The Truth About Pool Circulation and Efficiency

In this episode, Natalie Hood interviews Sean McDermott from H2 Flow to bust common myths about pool water circulation, flow measurement, and system efficiency. They explore how proper understanding and technology can improve water quality, safety, and energy use in pools.

keywords

pool water circulation, flow measurement, VFD, pool system efficiency, water quality, pool safety, flow meters, pool automation, pump protection

key topics

• Myth of continuous circulation with pump running
• Flow rate vs filtration effectiveness
• Importance of accurate flow measurement
• Role of VFDs in energy savings
• Mechanical issues masquerading as chemical problems

guest name

Sean McDermott

Sound Bites

• "Flow measurement is critical for safety"
• "VFDs are widely used in pools now"
• "Reducing pump speed saves energy"

Chapters

00:00
Introduction to Pool Water Movement and Misconceptions

00:55
Sean McDermott's Background and Industry Journey

03:35
The Industry Setup and Education in Pool Management

05:57
Myth 1: As long as the pump runs, circulation is proper

08:47
Myth 2: Higher flow always means better filtration

10:09
The importance of accurate flow measurement

11:42
The significance of flow measurement for safety

13:15
Flow meters: Accuracy matters

14:22
VFDs in residential and commercial pools

16:02
Modern VFDs and their ease of use

17:36
Autofill systems and automation benefits

18:56
Durability of outdoor pool systems

20:27
Pump protection and system safety

21:37
Low flow alarms and their role

23:30
Energy efficiency and pump speed reduction

25:01
Adjusting for environmental factors in pool operation

26:47
Water quality issues: Chemical vs mechanical causes

28:04
Mechanical issues masquerading as chemical problems

32:21
Final thoughts and advice from Sean McDermott

Resources

• H2 Flow
• NSF International NSF 50 Standard
• VFDs in Pool Systems
• Sean McDermott on LinkedIn

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:53

If you're not circulating the water enough, you're it's going to require a lot more chemical intervention, chlorine or whatever disinfectant you're using to maintain a clean and safe pool. And, you know, obviously a lot of people don't want to have outrageously high levels of chlorine in the pool, in indoor pools, especially because of uh because of trichloramine gas and trihalomethanes. Accuracy matters, right? If you have a speedometer that's 15, 20% off, you're probably gonna get honked at or get a lot of tickets.

SPEAKER_06 1:21

Right. Well, and that definitely debunks the next one. I don't know how much we have to touch on it, but it's you know, flow meters are all the same. They don't need to be accurate. I mean, that one right there, come on. Welcome back to the Talking Pools podcast, your go-to source for everything wet, wild, and wonderfully misunderstood in the pool world. I'm Natalie Hood, Director of Education and Network Development for The Grid Game. And today we're talking about a topic that's absolutely critical. And it's how water moves, actually moves through a pool system and all the misconceptions that come with it. And you know, there's plenty of myths out there that shape how people think about circulation flow rates, you know, equipment protection and systeming system efficiency. And so from the idea that a running pump automatically means proper circulation to the belief that higher higher flow um equals better filtration or that you can eyeball flow without accurate measurement. But the truth is the mechanical side of aquatics, it's far more nuisance and understanding it can unlock safer facilities, smarter energy use, and dramatically help with better water quality. And today I am joined by Sean McDermott, executive vice president of H2Flow, who brings deep expertise in flow measurement, pump protection, and system optimization across both residential and commercial aquatics. And today we're gonna buff some myths and share some real world examples. Sean, before we dive into the myths, can you kind of give our listeners a brief history of your background and how you came to your role at H2Flow?

