Debris Bypassing the Sand Filter

[steintor]

Hi all,


I have been stalking the site and thought I would hit this forum up. I have seen several posts over a time frame of 6 years going over my exact same problem.

I have a 1.5" Waterway round filter, 22 inch with 150 pounds of sand (recommended amount of sand). The sand is one season old.

In a nutshell, I put a sock (regular old sock) over the return port and found that large debris is coming out. Not just dirt but big pieces of bugs, pieces of leaves, husks from seeds and blades of grass. My spider gasket looked worn but nothing leaking out the backwash port but I changed it anyway. No love. Still happening. I checked the laterals. They are fine. I am not getting sand in the pool so that would rule it out to. Like others from this site, I think I have narrowed the problem down to the riser pipe that feeds in to the MP valve. The water must be bypassing the sand through the connection of the riser pipe and the bottom of the MP valve. They just meet together loosely. No gasket at all. I have looked on sites for exploded diagrams and none show a gasket that I may have overlooked.

This is a conundrum that I would hope people can add a bit of advice. What do I put on the riser pipe to make the fitting more sealed, forcing the water to go through the sand and not bypass it?

Thank you in advance for any help or insight you can provide me!


-Sean

 

[JasonLion]

It sounds like your filter has become channeled. Try doing a deep cleaning, which will resettle the sand bed.

The other possibility is that there is something wrong with the main valve, but that seems less likely.

 

[steintor]

Hey folks,

Did the deep cleaning of the sand filter last night. Lots of stuff came out. I was very encouraged. I ran the backwash and rinse after. Figured it wouldn't hurt. I ran the pump for an hour and left the sock on the return. This is what I found (pic). Still more stuff getting past. Any ideas?

-Sean

 

[steintor]

Update:

Went by the pool store yesterday because I have reached my wits end. I scoured this site and found a huge trend for this same problem with waterway. So, the pool guy and I have found that most of the parts diagrams found on the web do not show the diffuser basket that is attached, under the valve. We pulled a hayward valve out of a box and found that it is designed with an o-ring within the wall of the diffuser. We pulled a waterway display apart and found a small detent within the diffuser housing but no o-ring. The pool guy is going to his warehouse and pull a new waterway valve out of a box and check for an o-ring within the diffuser. This may be the smoking gun we have all been trying to find! Stay tuned!

-Sean

 

[steintor]

Hey folks -

Update for those who are reading it....

Nothing new on the o-ring front for the filter... But... I have begun using the hairnets on the skimmer basket.

The water has cleared itself up very nicely. very little being put back through the filter. This is by no means how I want my filter to work but it's doing the job for the time being.

I am thinking about carving out a ridge in the riser pipe, where it meets the MPV so I can put my own o-ring in. What do you think? Would love to get feedback... The pool store guy said that Hayward filters have an o-ring inside the diffuser basket, on the way to the MPV.


-Sean

 

[JasonLion]

Have you taken your main valve apart to see if anything inside is broken?

 

[steintor]

Main valve has been apart. The plastic shell isn't broken. Nothing internal looks bad either. The spider gasket was replaced as I thought that was the source.