What now?

[tagprod]

I've had an ongoing problem with a high pressure reading on my Hayward cartridge filter. I read up on mas95's sticky and eliminated a couple of causes.

High filter PSI, check:
Dirty Filter
Cleaned today
Return valves may be set improperly or partially off
Checked those - they're set right
Check for return side blockage
Oversized pump
worked fine for years
Undersized filter
worked fine for years
Undersized return side pipe
worked fine for years

I guess I need to check for return side blockage. I've used the bladder on it but that didn't do anything. Does anyone have a comprehensive list of how to do this. I didn't pull up anything on this.

 

[Richard320]

How about a new gauge?

Does the current one drop all the way to zero when it's off? Did it possibly freeze over the winter?

Gauges are cheap, compared to most other pool hardware. And you can probably find one at a local hardware store.

 

[tagprod]

yea - the gauge is working - it goes down to zero when off. I'm at 30 PSI and my pool cleaner (suction side) does not work at that psi. when I partially shut dow the valves on the suction side the pressure drops to about 26 and the cleaner will move - slowly.

 

[Richard320]

Any chance the valve handles have slipped on the shaft? Or the shaft is broken?

 

[tagprod]

no, checked those too.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Something's not sounding right. You said that you have a suction side cleaner and at high pressure it doesn't work but if you close off the suction side valv some it works slowly.

Here's what I'm thinking.
High filter pressure means the the flow through the system is reduced because of higher head.
If the cleaner isn't working it should be because of the reduced flow through the system.
By closing the suction valve you actually lowered the flow through the system even more.

It does sound like oyu have a discharge side obstruction. If you used the drain king, it's not designed for a great amount of flow so it may not help a pratial obstruction. A hose with a rag wrapped around it will allow more flow.

 

[tagprod]

I have 3 valves on the suction side. 1 valve is for one of the skimmers. a 2nd valve is for the other skimmer which is tied to the main drain and a 3rd valve which is for the cleaner port only. The pressure is hovering around 30 unless I turn the 2 skimmer valves off and leave just the cleaner port open. then we drop down to about 18. All other combinations do not drop the pressure.

I'm a little unclear about the hose and rag fix mentioned. could you clarify? Thanks for the input.

 

[mas985]

Do you have any check valves on the return side in your system? I once had a flapper break off and plug the return side.

Also, if the cartridge has scale, it might block flow.

 

[Ranger987]

I didn't see how old your cartridges are, but a simple test... Remove the cartridges from the filter, reassemble & restart sans cartridges. This won't cause any damage to anything. If the pressure drops to normal or below, then the cartridges aren't coming clean & may need replaced. If the pressure stays high, then the problem is after the filter. If you have a heater, the internal bypass assy may be stuck closed.