I hate DE filters

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Beez

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May 19, 2009
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Dallas, TX
Actually, to be more precise, I hate backwashing, which the DE filter necessitates. Come to think of it, it would be even more precise to say that I hate being on a budjet, which causes me anxiety when I pour chemicals = money down the drain. So I guess the root of my problem is money. The lack of it. I need more money. With more money I could skip-to-the-lou-da-day down the street, strewing CYA granules all along the path with no worry at all.

Either that, or a cart filter...
 
Beez,

You are w-a-a-y too funny!! :mrgreen: :mrgreen: I hear ya', though.

All three types of filters can be PITA's one way or another and all three types can be blessings, too.

Of course, money is, in fact, the source of ALL our pool problems.

Given enough money, Butterfly or Ohm_boy would probably come to our houses and fix our pools while we all enjoyed "Land Shark" beer and listened to Jimmy Buffet.

Please let me know if you get enough (money)....I would like to be your new best friend. :mrgreen:
 
zea3 said:
I seem to recall someone who planned a grand experiment with his de filter...something about not opening up the filter to clean it.
When I open up my de filter to clean it, I lose only the water in the filter. A few minutes with a nozzle sprayer on a garden hose and the grids are ready to recharge. :poke: :poke: :mrgreen:
Click to expand...
:-D That experiment continues. Happily, I can report...

So Zea, are you saying you never backwash? You breakdown instead at every backwash interval? I would have no problem with that if it was a cart, but a DE flter? Never...
 

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Ok, I finally had to join this rant. I am certainly biased in this area but I just don't see the attraction to a DE filter. Sure it may clean better but from all the folks on this forum who have had issues with DE filters caking and the constant cleaning of grids, it just doesn't seem like it would end up being less maintenance. I clean my cart once a year and it takes less than an hour. I just wonder what the yearly maintenance time is on a DE filter. It would be the same PIA as a cartridge for algae cleanups so I give that one to a sand filter and for anyone that has to close a pool, I would probably recommend a sand filter.

Plus one often overlooked aspect of a cartridge filter is that it is far more efficient than either a DE or a sand filter. I recently added this table to the hydraulics 101 sticky:

Filter Head Loss Table
FilterTypes.jpg
 
This is interesting. I have only ever had 2 DE filters, so I do not know any different. It is certainly a pain to have to break everything down on occasion. I could currently go get an almost new Sand filter from my Father in law for free if I wanted to move it ... figured my current DE is newish too and working find so why switch.

As a note my FIL switched from a cartridge to the sand since it clogged so often. So that was my only "experience" with a cartridge. Although now thinking about it, I am sure his pool was not balanced so algae was likely and it sure looked tiny so I think it may have been undersized.

Obviously I never close my pool, since I am redoing the pad plumbing anyway ... now got me thinking if I should switch in the sand filter instead ... or just wait for my current filter to die and then research these cartridges you are all talking about.
 
mas985 said:
Ok, I finally had to join this rant. I am certainly biased in this area but I just don't see the attraction to a DE filter.
Click to expand...
Thanks Mark! Indeed, a rant it is. It is nice to know that my intuition can be backed up by hard evidence. :wink: Hopefully, by the time these grids expire I will be in a position financially to ditch the DE and move to the sunny side of the steet! :wave:
 
Beez said:
zea3 said:
I seem to recall someone who planned a grand experiment with his de filter...something about not opening up the filter to clean it.
When I open up my de filter to clean it, I lose only the water in the filter. A few minutes with a nozzle sprayer on a garden hose and the grids are ready to recharge. :poke: :poke: :mrgreen:
Click to expand...
:-D That experiment continues. Happily, I can report...

So Zea, are you saying you never backwash? You breakdown instead at every backwash interval? I would have no problem with that if it was a cart, but a DE flter? Never...
Click to expand...
I should mention that my reasoning is based on the fact that my backwash/waste line from the filter was plumbed to sewer line when I inherited it.

If my choices were either backwash to the ground, or breakdown/hose off, I'm sure I would choose your method.
 
