Hi Everyone 
I'm looking to you good folks for some help. I just took the mulitport valve off the filter to "inspect" my sand and of course things didn't go exactly as planned.
First, a little background.
We bought this house in August, 2007 after finding this site the following summer and getting a good test kit I felt I had a handle on the pool.
There had always been a little amount of air coming out of the returns (this was before the SWG was installed). At the end of the summer of 2009 suddenly there seemed to be a significant amount of air coming out of the returns. We have a little seating area with jacuzzi air jets and the control knob was firmly closed and sealed but it appeared as if the knob was in fact open.
I had determined that the air was getting into the system after the pump, and checked all the fittings and couldn't find anything obvious. Last summer, I decided to call in some professional help and asked for a service call from the pool builder. The guy, to say the least was not helpful, and told me that it was acutally good to have so much air in the pool. He figured that the problem was most likely the mulitport valve and unless I wanted to replace the whole filter there wasn't really anthing to do.
Inspite of the air coming out of the returns, the pool was clear and the filter seemed to be working well.
When I opened the pool 2 weeks ago, it seemed to take much longer to clear the pool after the shocking process and even now, it is not what I would call clear. I can see the bottom, but it is definitely not "sparkling".
So, I decided to bite the bullet and check out the sand in the filter. I removed the collar around the mulitport valve and pulled the valve and was surprised to find that the center stand pipe came out with it. The sand itself looked "crusty" and green in spots.
My questions:
1) Because the pipe came out does that mean that I'm going to have the remove the sand and make sure it is seated properly before I add the sand again?
2) If I have to remove the sand, does it make sense to replace it? (the pool was built around 2005 and as far as I know has never been replaced)
3) The "sand" didn't look like I was expecting it looked more like glass chips than playground sand is this normal?
Thankyou for your attention in reading my (long) post and look forward to your replies!
Alison
I'm looking to you good folks for some help. I just took the mulitport valve off the filter to "inspect" my sand and of course things didn't go exactly as planned.
First, a little background.
We bought this house in August, 2007 after finding this site the following summer and getting a good test kit I felt I had a handle on the pool.
There had always been a little amount of air coming out of the returns (this was before the SWG was installed). At the end of the summer of 2009 suddenly there seemed to be a significant amount of air coming out of the returns. We have a little seating area with jacuzzi air jets and the control knob was firmly closed and sealed but it appeared as if the knob was in fact open.
I had determined that the air was getting into the system after the pump, and checked all the fittings and couldn't find anything obvious. Last summer, I decided to call in some professional help and asked for a service call from the pool builder. The guy, to say the least was not helpful, and told me that it was acutally good to have so much air in the pool. He figured that the problem was most likely the mulitport valve and unless I wanted to replace the whole filter there wasn't really anthing to do.
Inspite of the air coming out of the returns, the pool was clear and the filter seemed to be working well.
When I opened the pool 2 weeks ago, it seemed to take much longer to clear the pool after the shocking process and even now, it is not what I would call clear. I can see the bottom, but it is definitely not "sparkling".
So, I decided to bite the bullet and check out the sand in the filter. I removed the collar around the mulitport valve and pulled the valve and was surprised to find that the center stand pipe came out with it. The sand itself looked "crusty" and green in spots.
My questions:
1) Because the pipe came out does that mean that I'm going to have the remove the sand and make sure it is seated properly before I add the sand again?
2) If I have to remove the sand, does it make sense to replace it? (the pool was built around 2005 and as far as I know has never been replaced)
3) The "sand" didn't look like I was expecting it looked more like glass chips than playground sand is this normal?
Thankyou for your attention in reading my (long) post and look forward to your replies!
Alison
