hayward ec-65 becomes clogged in 1 day

[rmswenson]

hayward ec-65 filter is 20 years old. starting about 5 years ago, i had to start bumping more and more often, and backwashing more and more often.

i have cleaned the flex-tubes many times, including removing them completely from the filter, and doing an acid wash on just the outer mesh (removed from the plastic finger tubes) a couple of times. i have used filter element cleaner and TSP also. last year i did all 3.

opened the pool yesterday, after soaking the tubes in filter cleaner overnight. the tubes all brightened up, nice and white, and i cleaned/rinsed them well. pool water was very clear, so i fired up the pump, and added the DE, all looked good. 3 hours later pressure had increased from 10 to 35, and water was just trickling out of filter back into the pool.

i was told by a pool store employee that the tube mesh gets to a point where it can't be cleaned any more. this doesn't sound correct to me, but who knows.

anybody have an experience with a problem like this?

 

[duraleigh]

Welcome to the forum. :lol: Well, it sounds to me like it is doing exactly what it is supposed to be doing....collecting fine particles of dirt and junk. Once it gets full, the pressure rises and the water flow slows.

What does it look like when you open it up? Is it full of junk?

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

If you just opened for the spring it is quite likely that there is plenty of extra debris in the water that is being filtered out and is raising the pressure. It may just take a couple/several cycles of cleaning/filtering/cleaning/filtering before things go back to normal.

The mesh does wear out/get clogged eventually, if it doesn't tear first, and no amount of cleaning will fix it at that point. When that happens the filter pressure starts off high right off, or it might take a few minutes for the DE to fully coat the cloth and the pressure to go up, but it doesn't take anything like three hours when the cloth is finally failing.

By the by, never use an acid based filter cleaner without doing a soak in TSP/detergent directly before (with a rinse in-between). Acid will harden oils onto the cloth so they become permanent, so you have to remove the oils first.

 

[jblizzle]

By the by, never use an acid based filter cleaner without doing a soak in TSP/detergent directly before (with a rinse in-between). Acid will harden oils onto the cloth so they become permanent, so you have to remove the oils first.

That is a good nugget of info to keep in mind. While the pool school (linked DE filter care post) states to do the soap soak before the acid. This is the first I have heard of it actually causing a problem if you do the acid without a soap soak.

 

[rmswenson]

thank you all for your responses... i should have explained better. this problem has been getting increasingly worse over the last 5 years, and i am 99% sure it isn't related to the water cleanliness.

1) in the middle of last season, i took apart all the tubes, did the acid wash and filter cleaner soak, and re-assembled. the water at that time was crystal clear, and i still experienced the problem immediately.
2) when i backwash the filter (did it last night) the DE is off-white, and there is very little junk. (the pool water was very clear this spring when i opened)
3) my normal practice now is to bump the filter every morning and every evening, between the 2 timed cycles i have for pool filtering. one of the cycles is 8 hours, and by the end of that period, the pressure has gone up from 10 to 30.

this just doesn't make sense to me at all, as when i start with a cleaned filter, the initial pressure is about 8 to 10 (normal for this filter for the first 15 years) for at least an hour, which tells me the finger mesh does work effectively, and isn't clogged, at least initially. if it was, the initial pressure would be higher initially.

i was unaware of the issues with acid cleaning, and will explore that to make sure i know the exact best process to clean the mesh.

 

[Bama Rambler]

Just to reiterate, I don't think anything is wrong with your filter. It appears to be doing exactly what it was designed to do, exactly as it was designed to do it. I think the problem is with your water.

Can you post a full set of test results and how you got them?

How much DE are you adding to the filter and is it Pool Filter DE?

 

[robcot66]

I have a similar problem with my EC65. It is about 8 years old. When we backwash, and re-add the DE the pressure is about 17, but within 2 ays it is up to 27. Pool guy took the fingers last year and tried two different acid baths to clean, but same thing. When he took ours, we put his fingers on, and the pressure was much better for much longer. He thought we needed new fingers. They just seem to clog quickly and we are always having to take all the bolts out and hose off the fingers.
Thanks for you input.

 

[rmswenson]

hi robcot66... this does sound similar to my situation. i am going to get the water tested this weekend, and provide the results to bama rambler. per his request.

the filter specs call for 6 lbs of DE. my pool installer told me to only use 4. i have tried both with little difference. one thing i do is add 1 lb less after a backwash, as it seems i always leave behind a pound that doesn't get backwashed out.

 

[Bama Rambler]

You're doing right by the DE filter. Adding less than a full charge after a backwash is a good thing to do.