I guess everybody loves what they choose. Maybe it's because of my screen enclosure - I back wash my DE filter between every 3-6 months (my pressure never goes up more than a few psi or so, but I notice the flow drop to the waterfalls); but clean it yearly as zea3 describes. I don't remove the grids either, just open the bottom drain and rinse the grids. Back washing takes like 10 minutes; removing the cover and hosing it takes like 20. I guess I just don't see it as all that much of a chore...
 
I'm with no-mas. I don't see washing off the grids in my Quad-DE as being any harder than washing off cartridges. And so far I've only cleaned them twice int he year since I got the filter (not counting some initial setup issues with my LQ when running low speed filtration and I took the filter apart a few times). Maybe a traditional DE filter is a different experience I can't say as I never opened the one I had before I got the Quad.
 
carlscan26 said:
I'm with no-mas. I don't see washing off the grids in my Quad-DE as being any harder than washing off cartridges. And so far I've only cleaned them twice int he year since I got the filter (not counting some initial setup issues with my LQ when running low speed filtration and I took the filter apart a few times). Maybe a traditional DE filter is a different experience I can't say as I never opened the one I had before I got the Quad.
Click to expand...

I was not sure what the Quad-DE filters were ... after a Google search it basically looks like a cartridge filter with DE added. Looks like it would be much less hassle to take apart than the traditional DE filters.

I may have to try hosing them off with just the top off. To date I have pulled them out and actually taken the 8 grids apart for thorough cleaning and to replace the grids ... not much fun getting everything lined back up (especially when some of the old grids were cracked).
 
jblauert said:
I was not sure what the Quad-DE filters were ... after a Google search it basically looks like a cartridge filter with DE added. Looks like it would be much less hassle to take apart than the traditional DE filters.
Click to expand...

While they look like normal cartridge filters they're actually made of different stuff but yes it's a similar design idea. There are actually three ways to clean a QUAD and the ease of cleaning is the big selling point IMO:

1. Traditional backwashing,

2. Pull out the cartridge assembly and hose off (super easy, the whole thing lifts up easily and reseats easily),

3. Open the drain in the bottom of the filter and wash off the filters in place. I don't do this as my filter is right between my pump and my SunTouch unit, and you would have to have 360 degree access to get the backs of the cartridges...I guess you could rotate the assembly but at that point you may as well pull them out because pulling out the cartridges is super easy. I do always open the drain and wash out the bottom of the filter as some DE and dirt accumulates there.
 
Just to give some context to my rant before it gets out of hand. It was not intended as an arbitrary DE bashing, nor as a forum for the yearly debate on filter types. Fun as that may be! :cool:

It was and remains simply a rant.

I waited too long to get things going this Spring, and let the pool go green. My bad. :whip: This is an important point in my annoyance with my filter, expressed in this thread.

You see, my normal method is to thoroughly backwash after the Fall deluge & clean up so that the filter will be ready for Spring, because there is the known Spring deluge & clean up...after which, another backwash is required! The green pool threw a monkey wrench into my plans, because the Spring deluge is not finished yet.

So here is my quandary which prompted Sunday's outburst: 1.) The filter needs to be backwashed because it just cleaned up a green pool. However, 2.) the Spring deluge is not finished, so typically I would backwash again before Summer swimming. 3.) The weather is unseasonably warm, so the pool requires chlorine, which also means it needs CYA!!!

You see where I'm going with this. I need to add CYA which is not super cheap, after which I am going to have to turn right around and flush a good portion of it down the drain, not once, but most likely TWICE! Very annoying... And it doesn't help that I really don't care much for handling DE to start with.

So some of you are right: My rant is certainly biased against DE & toward cart. Others of you may be right by suggesting I'm making my own problems by insisting on backwashing instead of breakdown/cleaning. Did I mention I don't care for handling DE? IMO it is nasty shizzz that has its proper place down a drain.

And lastly, as I stated at the very top of the thread, if I wasn't flat broke, I wouldn't think twice about throwing CYA willy nilly all around the pool. Again, my bad. :whip: But it annoys a brutha don't you see? :rant: :blah: :rant:

:wink: :mrgreen: :wink:
 

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