Pipe Diameter ABCs

Pipes are pipes, right? Anything that moves water from point A to point B will get the job done, so long as it doesn’t leak, right?

Well, not right, as I discuss in the video linked below. Of all the conceptual advances made within the watershaping industry in the past 20 years, I’d have to say that watershapers’ awareness that pipe size really does matter and that big pipes are better than little ones may well be the most significant of all.

Again, this is all about communication: Yes, big pipes cost more than little ones, but if you go with big ones, the month-to-month cost of running the circulation system drops dramatically because the flowing water encounters less resistance and turbulence as it passes through the system.

And here’s the clincher: All you have to do is take your client to visit a house where there’s a system running with inch-and-a-half pipes and have them listen to the oversized pump screaming bloody murder as it struggles to push water through the constraints of the plumbing system. Then take them by a place where the system was installed using two-and-a-half or three-inch pipes and compare the experience. It doesn’t take much to persuade them that quieter pump operation is a true, long-term asset!

To see how I start working through this issue, click here.

Lew Akins operates Ocean Quest Pools out of three offices in central Texas. He started in the pool business in California in the late 1970s, opening his own design/build/retail firm in Texas in 1984. Widely acknowledged as a pioneer of the vanishing-edge concept, he added “design consultant” to his list of services in 1998. He may be reached at [email protected].