Unrelated to the video, but related to your linked article: I wouldn't recommend the Black and Decker because any power interruption, no matter how brief, will leave the unit off until you manually restart it. Which means when you go on vacation and the power goes out for 1/10th of a second it won't ever come back on. Incredibly stupid of them to program it like this.
Video idea: I have seen many people online, myself included installing gauges on the suction side and pressure side to calculate TDH. Using suction side vacuum X 1.31 and pressure side psi X 2.31 to figure TDH. Then taking those measurements at the given RPM's on the performance curve for the pump to calculate GPM. I am curious to see how accurate this method is. With your equipment on your test set up you could do the same calculations and compare them to the flow meter you have. If they are accurate this could be a more cost effective solution to checking flow compared to installing a flow meter.
Wow, very interesting. How is the tank pressure only 11psi at max? My 2hp single speed pump has my filters (DE style 48 sf) at 18psi when i clean them.
Any advice for a quality pump with variable speed for a small pool? These things are always huge and overkill. While the dedicated smaller filterpumps are always crap, have tiny baskets and filters, not powerfull enough for cleaning robots, single speed, etc
Hayward Super pump and maxflo both have a 0.85hp variable speed model which would fit the bill. Yes you are correct that many / most VS pumps are overkill for small pools. In general I woild say that equipment manufacturers do not cater to or make provisions in their lineup for small pools.
@snowlucky3 every VS from every brand I have tested all show the wattage consumption lower than the actual I measure through triple redundant external meters. I attribute this to the on board meter approximating consumption based on motor speed settings, not actual voltage (which varies) or the power consumed by the control circuit on the pump itself. Pentair, at least thr 342001 model I have consumes a not-insignificant amount of power at full stop. More than say this Tristar does with the motor actually running! The on board meters read zero when the pump is off, always, but in reality the control circuit is an appreciable load unto itself. On average actual consumption is 10% greater than the onboard meters from every manufacturer I have tested so far.