Deep clean sand filter, a word of caution!

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cameradude

cameradude

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Bronze Supporter
Apr 26, 2016
29
Phoenix, AZ
Hi all,

I have been a lurker here for 4 years, there is so much great info here that this is the first time I feel like I have something useful to add.

I moved into my current house with a pre-existing in-ground pool 2 1/2years ago. I do my own basic pool care and the water has always looked good but not quite sparkling clear so I decided to do a deep cleaning on the sand filter.

I am confident that the PO never did anything like this to the filter, the water started out looking like coffee with one cream in it! After over 90 minutes (!) it was looking respectable enough that it was time to button it all back up. After a couple hours of running the pump I went out to have a look and there was sand in my pool. I figured I had gotten carried away with the deep clean and damaged a lateral so I got a new lateral assembly

When I removed the old lateral assembly I was shocked to see that the laterals were in fine condition! Then I noticed something at the bottom of the laterals, there is nothing to stop them from extending beyond 90 degrees to the stand pipe which opens a gap at the junction which is plenty big for sand to go through:






The new lateral assembly has a tab to prevent this:


All of that to say, if you have older equipment and are doing a deep cleaning be very careful you do not accidentally push a lateral down and cause a gap.
 
VERY helpful! Do you think there would be a good, safe way to keep it from happening? Maybe something you could put on it (that will stay)???

THANKS for sharing AND the pics to show what you were talking about!

:hug:

Kim:cat:
 
I can't think of anything that would prevent it, it does not require much pressure to push it down especially if there is a flow of water pushing the sand out of the way below it. Here is another picture that shows how there is nothing to stop it.


I suppose you could rig up some sort or support for it but a new assembly is $55 so by the time you buy pvc or whatever to use as a brace, at then end of the hassle you'd end up not saving much money.

I considered reusing this one for about 5 seconds and decided it was not worth the possible heartache of having to empty the filter again!
 
Its a Hayward S-244T. I have no idea how old it is but the serial number is 320J28W, I tried to look it up but the format of mine seems different from the serial numbers used since 2005.

I don't know if this will help people but the stand pipe is not white, it is kind of a peach color. I am not sure if it was always this color or if it is a result of years in the chemicals.

 
I was doing an autopsy on the failed lateral assembly and when I opened it up I saw that there are tiny tabs inside that were supposed to prevent over extension:



Obviously these are too small and poorly placed to do the job given the harsh environment of a sand filter. The new version with a large tab on the outside and placed where the force occurs looks far stronger.
 
Looking at that lateral ball joint, I would imagine if you put a small stainless steel screw into the bottom of the ball joint that rested against the central hub on the bottom, that would be a fix to keep the lateral from dropping too low.
 

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Yeah, the ball joints are resonably thick, they should hold a small screw strong enough to stop the over extension.
I am still happy I got a whole new assembly because the old standpipe was very brittle and might have failed in the near term. I managed to twist out all but one of the old laterals undamaged so now I have 9 backups just in case.
 
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