WATER FLOW CALCULATOR How much water is actually flowing through your filter or over your waterfall? Pump specifications are helpful in making Kentucky windage guesses, but are not accurate predictors of actual water flow in a specific application. In addition, as filters become clogged and sediment builds up in pipes, the flow will diminish over time. Velocity flow meters can provide such information in commercial settings, but there is an easier and much cheaper way to accurately measure flow in your own pump system. All you need are a bucket of known capacity, a stopwatch, and a piece of flexible tubing of a diameter larger than your output pipe (So as not to restrict flow once the water has exited your system.).
You will have to be sure that the top of the bucket is lower than the output of the water flow you are going to measure. Arrange the flexible tubing so that all of the water exiting your filter system can be quickly diverted back and forth between the bucket and your pool. Quickly switch the flow to the bucket, simultaneously starting your stopwatch. When the bucket is full, stop the stopwatch and switch the water flow back to it's normal path.
Then come back to your computer with the following information: 1. The size of your bucket in gallons, and 2. The number of seconds it took to fill your bucket. Enter these amounts below and click the Calculate button. That's all there is to it!
Last modified on August 1, 2004
