Unicel replacement for Intex filters

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H

Hermskii

0
Jun 13, 2014
41
TX
I switched to the Unicel C-5315 (Type B) filters last year. I bought 2 from Amazon and have a bucket where the one that is off sits and cleans in a chemical bath while the other one works. Every few weeks I swap them out. They are far better than the intex filters I still need to use up and throw away now that I think about it.

Here is the chemical bath directions and I wish I could post a link to where I got this but I don't recall where actually:

1. How-to clean a filter cartridge - 2 cartridge method.
1. Get TWO cartridge sets for your filter.
2. Find a plastic container large enough to completely submerge the cartridge, when 3/4 full.
3. Fill 3/4 full with clean water.
4. Add TSP (tri-sodium phosphate) at the rate of 2lbs per 5 gallons; mix till dissolved.
5. Remove dirty cartridge #1 from filter.
6. Install clean cartridge #2 into filter, and restore filter operation.
7. Spray off dirty cartridge #1; spray carefully BETWEEN the pleats.
8. Add 1/2 cup of bleach per 5 gallons, to the cleaning solution, and mix.
9. Place cartridge #1 in cleaning solution, and cover.
10. Leave cartridge #1 in cleaning solution for 24 hrs (alternately: till ready to swap!).
11. Remove cartridge #1 from cleaning solution; rinse carefully and thoroughly with water; allow to drain; rinse again.


I'm tempted to try the 'rinz-n-reuz' filter option too. I looked it up. The concept is easy enough. I'm curious. At least I'll post back here and let you know if it is not any good. Anything is better than the default Intex cartridge filters.
I'll also buy another couple of the Unicel filters and extend double the bull-pen of spare filters on hand to cycle.
 
Re: Never buy INTEX type A filter again

Hermskii said:
I switched to the Unicel C-5315 (Type B) filters last year. I bought 2 from Amazon and have a bucket where the one that is off sits and cleans in a chemical bath while the other one works. Every few weeks I swap them out. They are far better than the intex filters I still need to use up and throw away now that I think about it.

Here is the chemical bath directions and I wish I could post a link to where I got this but I don't recall where actually:

1. How-to clean a filter cartridge - 2 cartridge method.
1. Get TWO cartridge sets for your filter.
2. Find a plastic container large enough to completely submerge the cartridge, when 3/4 full.
3. Fill 3/4 full with clean water.
4. Add TSP (tri-sodium phosphate) at the rate of 2lbs per 5 gallons; mix till dissolved.
5. Remove dirty cartridge #1 from filter.
6. Install clean cartridge #2 into filter, and restore filter operation.
7. Spray off dirty cartridge #1; spray carefully BETWEEN the pleats.
8. Add 1/2 cup of bleach per 5 gallons, to the cleaning solution, and mix.
9. Place cartridge #1 in cleaning solution, and cover.
10. Leave cartridge #1 in cleaning solution for 24 hrs (alternately: till ready to swap!).
11. Remove cartridge #1 from cleaning solution; rinse carefully and thoroughly with water; allow to drain; rinse again.


I'm tempted to try the 'rinz-n-reuz' filter option too. I looked it up. The concept is easy enough. I'm curious. At least I'll post back here and let you know if it is not any good. Anything is better than the default Intex cartridge filters.
I'll also buy another couple of the Unicel filters and extend double the bull-pen of spare filters on hand to cycle.
Click to expand...

Why go thru so much trouble? All you have to do is rinse them off with a hose and put the filter back in. The filter doesn't need to be perfectly clean and white. It isn't like you are washing your underwear.
For the last few years I have been using two Intex cartridge filters in parallel. I had one filter left over from my 12' pool and the one that came with my 15' pool. It works really good. I have a Intex type A filter that I have been using for four years and just rinse it with the hose.
 
Re: Never buy INTEX type A filter again

Congrats to you that you can make your filters last without having to do this extra stuff. If I don't clean them this well they will clog in a day reducing water flow and them my SWG won't work. I use the pool a lot with my family when weather permits. I wish it would be so easy as it is for you. I don't know what is different but my A type Intex filters failed the rinse and reuse method you have succeeded with. To each their own I guess.
 
Re: Never buy INTEX type A filter again

Hermskii said:
Congrats to you that you can make your filters last without having to do this extra stuff. If I don't clean them this well they will clog in a day reducing water flow and them my SWG won't work. I use the pool a lot with my family when weather permits. I wish it would be so easy as it is for you. I don't know what is different but my A type Intex filters failed the rinse and reuse method you have succeeded with. To each their own I guess.
Click to expand...
I wonder if it could be the water hardness. I know I have really soft water in my area.
 
Re: Never buy INTEX type A filter again

I did as I said I would and got my hands on one of these Rinz-N-Re-uz Filters. I will try to update my progress with it through the season so that those of you who were curious about them can see what I find out about them. So far I'll say this:

- I cleaned and replaced my Unicel filter over the weekend with a clean spare I had as I described above in a previous post. Spring is here in Houston and the pollen is already covering everything. I did a pretty good job cleaning the pool and the filter captured enough stuff to bog down the pressure so I changed it out after just a couple of days. I love the power my pump produces through a clean filter and specifically tracked how much pressure there was placing my hand over the return jet. After just a few days it had already cut down to less than 50%. I'd say down to about 25% if I had to guess.