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Wow, sure. I'll try to keep it short. So the short story of me getting into the pool industry is that I my father got me a job at a at a an appliance store working in the warehouse when I was 14 years old. And I worked there for one summer and went back the next summer and hated it. I hated every second of working there. We had to lift, you know, appliances over our heads and they they didn't believe in forklifts there. And that was well before any sort of anyone cared about workplace safety. So I rode my bike to work every day to get there, and I had to ride my bike through uh a pool store parking lot. Uh it was Lighthouse Pools in Maumee, Ohio. And one day, that particularly bad day in the warehouse, I was riding through and noticed that they had a help wanted sign in their in their window. So I went in and said, I don't know if you're looking to hire teenagers, but I take care of our pool at home and I'd love to work here. So that was the beginning. So from there, I've worked for, I've been lucky enough to work for a very diverse group of companies in many different roles. You know, while I was with Lighthouse Pools, I did some installation, I did hot tub installation, I did sales, I did water testing. I worked for Pool Corp for a number of years, which was a great experience. Worked for Matronics. The topic that we're dealing with today, I was lucky enough to work with a company called Dryden Aqua. They're a they're a European-based company, but they they do uh quite a bit of business here in the United States as well. And the founder of that company is a marine biologist and uh an expert in filtration. So I learned a great deal from them about uh circulation filtration and and all sorts of stuff on that topic. So um, and now yeah, I uh while going through COVID, my parents were getting older. We thought it would be a good idea to move back to Ohio where we're from and help take care of my parents. And I called up Paul Hackett, the uh founder of H2Flow, one day, three years ago, and asked if he knew anyone in the Toledo area who was hiring. And he said, We would love to talk to you. So that's uh that's how I landed here. And I love it. H2Flow is a fantastic company, and it's really cool to be able to collaborate with everyone here and bring ideas to to make ideas into products and bring them to the market. So super exciting.

SPEAKER_06 5:11

You guys have such a good setup too on the show floor.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_06 5:15

Yes, it was uh when we were what was the the Atlantic City show, I really got to experience it for the first time, and I was like, dude, this is awesome! Like you guys had a huge floor.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Yeah, well, shout out to Gavin Hackett, who is our CEO and our marketing guru. He he's responsible for that. And I just moved the stuff around where he tells me to put it. And but yeah, it did. It we won an award for the media, I think it was medium-sized booths, and yeah, it was a it was a great booth this this year. We we had a nice setup. Thank you.

SPEAKER_06 5:41

Yeah, and I love it too. I feel like, you know, every time I have someone on my episodes, I hear the same thing. Well, you know, I started out in the industry when I was young, and I it's like, you know, once you start, you just it's like the mafia. You can't get out, you're in it.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Yeah, you know what's cool about the pool industry and what's not cool? Two things. So, what's not cool is that there's no formal education. You know, you don't hear about being a pool professional when you're in high school. It's not a career path that people think about unless you have family involved in the industry. But what's really cool about that is that if you're like me and many others who started when they were 15 years old, all that knowledge and experience becomes extremely valuable as you advance in your career. So that's one of the one of the great things about the industry. And that's why you hear people say, I just couldn't get away from it. Well, yeah, of course you couldn't because you've got extremely valuable knowledge and experience that uh that people aren't getting outside of the industry.

SPEAKER_06 6:36

No, you're absolutely right. It's and you know, even though I grew up swimming and lifeguard swim coach, water safety instructor, I didn't really know there was much more outside of high school or, you know, just kind of that advanced um education until I really kind of got my feet wet and I was like, wow, there's like a whole industry. And even to this day, my husband's like, how is there still more to this industry? And I'm like, oh, baby, it goes on for days.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Yeah. And, you know, now finally we have we have some education really proliferating in the industry. And that's really awesome to see people learning about hydraulics and and uh, you know, filtration and chemicals. And there's a lot of great people doing some amazing education here in the industry now.

SPEAKER_06 7:17

There really is. And there's so many, there's so many things that change on the day-to-day basis, and you know, each jurisdiction and state is so different. So education is such key to growth, right? Well, absolutely. You were here to help us educate. And so, as you know, on Wednesdays we like to bust some myths. I used to love the myth mythbuster show, so I was like, of course, myth busting on Wednesdays.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

I love it.

SPEAKER_06 7:41

Yeah, but so let's kind of just dive right into them, if you will, feet first.

SPEAKER_04 7:45

You know what time it is? Wednesday vibes on the talking pools podcast. I'll roll it by, but I'm doing it now is on the line.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

Feel hacks, flashbacks, the legends are made. Laughs in the mix with the facts she lays. Every single segment got that reggae swade.

SPEAKER_06 8:45

Of course, myth busting on Wednesdays.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

I love it. Yep.

