When I began, I used pg_dump with the default plain format. I was unenlightened.
Research revealed to me time and file size improvements with pg_
PG_DUMP | always use format-directory and -j options
time pg_dump -j 8 -Fd -f /tmp/newout.dir fsdcm_external
PG_RESTORE | always use tuning for postgres.conf and format-directory and -j options
work_mem = 32MB
shared_buffers = 4GB
maintenance_work_mem = 2GB
full_page_writes = off
autovacuum = off
wal_buffers = -1
time pg_restore -j 8 --format=d -C -d postgres /tmp/newout.dir/