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Almost every-other-day for the last week
and a half the pressure gauge on my pool filter has looked like
this. Normal pressure is around 7psi. When it gets this high,
it's time to backwash the filter. When you start backwashing
every-other-day you've got a problem. When this first started
happening last week, I did a little research and
learned frequent backwashing means the filter needs cleaning.
Backwashing basically runs the
water backwards through the filter and out a drain to give it a
rinse. After so many rinses, it needs a cleaning. For my system
there are two ways to clean it. I can pull it all apart and soak my
filter grids in acid, or pour the acid into the filter and let
it soak in there without actually opening the filter. I chose the
easier route and crossed my fingers. Saturday morning I did the deed
and the pressure went back to normal. Saturday night
the pressure was still good, so I shut the filter off for
the night.
Sunday morning I got up early, turned the filter
on and left for most of the day. I got home later that
afternoon to discover the pressure had been steadily
building throughout the day. When I got home tonight, this where the
pressure was.
Another odd phenomenon in all this was a white
cloudy dust building up at the bottom of my pool. It wasn't
really dirt, because the vacuum wouldn't clean it. I went back
to the pool store today and explained my situation to one of the
"pool boys." He immediately had an idea as to what was going
on. One or more of my grids had a hole in it and was allowing the
D.E. filter material to pass through the filter and into the pool
(the white cloudy stuff). The pool is only supposed to have a
specific amount of D.E. material. By allowing it into the pool, then
filtering it, too much was building up in the filter and causing the
pressure to soar. He suggested I pull the filter
apart and check
my
grids.
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So here's my
filter. The pink lung-looking
things are the
filter
grids.
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The guy at the shop
said it might be difficult to find the hole and explained a few
involved ways of finding it.
Lucky for me, it was pretty obvious.
It was also obvious these grids were trashed. In addition to holes
the
plastic skeletons of many of the grids were cracked and
broken.
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The guy also said to
be very careful taking it apart and getting it back together -
everything goes in a
special way. I took lots of photographs and
even numbered the grids to make sure I got them back the way
they came
out.
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Notice the sludge in the
bottom? I can't imagine what this looked like before I put the acid
in it on
Saturday.
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The one of the
left is fresh out of the filter. The one on the right has been
sprayed off with the hose. I'm not
really sure where the pink
coloring comes
from.
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The bottom of the filter
canister all cleaned
out.
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My first attempt to
reassemble was done in the canister. It didn't take long to realize
that was nearly
impossible and probably explained how
the grids got broken. I pulled everything out and flipped it
upside
down. The grids fit into the top piece (now on the
bottom) one way and one way only. Using gravity they
popped right into place. The blue piece was just a guide
with bolts running all the way to the top piece.
Upside down and outside the
filter was definitely easier to put it together.
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Now it's all back
together and running. I'll run it overnight and see where the
pressure is tomorrow morning.
In the meantime I've ordered new
grids for it. If the pressure stays down, then I've certainly
identified and
taken the right steps to solving my problem.
The next thing will be getting the D.E. out of the
pool. |
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So I ordered
new grids, but ordered the wrong size. Had to reorder, then it
rained for four days. Finally
over a week later I get the right
filter grids and get a chance to install. When I powered up
the pump and
let the air rush out the valve at the top, the
water squirted out stronger then ever before. I brushed all the
D.E. in the pool to get it stirred up and
will let the filter run over night. Now it's a waiting game I
guess.
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I also "fixed" by
backwash leak. I was plugging the backwash port between
backwashings. With this valve
installed, I
should only have to turn it on (and the Multi-port valve) to
backwash. At some point I need to
figure out what gasket my
Multi-port valve takes, order a new one and see if that fixes the
leak.
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