SPEAKER_06 8:48

But so let's dive right into them. It first one is as long as the pump is running, the pool is circulating properly. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Sure. So back in the day of single speed pumps, we didn't really have a choice whether it was circulating properly or not. And most of the time it wasn't, because we only had one flow rate to choose from. It was was super fast. And most of the time the pumps were oversized, especially on residential pools. So so no, absolutely not. If a pump is running, it doesn't mean it's circulating properly. Um, I always I like to compare, I you know, my one of my good friends in the industry made this comparison or this metaphor, I guess, is uh there's efficiency and there's effectiveness, right? So you can you can circulate a pool effectively on high speed, 3450 rpms, and you're circulating, it's high circulation is effective circulation. But it's like uh if you have a fly on your window and you hit it with a hammer. Well, that's effective, but it's not very efficient. Right, exactly. So you need you need to circulate the water at a sufficient rate to keep the pool healthy with with the the least of amount of chemical intervention possible, but not below that in the name of energy efficiency and and not above that in for the sake of energy efficiency. So yeah, there's each pool is going to be different on the commercial side. We have mandates that are are in place for you know for a swimming pool, for example, in most jurisdictions, it's a turnover every six hours. So we've circulated all the water in the pool within a six-hour period. Hot tubs are 30 minutes even. So on residential pools, though, it's highly determined by the amount of use the pool gets, where the pool's located, is it in the sun, is it in shade, what's the chemical balance and and how well does it stay balanced? So all those things contribute to a properly circulating pool. There are there are some guidelines and subjects, some suggestions that residential pool owners can go off of for turn turnover rates. But uh yeah, um, and along those same lines, with single speed pumps, people would run their pumps six hours a day, eight hours a day because it consumes so much electricity. With variable speed pumps now, you know, you don't drink water from a stagnant pond. You always look for the the fast moving water to drink water from when you're when you're out in the woods, right? So same thing with a pool. If you're constantly circulating the water, it's gonna achieve better results than if you run it for a period of time during the day and shut it off.

SPEAKER_06 11:17

Right. So then let me ask this do higher flow rates always mean that it's giving better filtration?

SPEAKER_01 11:23

So better circulation on the exact opposite with filtration. So a filter wants the the water or whatever media you're pushing through it to move through it as slowly as possible. A sand filter can be outrageously effective at filtration if you move the water slowly through it. So that either means that if you're properly circulating the pool, for example, let's use a commercial pool that's running at a six-hour turnover rate, the sizing of the filter, which again, there's a lot of education coming into play now with this, the sizing of the filter is critical because you need to size the filter large enough to move the water slowly through the media bed so that you're filtering effectively, but you also need a pump large enough to be able to backwash at a higher flow rate to get all the stuff that you collected out. So, yes, to answer your myth, no, actually circulating water more slowly through a filter means better filtration. But that doesn't mean that you want to under-circulate the pool.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

You're trying to find that sweet spot if you will. So usually that means you you need a bigger filter. You need more filtration area to push the water through.

SPEAKER_06 12:36

Right. And then with your background, would you say that you can eyeball flow or do you need a flow meter?

SPEAKER_01 12:43

No, you can't you can't eyeball flow. You can you can get pretty close using, you know, there's a lot of, again, along with that education theme, a lot of people teaching how to properly size a pump based on the plumbing and the filter, the plumbing configuration, the filters. There's calculations that you can do that allow you to uh know what your feet of head should be, and then size a pump using the pump curve from the manufacturer according to the the feet of head for the desired flow rate that you need. Um, so even with doing that, one of the funny phone calls that we get here at H2Flow, our customer service department, is your flow meter's wrong. I guess those are fun calls. Okay, well, they are NSF 50 level one tested for 98% plus accuracy. How wrong is it? Well, we're, you know, we're 15% off what the flow rate should be. And long story short, it ends up that the engineers calculated what the flow rate should be when the real world is telling a different story. That's that's what we run into. A flow meter, a good flow meter, any NSF 50 flow meter is gonna get you a much more accurate reading than calculating what your flow should be using even the best calculators out there, because real world situations are always gonna vary slightly.

