Poolio-

Congratulations on your new pool. We just opened our new pool a month ago and I can understand your situation regarding pre-teen energy causing too much water in the trough. I too have an infinity edge and the ability to change speeds on the infinity edge pump to have different waterfall effects. I have a 2 speed pump instead of variable speed.

Our infinity edge system sounds similar to yours in size, 16 feet of infinity edge in an arc with the trough being 3 feet deep by 3 feet wide or about 1,300 gallons. The pool is 30,000 gallons for a ratio of 23:1. An autofill system keeps the trough water level at the bottom of the 6" waterline tile when the pump is running on high speed. My PB said this is to protect the life of the plaster. When the pump is off, the trough level rises to just below the overflow pipe which is halfway up the 6"tile.

From my experience so far, the higher pump flow is needed to remove heavy overflow from large waves. The low speed, which is about 50 gpm in my case, will handle moderate waves all day long, but larger waves over short timeframes require high speed to remove the water from the trough fast enough, about 140 gpm in my case.

I would not recommend keeping the waterline below the tile line to expose plaster very long. This is not good for the life of the plaster and will only delay and not eliminate overflow when the big waves persist for long periods of time. It is the rate of water removal that is important when heavy waves happen and not the trough volume. The extra trough volume will only delay overflow but not entirely prevent overflow.

Regarding sound at high speed, do you have a throttle valve at the discharge of the pump. Sometimes this valve can be used to adjust the backpressure on the pump and minimize sound at the cost of slightly higher watts. Although I think the 4x160 will try to compensate for the backpressure and run faster which may increase sound and watts. Someone else who knows this pump will have to help with this question.

After living with our infinity edge pool for a month now, I am glad we have one. The advantages outweigh the disadvantages from our perspective.

Advantages: The appeal and wow factor plus built in skimmer for leaves and anything else that floatsÂeasier to clean debris out of a 3x3 trough instead of the pool itself.

Disadvantages: Water loss due to heavy waves when pump is on low speed. Water loss due to rainfall is also increased because the trough canÂt hold as much extra water as the pool could without the infinity edge, this is where a larger trough volume would help.

Did I mention the wow factorÂ.we love our infinity edge despite the water loss shortcomings which are minimal.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply. It's nice to be able to compare notes. The 4-160 noise is from a fan to cool the electronics, sounds like a hair dryer. The wet end I think is quiet. Hmm have to rig a float to switch to high speed when the trough gets full. Have to check to see if the levelor autofill has this built in.

I had never been in an infinity edge pool before and was VERY pleasantly surprised with the neg edge effect while swimming. Makes it very inviting to swim and see something other than tile, coping, trees and sky! Yup it's got wow factor. I highly recommend it if you have a view.

Poolio-

Great minds think alike! During pool construction, I ran across one of Levelor's products that does have both a high and low level switch for autofill and pit evacuation. The links is http://www.levolorproducts.com/K2000/index.asp

I ultimately decided to go with the standard Levelor low level switch, model K1100, for autofill only. The biggest reason was I did not want the pump running on high speed during prolonged rainstorms like we are prone to here in Louisiana. Then I would not only be losing water but also wasting energy!

With 50 gpm at low speed we very rarely have to switch to high speed. Only when adults start jumping into the pool from the waterfall, do we consciously have to remember to engage high speed. Which is OK because high speed also start the big waterfall roaring and reminds us that high speed is on.

Regarding the cooling fan noise, that makes sense. I'm in the HVAC industry and we are developing a variable speed compressor. Our market research showed fan noise and fan life on these drives to be areas of customer dissatisfaction. This was surprising to us, but has changed our development plans. We are now planning to use the system refrigerant to cool the drive instead of a fan. Maybe someone in the pool industry will figure out how to use pool water to cool the drive instead of a fan!

Hope this helps!

Just wanted to say I love your screen name. Would also love to see pics!

I have the same problem. I usually don't even bother running the pump; it's either waste the water or the electricity, I'm not sure which is the greater evil. If I ever do another neg edge pool, I'm going to take the first spec and then have them double the size of the catch basin.

I am planning to build a swimming pool. A negative edge pool. I need to know what is the size of the channel between the deck and the swimming pool that collects water? How do we clean the channel? Is there a grill on the channel? I'm not sure I'm using the right terminology. Thanks

Hello Had Alu. Are you in the Los Angeles, California and surrounding areas? If so, we at Ultimate Water Creations have been designing and building pools for over 30 years and would be happy to talk with you. Please see information about us and photos of our projects at www.ultimatewatercreations.net or contact us at ultimatwtr@aol.com or 310-446-1614. We look forward to hearing from you.

We are in San Francisco. We are still not sure about our requirements.

I see from photos that water overflows over the perimeter into little ducts. These small ducts are between the swimming pool and the deck. The look is sleek and modern, but these ducts are not covered, so we are worried. Our queries are as follows:

How big is that duct?

How can we clean the duct?

Isn't it dangerous for little toes to get stuck in it?

Is it the same construction as a normal overflow swimming pool but with a smaller duct?

Sorry many questions but my husband is worried that our grand kids' toes will get stuck. I am worried that algae will build up there.

We are in the process of designing a pool. Very exciting and of course we want to get it right! The pool would be situated in the upper terrace of a two level section with the lower level running straight out from the doors at the back of the house. The thoughts are to have the infinity edge dropping off into the lower level. So it would be a bit of a waterfall feature so to speak ( a back to front infinity edge as most run away from the eye and drop off not drop off in front of you). My husband has decided that the noise of the edge will be a problem and wants to scrap the idea! What is the noise likely to be created both when empty and then with swimmers? The pool is approx 6 x 4 metres- so not large.