My pool is between 35-40k gallons. I will definitely take your advice and try to run the pump less during the winter and see how it does. I find that during the winter, the chemical stay balanced much longer.

I don’t think there’s any hard rule either, but I had my pump replaced by an experienced pool guy and that’s what he recommend after he finished installing it. I tried running it for 4 hours before w/ the old pump between 8 and 12 and it required more chemical to keep it balanced. If I don’t check chemical regularly and run the pump only 4 hours, after a few weeks, I start to see algae start to grow.