SPEAKER_06 14:08

So what about for looking at accurate measurement, right? How it matters for safety and performance. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 14:15

So yeah, I mean, uh one of our one of our sayings that we have here is you wouldn't buy a car without a speedometer. Why do you have a variable speed pump without a flow without a flow meter, right? You know, if you're 15% off, 20% off uh on your flow because you have uh an inaccurate flow meter, uh in a commercial pool, that means that you're not you're not circulating water to the code. You're not circulating water to code. So very rarely is is anyone gonna check that. But if an inspector comes along and they want to use um, you know, an ultrasonic flow meter on your pipe and test the test the flow and they they discover it slowly, the pool's shut down. Um on a on a residential level and on a safety level, yeah. I mean, if you're not circulating the water enough, you're you're gonna use it's gonna require a lot more chemical intervention, chlorine or whatever disinfectant you're using to maintain a clean and safe pool. And obviously, a lot of people don't want to have outrageously high levels of chlorine in the pool, in indoor pools, especially because of uh because of trichloramine gas and trihalomethanes and things like this. But uh yeah, so so yeah, of course, it's yeah, accuracy matters, right? If you have a speedometer that's 15, 20% off, you're probably gonna get honked at or get a lot of tickets.

SPEAKER_06 15:35

Right. Well, and that definitely debunks the next one. I don't know how much we have to touch on it, but it's you know, flow meters are all the same. They don't need to be accurate. I mean, that one right there, come on.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Yeah, I mean, I'll be honest, most flow meters that are used in our industry are going to be relatively accurate compared to systems that guess or assume a flow rate. Um, you know, assuming a flow rate based on your feet of head calculation and the pump curve, a flow meter, any flow meter in the industry right now is going to be more accurate than that, right? There are some products out on the market that can estimate flow rates based on the electrical draw of the pump. Again, it's not an actual measurement. It's it's a it's a theoretical measurement. Yeah, those are not NSF 50 certified. But if you're using an NSF 50 certified flow meter, it's going to be relatively accurate enough to operate a pool safely. The more accurate you can be, I mean, the better, right?

SPEAKER_06 16:36

Right, right. So definitely look for high quality versus, I would say, the basic. Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_05 16:44

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SPEAKER_06 17:12

No for the full pro look for high quality versus, I would say, the basic.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Yes, exactly.

SPEAKER_06 17:19

Yep. What about variable frequency drives? Are they only for large commercial facilities?

SPEAKER_01 17:25

No. So VFDs, every variable speed pump that we have on the market today for residential use and for commercial use, they have the big, you know, the big box on the on the top of the motor. That is a VFD. So VFDs are are very widely used. A separate VFD, like the EcoFlow that we have, that is housed in a big durable housing and has a lot of provisions for cooling uh to operate larger pumps, five to a hundred horsepower, those are those are very widely used now in the industry. They're not mandated, I don't believe, for commercial use. But I mean, you're you can the amount of efficiency is unbelievable. The ROI on a facility installing a VFD is it's within 12 months usually.

SPEAKER_06 18:08

And where would you say that you're you're seeing VFDs make the biggest impact?

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Sure. Well, I mean, if we're looking at residential pools, you know, it has been mandated now any pump over 1.1 something horsepower has to be a VFD because of the efficiency gained. So from a sheer volume of VFDs being installed, although these are ones that are on a pump already, it would be on the residential side. But, you know, on the commercial side, yeah, I I think the only place that we're not seeing them as much is what we consider HMAC or Hotel Motel Apartment Complex. A lot of those are using smaller pumps, and now that they're, you know, they're gonna use residential pumps that have a VFD on them. But most of the large facilities now are using VFDs. It's it's really common at this point.

SPEAKER_06 18:57

Well, and I know that some of the old VFDs were people found them to be intimidating.

SPEAKER_01 19:04

Like, yeah, not just the old ones. Yeah, not just the old ones. So, you know, VFDs are not they're not a pool-specific product. They're used on conveyor belts, they're used on large commercial fans, they're used in tunnels to run the exhaust fans in tunnels. They have a huge range of use in mines to operate machinery. So they uh they're all designed. There, it's one design that is that has a menu structure for all of those applications. So there's hundreds of menu trees inside of a VFD, usually. Um, so you know it what it used to be that companies like us would have an expert that would know how to program them and that would travel around and do that for people, or they could do it over the phone. It would take hours to program a VFD, just simply pushing the buttons to move through the menus of all the stuff you didn't need. What we've done, a little bit of a little bit of a pat on the back to us, what we've done, and we've we've done this for years, is we created an aquatic controller that bypasses that menu structure. So anyone that can read read can go to this aquatic controller and answer less than 20 questions and have R V FD up and running on their facility.

