accurate TDH then we will definitely get you the correct pump the first time around =)