- I put in the new filter a few nights ago. Pressure was great as was to be expected with a brand new filter in place! I stirred up pool yesterday to suspend some of the stuff on the bottom of the pool in the water for filtering. The water pressure was still great. Today I went out and skimmed up some leaves that were floating in the pool and and some from the bottom of it too. Today I made sure to not leave standing any soot on the bottom of the pool. I also aimed the jet to run along the side of the pool. This made it whirlpool you could say. The suspended dirt usually gets collected by the filter pump or collects in the middle of the pool where I can vacuum it out easily. I did not vacuum though in the last several days. I don't know if the small amounts of black power/dirt is sunken pollen or just dirt but it collects in the imperfect wrinkles at the bottom of my 18' round rubber pool. I checked back a few hours later and about half of it was gone. I checked the pressure on the outlet and it was still way up there and the pool was still swirling around in a big slow whirlpool. I stirred up all of the ground matter again and went in for the night.
- The filter got to me quickly.
- It installed easily but I had to tuck the fabric in a little bit around the edges to make sure the lid seated properly.
- My first thoughts are that my pump is much happier with this filter because there doesn't seem to be any back pressure yet. the week isn't up yet though. I usually switched out my other filters about every week. I'll be very curious to see how this new filter holds up once the warmer weather gets here. i look forward to its first real cleaning too!

More on this later and please don't expect me to type this much each time! Peace!
 
I won't remove and clean this filter until the pressure drops at the return jet. So far the pressure still feels like the first day I put it in! There is lots of pollen an very small leave debris floating on the top right now. Their is still some pollen/dirt/sediment or whatever you want to think it is at the bottom of the pool. I'll vacuum it out on the weekend as I'll do each weekend until the pollen season is over here.

I have only had one algae bloom ever and that was how I found out my old filter pump had failed. My salt water generator had stopped producing due to a low flow alarm. I checked the pool one morning and it had a tint of green to it. That was the day I found this place and learned to be a master of my pool water's condition. That happened about a year ago. I used tactics I learned here to recover the pool water clarity until I got the pump fixed and I have had a perfectly clear pool ever since!


Now I just want to keep finding ways to reduce the work to take care of it which I don't mind really. Soon I'll buy a product that will better suspend particles in the pool water while the pump is on and I'll buy a better pool vacuum too. It'll be like living on easy street pretty soon!

So far I still like the new filter very much. I think all of the additional fabric/filter surface area is going to allow me much more time between cleaning than my previous solutions did. Keeping my fingers crossed and I will update here as time goes by.
 
It is about another week now. I come home from work and see my pool swirling as my filter and SWG work together to keep my water clear. The pollen still lines the edge of the pool with a yellow line all of the way around but my neighbors tree seems to have finally stopped dropping little leaves into my pool. Today I went ahead and caught all of the leaves floating on the surface and most on the bottom of the pool. It is awesome to just stand in one place and have the pool whirlpool the leaves around to me. I stand in one spot and just shoot out the pole with the net attached and catch the surface stuff. the subsurface stuff collects in the middle each day due to the force or swirling that causes the larger pieces of leaves and stuff to collect in the middle of the pool. One or two scoops and all of it is collected and removed. there is still black dirt/pollen/crud at the bottom of the pool but I stir it up once a week and it gets collected by the filter pump.

Here is the short of it. Since I got and installed this Rinz-N-Re-uz Filter I have not had to remove it or clean it yet and I won't until I need to. The water is now up to 76-78 degrees here. We have already been swimming and my (recently replaced under warranty from Intex) SWG tests to be working great. Could a better flow have anything to do with that? I'll report in again either tomorrow or next week. I'm going to closely track how much I need to disturb the pollen/dirt/sediment at the bottom of the pool to get it to be picked up by the one inlet jet I have to my filter. I will be getting a robot to stir up the bottom as the pump runs or I'll get a hose and vacuum combo that connects to my inlet and vacuum the floor weekly. No matter what I do I will continue to report on the success or failure of this new filter I'm trying out. I'll keep you informed. So far I have to say I'm very impressed. Let's keep testing and see what happens!
 
I'm well overdue for an update here. On April 26 I finally decided to go ahead and remove the new filter to check it's condition. The pump water flow was still awesome and the pool was still clean.

Picture1.jpg

Picture1 is what I took out. I put it next to a brand new still in the bag Intex A filter I had on hand. See how some of the soot/algae whatever it is stuck to my fingers.

Picture2.jpg

Picture2 is after I cleaned it. I used the method in the video: I filled a bucket, dropped this filter into it and swished it around. That did pretty good and I wish I had taken a picture of the water I poured out afterwards but forgot to. Anyways, I took it into the kitchen sink and finished cleaning it there and you can see it cleaned up nicely.

I put a regular Intex filter back into the pool pump and it ran for 3 -4 days then clogged up and I saw as my pool started turning green because with no flow my Salt Water Chlorine Generator won't work due to a low flow error. I removed the Intex filter which didn't even look dirty and put the rinse and reuse filter back in.

I took it out again and washed it again yesterday. It wasn't quite as dirty but was equally dirty all the way around just as in picture #1. Going forward I will go ahead and remove and clean it once a month. No bleach or chemical solutions. No special cleaning tools. No having to remove it and do maintenance on it every 3-4 days or every week. This filter is as good as it is advertised and I can't express enough how awesome I think it is. In a few years I will use one of my Intex filters again as I wait for the new replacement I will order for this one. That will be the only time a Intex filter or Unicel Intex Replacement will ever go into my pump again.

The Unicel filter was far better than the Intex filter by the way. Inspect both and see for yourself. The Rinz-N-Re-uz Filter is far better than both. I expect to update this topic once more as the summer comes through and then again when this filter meets it demise. Until then know that I wholeheartedly recommend the Rinz-N-Re-uz Filter for anyone using the standard filter cartdridge pump setup that most people use with Intex Above Ground pools!
 

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