SPEAKER_06 20:23

Pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 20:23

Yeah, it it really is.

SPEAKER_06 20:25

Very user-friendly too.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Yes, it makes a big difference. It's excellent for troubleshooting as well because we don't need to navigate through a ton of different uh menus to get answers that we need. So yeah, it that's been a big deal for us.

SPEAKER_06 20:38

Well, and then you know, kind of switching gears. I know it's been said that, you know, autofills, they're those systems are optional, that manual filling works just as well. But I've I've seen many instances where that pool's overflowed, yeah. Customer's not home, or the pool tech didn't want to wait around and he just up and left. Now you have an upset customer.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Right.

SPEAKER_06 20:59

So I I think that's been a big thing. So I mean, obviously they're extremely useful and Yeah, oh absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

Any type of automation is gonna make the the the pool ownership or the pool management owner, the pool management aspect of it much more enjoyable, much easier. So having an autofill device on your pool is a game changer, really, because you don't run into those problems. You don't you're not gonna go away on vacation and have your your pump run dry and and lose a pump because it burnt up. You're not going to throw the throw the hose in the pool and hit the treadmill and come out to your landscape being washed into the street, those sorts of things. So it just it just takes that off your plate um or off the facilities plate and uh it makes makes life a lot easier. It's actually more efficient that way.

SPEAKER_06 21:45

Uh you know, you're only using the amount of water that you really what about for uh let's say harsh outdoor conditions? How do they stand up against that? Like are the mo modern systems, are they designed for harsh outdoor? Sure.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

Yeah, I mean, you know, a lot of the systems are installed into the pool as it's being built, which is was kind of one of the, you know, if you didn't get a pool installed with an autofill, you weren't gonna get an autofill unless there's some that hang over the side of the pool wall and you know, connect a garden hose to it. But it's not really a it's not really a permanent installation. It's sort of a a stopgap. But uh but yeah, I mean it's oh sure. Yeah. Yeah. So again, any system that is gonna be installed into the pool is inherently weatherproof. Some of them are gonna need winterizing, just like the pool plumbing would. There are, you know, aftermarket solutions like like our level smart. Those are completely UV stable. They're meant to be in harsh environments. Our sensor can withstand freeze and thaw cycles. It can be frozen in a block of ice repeatedly. And so oh yeah, that I there's you know, I I think of the of the The popular autofill devices out there, if taken care of properly, if winterized, if that needs to be something that needs to be done, um yeah, they're they're in pretty good shape.

SPEAKER_06 23:04

Looking at pump protection, what would you say? Do you do you think the systems are really only necessary for older falling or failing equipment? That that was another big thing that kind of popped up when I was looking.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

I mean, obviously, pump protection is something that any system can can benefit from, whether it be uh, you know, freeze protection, where the the pump is going to turn on and operate at a certain RPM or flow rate, if the pump can do that in order to keep from freezing, run dry protection. Our device, the PSP20, is actually an anti-entrapment device, but it's also pump protection. You know, if there's a it's now that most pools are VGB compliant, what if a tennis ball gets sucked into the plumbing when they someone took the basket out, right? You have an immediate blockage and flow. If the pump it knows that, if it can recognize that, it's gonna save not just the pump, but a lot of the system as well. We have, you know, uh on the industrial side, not having to do with pools, but we do the same thing for electric motor protection and a product called PD 100, says Defender 100, um, that monitors electric motors in in industrial processes. Yeah, motor protection, you know, always nice to have.

SPEAKER_06 24:13

Right. Well, and I imagine too, I mean, that new equipment, you know, as you were saying, it's going to be just as vulnerable to uh for dry run, cavitation, and low flow. Absolutely. Um what about um that this is such good information. I'm getting an education history lesson right now, so I'm loving this. And I hope our listeners are too. This is really great stuff. So what about for um, let's say, low flow alarms? Some people say, oh, they're, you know, they're nice to have, but they're really not essential for safety.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

Sure. Yeah, I mean, you know, there's there's certain automation systems out there when they are combined with a flow meter, a good flow meter, an accurate flow meter that will alert the operator to a low flow. Critical, of course, in commercial. If you want to optimize your electrical efficiency, you have a VFD or you have a variable speed pump and you've got to operate on that in that you know narrow window of I'm meeting my turnover rate, but I'm not circulating twice as much water as I need to. If you don't have a VFD that can adjust the speed of the pump according to the flow rate, your flow rate's gonna decline as the the filter loads, as it loads up with debris. There's gonna be increased head pressure. The speed of the or the amount of water flowing is going to decrease. So you could find it if you don't have a way to know that without going and walking over all of your plumbing to look at your flow meter. If you don't have an alarm, then you know that could that could be to be overlooked. And we come up on inspection time and my gosh, you're not flowing at the proper rate. We'll shut you down today and we'll come back when we can to restart the pool once you're at the proper flow rate again.

