Leaking Filter - Glass media removal question

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gbuch

New member
Jul 5, 2023
2
Greensboro, NC
Hello all - Hoping for some advice. I have about a 6 year old Pentair SD80 sand filter. This year, like 3 months ago I paid almost $1k to have a company put in new laterals and 'change' the sand to glass media. Didn't realize until job was 1/2 done that apparently I already had glass media in there instead of sand. Obviously kicking myself but is what it is, job was done. Couple months later the filter started to leak from the seam, some small pinholes that were getting worse. I tried to mend it with some fiberglass patching from the inside and outside, as expected it won't hold so time for a replacement.

I have a replacement Pentair SD 80 coming which has the multiport on top and laterals included. Ideally I want to re-use the glass media I just had put in the old filter. It is about 225 lbs of fine and 75 lbs of coarse and around here will be close to $500 to buy it again.

My 'plan' is to use a wheel cutter to cut a window in the top of the broken filter. I am going to try to put some towels over the glass on the inside through the top opening to attempt to keep the fiberglass / plastic pieces I will be cutting from getting mixed into the glass. Once I have the window cut I plan on scooping out the glass into containers that I can weigh at the end. I am hoping I will be able to keep the coarse and the fine separated by sight when I get towards the bottom.

Ideally, I am hoping that maybe I just have to buy maybe 2 bags of coarse and 1 bag of fine due to waste in my process when filling up the new filter.

Fully realize plans are only good until the first unforeseen issue so figured I would ask to see if anyone has better advice or thinks I am going about this wrong. With the glass being just a few months old I just think that it is worth the effort to re-use it.

Thanks for any advice / opinions,
Gary
 

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Hello Gary and welcome to TFP! :wave; I don't recall ever hearing another member consider cutting open the vessel to make sand/glass removal easier. Most people just remove the MPV and use a ShopVac or something to get it all out. But since your fitter is going to the trash pile, I suppose you can do whatever makes the task easier on you. Cutting a large opening would seem to make the process easier.

Have a great day. :swim:
 
gbuch said:
Hello all - Hoping for some advice. I have about a 6 year old Pentair SD80 sand filter. This year, like 3 months ago I paid almost $1k to have a company put in new laterals and 'change' the sand to glass media. Didn't realize until job was 1/2 done that apparently I already had glass media in there instead of sand. Obviously kicking myself but is what it is, job was done. Couple months later the filter started to leak from the seam, some small pinholes that were getting worse. I tried to mend it with some fiberglass patching from the inside and outside, as expected it won't hold so time for a replacement.

I have a replacement Pentair SD 80 coming which has the multiport on top and laterals included. Ideally I want to re-use the glass media I just had put in the old filter. It is about 225 lbs of fine and 75 lbs of coarse and around here will be close to $500 to buy it again.

My 'plan' is to use a wheel cutter to cut a window in the top of the broken filter. I am going to try to put some towels over the glass on the inside through the top opening to attempt to keep the fiberglass / plastic pieces I will be cutting from getting mixed into the glass. Once I have the window cut I plan on scooping out the glass into containers that I can weigh at the end. I am hoping I will be able to keep the coarse and the fine separated by sight when I get towards the bottom.

Ideally, I am hoping that maybe I just have to buy maybe 2 bags of coarse and 1 bag of fine due to waste in my process when filling up the new filter.

Fully realize plans are only good until the first unforeseen issue so figured I would ask to see if anyone has better advice or thinks I am going about this wrong. With the glass being just a few months old I just think that it is worth the effort to re-use it.

Thanks for any advice / opinions,
Gary
Click to expand...
You can cut the entire top off of the filter instead of a window as well. It’s what they did to mine when they replaced it with new. You can also just use a shop vac to suck out the sand into buckets and do it that way. A scoop would be much harder. I used a shop vac on mine.

Note, the glass media doesn’t really perform any better than normal sand. I paid the same for glass media on mine before learning that.
 
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Bperry said:
You can cut the entire top off of the filter instead of a window as well. It’s what they did to mine when they replaced it with new.
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Thanks Bperry - that was actually my first thought but I have 3 PVC pipes that are so close to the filter and I am not sure I trust my disc cutting skills to that level. I considered putting a barrier between but just think I am asking for trouble. That is why I swapped to the 'window' idea, it just seemed less likely for me to slip up and create a bigger problem. :). And yeah, I am just learning now that the glass may have been more hype than truth but my pool has always been crystal clear so likely not necessarily the glass but it also isn't hurting.
 
gbuch said:
Thanks Bperry - that was actually my first thought but I have 3 PVC pipes that are so close to the filter and I am not sure I trust my disc cutting skills to that level. I considered putting a barrier between but just think I am asking for trouble. That is why I swapped to the 'window' idea, it just seemed less likely for me to slip up and create a bigger problem. :). And yeah, I am just learning now that the glass may have been more hype than truth but my pool has always been crystal clear so likely not necessarily the glass but it also isn't hurting.
Click to expand...
The guy that cut mine open used a sawzall so was pretty controllable, but use whatever you feel comfortable with. I think a jigsaw would work just as well.

Glass is made from sand so it’s certainly not going to hurt anything except for the wallet. Seems there’s so much glass available (our county stopped recycling it) that recycling that it should be cheaper than sand. Not sure what the deal is there.
 
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