Pentair EC-342001 - SuperFlo VS Variable Speed Pool Pump, 1.5 HP - Limited Warranty

This is a terrific pump and a direct replacement for a Hayward Super Pump. My Hayward was getting pretty old and I debated single, dual, or variable speed replacement. This is my third season for this Pentair, and it is great. If you are at all handy, you can swap this pump in with little effort. One tip, if you are using the old screw in fittings from the Hayward, seal them with Hercules Real-Tuff as opposed to teflon tape ... seals and works much better (won't leak or suck air into pump basket).It is easy to learn to use and you can set three different speeds, and also a quick clean speed. The speeds vary from 300 RPM to 3600 RPM. I replaced a Hayward 1 1/2 HP motor. Going by the filter pressure, the new Pentair speed of 3000 RPM seemed to be equal to the single speed Hayward Pump speed. When first started, the Pentair ran at 3600 RPM and showed a higher filter pressure, and pushed "junk" from my filter into the pool. I now run the Pentair at a maximum speed of 3000 RPM.The pump gives great flexibility and is a good bit quieter than the Hayward Super Pump, especially on the lower speeds. It also runs very cool ... my old Hayward was always very hot to the touch. I find I use speeds 3000, 2000 and 1400. My pool heat pump runs fine on the first two, but 1400 is too slow to run the heat pump. I run 3000 RPM when using my Polaris 360. The energy savings on the slower speeds is substantial, and you can read the watts used on the digital read out. It is good to have at least 6" above the pump so that you can flip the control panel cover up and down.I guess you could remove this cover if you did not have enough room above the pump (to your pipes). With the pump basket in front the read out numbers are upside down, but that is no problem at all to read and use. I have the "quick clean" cycle set at 3000 RPM and duration of one hour.Whatever speed I'm running, if I want to add chemicals or run the Polaris, I just hit the "quick clean" button and I'm good to go.This pump gives great flexibility, energy saving, quiet operation and I can't think of any negatives at all. Terrific pump, highly recommended!

First attempt at purchasing and installing this pump was a bust. I had bought it from Walmart and got it all hooked only to find the computer was dead, screen was blank. I returned to Walmart and bought on Amazon. Hooked it up last night and worked perfectly! Very easy to program. The noise level at full 3450 rpm is different in natural from my old 2hp single speed Pentair Whisperflo but about the same level. However when you lower the speed to 1800rpm or less the noise level is almost negligible. Very quite. I have a salt generator as well and I lowered the speed to around 800 rpm before it tripped the flow sensor in the salt cell. Therefore I set the long run time on the VS to 1100 rpm. At that rpm it was showing 90watts of power consumptions! About like a light bulb! For reference when running full 3450 rpm it was reading 1500watts!! There will be huge savings on electric bill with this amount of reduction in wattage. Very pleased so far. Let's see it the pump stands the test of time.

I was hesitant about getting a VS pump but felt it should be considered. After over 6 hours of research and puring over power usage data, performance and various manufacturers I dedided on the Pentair 342001. The only issue I found with Pentair was the professional installation requirement for the full warranty, but did not want to pay the inflated price of $300.00 +. I have been a DIY guy my whole life and a good background with pools and electrical so I figured to give it a go.Decided to do my own install and purchase the Amazon extended warranty to cover what would be the "normal" Pentair warranty. The install was very easy. Had to replumb some PVC pipe using the best heavy duty glue available at HD. The power was connections were SUPER EASY. The Pentair system recognizes your avaialbe power and adjusts itself accordingly. I used adjustable appliance feet to make leveling easier and also to help with vibration of which there is very little anyways with this motor.Performance: Wow what a difference!! This motor is so quite it's hard to know that it is running. My pool filteration system was down for over a week while I gathered data and waited for the unit to arrive so you could see the water was struggling even though I added chlorine to keep it from going swampy on me. Ran the pump for 24 hours at 3000 rpm to while I balanced the chemicals. You could see the difference in in just 12 hours and by 24 hours the water was crystal clear. Changed the DE in the filter and ran it for another 24 hours just to make sure.The volume of water filtered through the system and the exit waterflow back into the pool is amazing. Should have done this a long time ago. No more loud noise and hopefully no more huge electric bills.Put the energy rating at 4 stars becasue I have not been able to gather enough data to see the savings at this point. Will really be able to know by this summer and will update the review.

I bought the exact same pool pump that I had. The old one had hairline cracks and was leaking. This pump do to being the same one was easy for me to replace. Disconnected the fittings and easily fitted the new pump with no issues. I installed it September 2024. It works perfectly. Make sure you register it for the warranty. If you have a certified pool company install your pump the warranty is longer. I guess Pentair don’t trust the do it yourself mechanic.