Onga SuperFlo VS 800

Good pump but annoying high pitched noise – Good pump so far but it makes a high pitched sound which is annoying. This was from new as soon as it was started. Coming from the motor.

A POOL PUMP THAT WORKS WELL - ONGA SUPERFLO VS 800 for $842 – My old pool pump gave up the ghost so I had to get a replacement. Research on Product Review and elsewhere led me to go for a new type, the variable speed ones because of their energy saving in contrast to much cheaper single speed pumps – the type my old one was. I whittled it down to two brands, Onga and another both of similar price. In my research I saw pool pumps were generally replaced in 12-15 years. Mine was 30 years old when it stopped. As it was an Onga that lasted for 30 years and as the new VS appeared to be more simple to control than the other brand and even though it had only 3 speeds instead of the other’s 4 speeds, Onga won the day although I have seen some strong criticisms of some recent Onga pumps. On price comparison I found Pool-n-Spa Warehouse was the cheapest at $842.93 after a discount of $26.07 with free post on their Ebay advertisement.

PROS: Variable speeds to save energy at slower speeds: high 2850 revs, medium 2400 revs, low 1650 revs. The high setting can be slowed down in 50 rev increments and low can be slowed down to 1000 revs manually by pressing the buttons to adjust the speed – hence it is really more than just 3 speeds. Energy saving at slower speeds: on high 2850 revs it runs at 800W* approx, medium 2400 runs at 500W* approx, low 1450 runs at 130W* approx. and when set to 1000 it runs at 50W* approx. (*calculated from my Fronius Solar Web data). Runs quietly and extremely quiet on lowest speed. Reasonably straight forward to install. Weather resistant materials that won’t rust (unlike my old Onga).

CONS: As the pump to pipe connections were a different size and type and slightly different distances apart to the old one, I had to cut off the pipes to install the new connections and thus had to add small lengths and elbow bends – a tricky job for a mere amateur. It’s easier to install one from scratch rather than fit into an existing system. I daresay with more experience at doing this type of job, it would be easy. So, it’s barely a con.

USING THE PUMP: I ran it on high speed to see it pumped OK – good, strong flow, very quiet compared to old pump. Used high speed to vacuum, with Zodiac, the pool for a few hours. Then manually vacuumed walls and parts of floor the Zodiac always misses. The pump worked well for both types of vacuuming. I tried the other speeds - Medium and then Low at 1450 and 1000 revs to check the energy consumption.

DEFINITELY AN ENERGY SAVER: Leaving the pump running at 1000 revs and consuming only 50W, it should over a long period according to what I have read about VS pumps, change 50,000 litres. So when chlorinating for 24 hours it consumed only about 50W X 24 = 1.2KWH which is far less than running the pump on high speed for several hours. This is an important factor as I may go “stand alone” by buying a battery to implement my solar electricity system in the future. The VS should have little effect on my household energy use.

RECOMMENDATION: At this stage I feel it is an excellent buy. I just hope I don’t experience the same problems with the pump and after sales service as some reviewers have had. I intend to review this in several months and then a year’s time.

Now 2 years later: The Pump works well. Very reliable, economical. By the way I bought it from pool and Spa Warehouse. This name doesn't;t come up n the list of retailers for clicking on.