SPEAKER_06 25:54

But should who knows when that will be if you get shut down, you have to wait for someone to come back out. Yeah. So it sounds like there's definitely a lot of energy efficiency like upgrades. And I know some people are like, oh, well, I really don't see a noticeable difference in operating costs, but I imagine I mean, you're saving time on energy, you're saving time on long runtimes. It's right there.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

Yeah. If I mean, there's plenty of information out there on the uh the affinity laws of pumps. It's not a it's not a linear curve. If you decrease the speed 50%, you don't use 50% less energy. You use a lot less energy. Um, I mean, it's a significant amount less. I I don't remember the number off the top of my head, but we're, you know, you're approaching 70% savings running the pump half as fast as it was on full speed. So it's it's a significant amount of savings. And with the benefit, for example, if you were running a filter six hours a day or a pump six hours a day, and now you're running it 24 hours a day, you can achieve more circulation, more turnover throughout that 24-hour period, and still spend less doing that than you would in that six hours of full speed operation. So the the savings not just on electricity, but on maintenance, because now you've got circulating water, which requires less intervention. So it's it's huge. Yeah. I I'd be if they're not noticing, they're not paying attention.

SPEAKER_06 27:20

Right. What about for those big commercial pools? I mean, I imagine they're they're gonna have to change how they run, you know, year-round. And some people think you don't need to make adjustments, you know, even though you're having those bather loads, that's gonna change. You have, you know, different vent different environmental factors, but that is another myth that I've heard people talk about. And I'm like, man, you guys are just wasting so much.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

Yeah. Yep. Exactly. Yeah, for sure. And from a safety standpoint, you know, a lot of facilities that run our VFDs and other VFDs will do they'll have cycles where they have a period of increased circulation during heavy bather load times and then decrease it at, you know, usually a day-night setting. That way they're still conserving as much electricity as possible at night, but they're getting that extra circulation and filtration during the day. But yeah, I mean, combine that with, let's say, outdoor facilities, for example. Let's say you're in a in an area where you can keep your outdoor pool operating year round, it's a heck of a lot different uh when it's a hundred degrees out. I mean, when you look at from a biological standpoint, bacteria thrives in a warm, wet environment. You know, again, if you're circulating the water more during that time, then you're then the pool will be will be safer theoretically than if you're circuit if you're not circulating it enough. So that's why turnover rates are a guideline. Um, and and you know, you can use some deductive reasoning or some trial and error on your own personal pool or the a pool that you operate to dial in what is working best. And if you're really keeping track of chemical usage, electrical usage, how often you're backwashing your filter, all these sorts of things, you can get as efficient as you possibly can. Effective and efficient, right? Not just efficient or just effective.

SPEAKER_06 29:14

Well, and that leads into kind of our last one that it's gonna go perfectly, that water quality issues are always chemical problems, not mechanical ones. But you've said it. I mean, you got poor distribution, poor chemistry.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

