Pentair Quad DE 60 leaking

[Fjvaughn]

This year’s opening started off with a bang. The liner fell due to a warm winter, which I fixed, but there’s wrinkles at the bottom that are fairly severe I still have to attend to.
Also, it appears that DE is seeping back into my pool. I’ve tightened up everything and I don’t see what’s causing it.
But my main reason for jumping in today is that I noticed a drip from my drain plug. I tightened it up and it continued to leak. Today I replaced the plug and o ring and used Teflon tape. It went back to leaking and when I tightened it, it slowed down, but is still leaking. Old plug showed no signs of wear in the threads and o ring was intact, but I replaced anyway.
My guess is the tank drain is stripped but still m wondering if there’s an obvious visible sign if I take it apart, so I’m not buying a new tank bottom for nothing.
I did see the previous post where it was suggested to never remove a Pentair drain plug.
Any new help is appreciated.

 

[reggiehammond]

I would pull and clean the cartridges better than you ever have, then inspect closely. You might have a small tear in one of the pleats.
Otherwise the plumbing is really darn simple, so I would suspect cartridges first.

As for drain plug - that’s fairly odd. I’ve never heard the advice to never pull the drain plug. I’ve taken mine off a dozen times or so.
Do you tighten drain plug with a wrench? I just tighten by hand, it never leaks, and makes it dead simple to remove.

 

[Fjvaughn]

Thanks. I'm going to take another look at it in the next couple of days and I'll inspect the filter again. It was odd because I made sure I didn't over-fill the DE, but when I drained the filter, DE was draining out with the water and the filter was not heavily coated.
I also looked at the spider gasket and it's in good shape. Filter is only about 3 years old.
For the drain plug, I hand tightened it, and it had a leak so I gave it half a turn with pliers, both the original one and the replace one.
I'm still patient enough to take the hold filter apart, detach the unions, and see if anything in the drain looks like it has a hole. Filter is fairly filthy so there could be debris blocking the seal.
I'll report back once I put some more time in. Thanks again.

 

[Fjvaughn]

Update- over a week later. I drained the filter and took the whole thing apart. Cleaned grids and inspected at great length. No signs of wear. Pulled apart all pipes in filter and made sure they were reseated tight. Removed the tape from the drain plug and retightened by hand only. No leaks in drain. Also no leaks in band in middle of the filter.
While this was going on, drain plug in pump was overtightened and snapped in half. Replaced both plugs and no no leak there.
My last item to check was the spider gasket. It seemed a bit brittle and compressed, and slightly loose in one section. So i put in a day's work and removed the old one. New gasket put in, RTV silicone in the grooves (not too much outside of the grooves). Waited 24 hours to turn pump back on. Seemed to be working great.
Fast forward two days and it appears that I still have DE leaking in, as evidenced by the lines at the bottom in these pictures. I'm not seeing any leaks leading up to pump basket, but I also can't see bubbles in the pump because lid is so dark. I also don't see anything else that can be be tightened on the suction side.
Pool hasn't been vacuumed in about 3 days, as my robot died. New one is coming tomorrow.
I apologize for the novel here, but this DE leaking thing is getting ridiculous.

 

[PoolStored]

Time for a cartridge filter? About as simple as they come...no MPV, no DE, no sand.

 

[reggiehammond]

Clean DE wouldn’t be that dark.. I‘m not so sure that’s not dead algae

 

[Fjvaughn]

The dark stuff is leaf/plant debris. The DE is the gray lines that extend along the edges/corners of the deep end.

 

[reggiehammond]

Ok, I’ll trust your eye. When I get some DE blowback in my pool, I can tell it is from how pure white it is…

Just for grins, have you considered an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test? Would run with SWCG off

 

[Fjvaughn]

I ran my new robot today and it picked it all up. Definitely DE. Everything seems correct, including chemistry. I’ll see tomorrow if the issue persists.
Thanks for the chlorine loss test info. I’ll keep that in mind for the future.

 

[wireform]

Thanks for the chlorine loss test info. I’ll keep that in mind for the future.

Do it tonight and possibly cath a algae bloom early.