Hello,
My name is John, but my nickname is JoRo. You can call me either. I'm excited to be part of this community! Just wanted to say hello and introduce myself. I live in Florence, Alabama, which is in the northwest corner of the state. Most people know it generally as "the Shoals." My pool is an above ground 4,400 gallon Intex metal frame pool with 15'x48" dimensions and I love having the pool, but the trouble and costs have been a bit more than I foresaw when I bought it on clearance at the end of last summer.
I'm not really sure if I should go into the problem I have here in the introduction or maybe take it to the Getting Started section, but I don't guess it would hurt to bring it up here. I just bought the Intex 2100gph sand filter to replace my cartridge filter after seeing how much people love them and the good reviews it got and it's kind of been a headache. I followed all the instructions, put in the recommended amount of sand, checked for leaks, and everything, but it just doesn't seem to keep a strong water flow/pressure into the pool. I have to backwash almost every day, or even after a few hours of running it. It always starts strong and runs like it's supposed to, but a few hours later it comes to a halt almost with barely any pressure. If I recirculate, it flows fast, but I know it's not getting filtered, just shooting the water back into the pool. When I do backwash, there seems to be a bit of sand that comes out each time, so I don't know if maybe there's too much sand in the tank? Or is it supposed to be backwashed that often? Seems like an awful waste of water. The only other thing that is a bit different is (and I apologize for my terminology, I'm pretty new to all this) that my pool has 3 holes, 2 holes for the water to exit in 2 different pipes/tubes that join as 1 before entering the cartridge filter, and 1 hole for the filtered water to return (with 1 pipe/tube). Well, the sand filter is only set up to use 1 intake hose and 1 return hose, so I just plugged up one hole and used the one closest to the return spot. I don't know if this makes any sense, but I would appreciate any advice you might be able to provide.
Thanks!
My name is John, but my nickname is JoRo. You can call me either. I'm excited to be part of this community! Just wanted to say hello and introduce myself. I live in Florence, Alabama, which is in the northwest corner of the state. Most people know it generally as "the Shoals." My pool is an above ground 4,400 gallon Intex metal frame pool with 15'x48" dimensions and I love having the pool, but the trouble and costs have been a bit more than I foresaw when I bought it on clearance at the end of last summer.
I'm not really sure if I should go into the problem I have here in the introduction or maybe take it to the Getting Started section, but I don't guess it would hurt to bring it up here. I just bought the Intex 2100gph sand filter to replace my cartridge filter after seeing how much people love them and the good reviews it got and it's kind of been a headache. I followed all the instructions, put in the recommended amount of sand, checked for leaks, and everything, but it just doesn't seem to keep a strong water flow/pressure into the pool. I have to backwash almost every day, or even after a few hours of running it. It always starts strong and runs like it's supposed to, but a few hours later it comes to a halt almost with barely any pressure. If I recirculate, it flows fast, but I know it's not getting filtered, just shooting the water back into the pool. When I do backwash, there seems to be a bit of sand that comes out each time, so I don't know if maybe there's too much sand in the tank? Or is it supposed to be backwashed that often? Seems like an awful waste of water. The only other thing that is a bit different is (and I apologize for my terminology, I'm pretty new to all this) that my pool has 3 holes, 2 holes for the water to exit in 2 different pipes/tubes that join as 1 before entering the cartridge filter, and 1 hole for the filtered water to return (with 1 pipe/tube). Well, the sand filter is only set up to use 1 intake hose and 1 return hose, so I just plugged up one hole and used the one closest to the return spot. I don't know if this makes any sense, but I would appreciate any advice you might be able to provide.
Thanks!
I have to ask the all-important questions everyone is wondering .... "Do you have some test results you can provide?" ... preferably with your own TF-100 or Taylor K-2006? This is important to rule-out algae. It doesn't have to be green yet. It can actually be quite invisible to the eyes, built still clog-up the filter. So it would be nice to know that first. Besides that, we are very happy to have you with us.
I feel that if the sand filter was working properly, I would be a lot closer to having it clear up. How would I be able to tell if it is invisible algae? I guess I'd have to use one of those test kits, but is that the only way?
