Canister filter vacuum to waste

[waskydiver]

Long story short: I have a canister filter that replaced a sand filter. The plumbing is set up with a diverter valve that diverts the water to waste instead of returning to the pool. The problem is that it diverts the water to waste after it goes through the filter. So if I vacuum to waste I end up just returning relatively clean water to waste and I need to clean my cartridges too often.

I was thinking about moving the diverter so that it goes to waste before entering the filter but... work. And, I'm not sure if that's a good idea or not. I mean: Why would they install the diverter after the filter if not for a good reason? Also, I would only really need it once a year when I do the opening muck-out.

My thought is to simply remove the drain plug at the bottom of the cartridge canister and just dump the waste water on the ground there. Yea, it's messy but I'm OK with that and it would save me many hours of work.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Thanks!!

 

[HermanTX]

Appears you had a backwash valve on the old sand filter which is why that waste line is where it is.
Whoever replaced it, just did the easy thing of tying that waste line into the outlet side of the cartridge filter.
The waste line can be tied into the inlet side but would take some time to cut the pipe and install a tee, etc. You have a long section of straight pipe leading from the pump to the filter that would be ideal to cut and install the tee to the waste line.

 

[waskydiver]

Appears you had a backwash valve on the old sand filter which is why that waste line is where it is.
Whoever replaced it, just did the easy thing of tying that waste line into the outlet side of the cartridge filter.
The waste line can be tied into the inlet side but would take some time to cut the pipe and install a tee, etc. You have a long section of straight pipe leading from the pump to the filter that would be ideal to cut and install the tee to the waste line.

I'm a little intimidated to tie into the existing waste line, where the diverter is because of the lack of space. Also, the existing waste line just goes out to another place in the yard and I end up flooding two neighbors' yards (in addition to my own) when I divert to it. If I was going to install a tee on the longer pipe (I like that idea), I would be inclined to just run a new waste line, even if it's very short.

So that's why I am wondering if it's worth the hassle of doing the plumbing in the first place if I can just remove the drain valve and dump the water out of that.

 

[HermanTX]

I'm a little intimidated to tie into the existing waste line, where the diverter is because of the lack of space. Also, the existing waste line just goes out to another place in the yard and I end up flooding two neighbors' yards (in addition to my own) when I divert to it. If I was going to install a tee on the longer pipe (I like that idea), I would be inclined to just run a new waste line, even if it's very short.

So that's why I am wondering if it's worth the hassle of doing the plumbing in the first place if I can just remove the drain valve and dump the water out of that.

It’s your choice. Just keeping that existing waste line valve closed and if you add a new one on the output side of the pump. You may need to consider a 3 way valve (which would act as the “tee”) as you want to push all waste to the waste line by closing off the path to the filter. Look up Jandy 3-way never lube valve which are easy to install if you so desire to tackle a new waste line. If you just have it as your current line, you have some go to the waste line but also, you will still have flow to the filter as the pump will push water to the path of least resistance.

The down side of just pulling the filter drain plug is that you cannot run the pump while you vacuum to waste. If all you do is drain the filter then you will remove some but not all the debris. You might want to consider removing the top of the filter and cleaning it depending on how much debris you think you are putting into it.