A customer of mine was told by the installer of their pool that I should not vacuum through the DE filter. I've never had issues in the past with this, so I'm wondering if there is any truth to it, or if it is the installers way of B.S.ing their way out of being responsible for selling them a crappy system. If you can't vacuum through a DE System, how are you supposed to vacuum? If anyone has seen official literature from a DE Filter manufacturer discussing this issue, I'd love to see it. Anyone have any input on this?
Vaccing through a DE Filter
- Thread starter TreeFiter
- Start date
Never heard of that.
Three years in a row we cleared a swamp at a boy scout camp using a vacuum through a DE filter. The camp was a dustbowl, so the pool got vacuumed daily all summer long the same way with no problems.
Never had any problem at the apartment I used to live in, either.
And I vacuum with 100% suction to the vacuum and through the filter and I have no problems, either.
Sounds like a pitch to sell a separate cleaner and a booster pump to me.
Three years in a row we cleared a swamp at a boy scout camp using a vacuum through a DE filter. The camp was a dustbowl, so the pool got vacuumed daily all summer long the same way with no problems.
Never had any problem at the apartment I used to live in, either.
And I vacuum with 100% suction to the vacuum and through the filter and I have no problems, either.
Sounds like a pitch to sell a separate cleaner and a booster pump to me.
I have to wonder if the PB may have installed an undersized filter and is using the avoid vacuuming through it as a cover up for this fact.
I have vacuumed into the DE filter every time for the past 10 years. Using my pump/filter, I don't have any other options. My Perflex filter is within 6 inches of the outlet of the pump, they connect using a union.
I have also vacuumed directly into the filter and out the waste valve an into a hose to suck out the nasties from the bottom of the pool.
When I vacuum a dirty pool into my DE filter, the filter will plug up in minute, not hours. When I "bump" and the filter plugs back up within 10 minutes of running the vacuum (manual or automatic) I clean the filter.
I have also vacuumed directly into the filter and out the waste valve an into a hose to suck out the nasties from the bottom of the pool.
When I vacuum a dirty pool into my DE filter, the filter will plug up in minute, not hours. When I "bump" and the filter plugs back up within 10 minutes of running the vacuum (manual or automatic) I clean the filter.
This does bring a up good point on the hayward DE Perflex filters installed on the optional Hayward mounting base, there is no room between the pump and the filter for any type of diverter valve, instead they are installed using a custom elbow union fitting.
No elbow in mine... it's straight from the pump to the filter. The pump ends just beyond the silver label and the filter has a special? bull nose union.
Thank you all for your replies. It sounds like I was right to be suspicious. What I suspect is happening, is that the company that built the pool warranties the plumbing for life as long as they are hired to open and close the pool every year (at about $200 more than everyone else). After speaking to another pool guy in the area, he said he has seen this company's work, and they never clean the filters when they open and close. So what probably happened is that the filter had a problem. The company is responsible to fix it because of their warranty, unless of course they can blame it on someone else. So all they have to do is convince the customer, who knows very little about pools, that it is something the maintenance guy did. Then they can bill the customer who in turn will go after the maintenance guy.
I should also mention that I contacted tech support at Pentair and asked them if there was anything bad that could happen by vaccing through a DE filter. They told me there is no reason to expect any problems from vaccing through a DE filter.
I should also mention that I contacted tech support at Pentair and asked them if there was anything bad that could happen by vaccing through a DE filter. They told me there is no reason to expect any problems from vaccing through a DE filter.
I thought about that possibility. I asked Pentair about issues with vaccing on backwash, and they told me that it wouldn't damage anything, but the filter would need to be cleaned more frequently. Whatever issue they found, the filter was apart for over a week. The only issue I ran into while doing maintenance was that the Push/Pull valve was stuck in the filter position. I can't see why they would need to strip down the entire filter to fix the Push/Pull valve. So whatever "problem" they found didn't seem to be affecting the functionality of the filter.