Right, right. Yeah. If you if you really want to run a pool as safely as possible, put your pump on high speed and let it run 24 hours a day, with the caveat that you've got the properly sized filter to run at that flow rate. But yeah, I mean, the the more you can circulate the water, the better. But that's that's not really the goal. It's optimizing energy consumption and circulation. You know, chemicals certainly play a huge role in uh water quality, but you know, one of the foundations of water quality is going to be filtration and circulation. So there's a lot of optimizing you can do with variable frequency, with constant flow. Constant flow, just you know, that's using using a flow meter to measure the actual flow, feeding that into an automation system and telling the pump what speed to run at to maintain the flow rather than saying I want to run at speed two or 1250 RPMs. That's, I mean, that's kind of irrelevant as far as the circulation is concerned. It just tells you how fast the motor's running. You want to know what the flow rate is. But yeah, constant flow or or at least knowing what your flow rate is with a flow meter is going to give you a leg up on that. Let's talk about um the circulation within the pool, within the volume of the pool water itself. You know, if you've got uh a poorly designed pool, a pool with one return line, you're you're going to have dead zones in that pool, essentially areas where water is not circulating as well as other as as as other areas. You may start to get uh a biofil buildup or an algae buildup in those areas frequently. And, you know, you're thinking, okay, well, my my chemical balance is wrong. Of course, you should test your water and make sure that your chemical balance isn't wrong. But you you may think, well, gosh, I guess I just have to run eight parts per uh eight parts per million of chlorine all the time. And then that's just the way it's gotta be to prevent this algae. But it could simply be that you just need to point your your return eyeballs a different direction to to let water circulate in that area, or blocked filters, which are reducing your circulation, a pump that's cavitated long enough to degrade the uh the impeller, so you're not getting the proper flow. So again, having a flow meter is gonna give you a window into what's going on there. But yeah, that's that anytime you're reducing your circulation or you have improper flow or dead spots in the pool could certainly mask itself as a as a chemical issue. And then dumping chemicals in it to remedy that is it's not it's not efficient. And it's also not ideal. It's better to maintain the pool in an optimized way than to band-aid it with something like that.

SPEAKER_06 32:06

You are so right. And I'm so glad there's for what you've shared today. This has been incredibly valuable. You know, we've covered a lot of myths, and I really appreciate the conversation about proper circulation because you are so true. I mean, there's so many misconceptions around flow meters, you know, VFDs, autofill systems, and I think that is, you know, something that is quietly driving so many water quality problems.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

Right, right, absolutely. Yeah, we hear it quite a bit at the trade shows, especially. We hear, well, I I calculate my flow rate and then and then I I consider that good. Or one of the one of the things that we hear quite a bit with our flow viz is that it's also a check valve. So a lot of pools get check valves installed. But what happens is we'll have frugal installers that use our lid to check the flow, get everything dialed in, take our lid off and put the check valve lid back on. Now you have no way of diagnosing a flow problem later on. So it, you know, you'll set up a heat pump to operate optimally with uh within a bypass, for example, and you take our flow vis out, and then you can't figure out why the heat pump isn't heating the pool. It's because your filter's dirty and but you didn't know that because you're you don't have a flow meter to tell you that. So or someone decides to mess with uh some water feature valves, and now your flow is screwed up and you have a different head pressure and it's not working. So a lot of those things. The flow meter is in a super inexpensive way to run a pool optimally, but also diagnose issues down the road.

SPEAKER_06 33:39

It's not just the mechanical side of aquatics, it's not just pumps, pipes, and pumps. There's so much to the foundation of you know, water safety and water quality. So you hit it right on the head. Is there, before we jump off, is there anything that you would like to leave our listeners with?

SPEAKER_01 33:54

Sure. I would just say continue getting that education, continue educating yourself on hydraulics, especially, and use a flow meter.

SPEAKER_06 34:02

Yes, use a flow meter. And if anyone had any questions, they wanted to touch base with you, how would they get in touch with you?

SPEAKER_01 34:07

Sure. Um, you know, you can contact uh our office here. My email is Sean S-E-A-N dot McDermott. I'm not the former coach of the Buffalo Bills. Sean dot mcdermott, m-c-d-e-r-m-o-t-t at h2flow.net. That's probably the best way to get a hold of me. Or LinkedIn, of course. I'm, you know, hit me up on LinkedIn. Always happy to talk there as well.

SPEAKER_06 34:28

Yep. And I think I share quite a bit of your stuff on my social media pages. Yep. When people can always touch base with me as well. Well, Sean, thank you for sharing your expertise and helping us break some of these misconceptions down in a way that it's really practical and easy to apply. And again, to our listeners, if you have any questions, by all means, you can reach out to me or Sean. We will make sure to have his information listed. But that's our that's uh today's episode. And if it sparked any questions or made you rethink how your your system is running, feel free to reach out. You know, like you said, the more you learn, the better we all get keeping our pools safe, efficient, and performing the way we should. That's right. Yeah. All right. Thanks, guys. Thanks, Sean, and until next time, stay curious, stay informed, and keep those pools running smart.