get the vaiable speed, but shop around, it shouldn’t be 3x the price, install it yourself, it’s easy. I found 2 speed pumps online for $500 in sixty seconds of searching. In my last house i had a two speed pump and it filered in low speed but when I was heating the pool or running the spa, I ran the higher speed. The control panel had a problem once, they wanted 1k for new one, and I fixed for $20. It was a plastic sliding switch, made by tyco, I ordered a dozen for $20 and then took it to a TV repairman to replace it, looked a lot like a mother board to a computer. I gave that house and that pool to my ex-wife and the next time something went wrong she installed a few thousand dollars worth of new equipment because that is what the pool guy told her to do. I have little to no faith in most pool repair/installation people. If you find a good one, good for you. but it’s a problematic as car mechanics, probably worse. The stuff is not rocket science, just a few components, most are easy to swap out and are a fraction of the cost if you DIY, just think of it as sprinklers with a lot more pressure. All of the schematics and parts are available online.
