Ive had small particles floating in my water for sometime now.. Mostly pollen and Dust I suspected so I was looking for a solution to the problem.
I read about the "ScumSock" thing and purchased myself a 1 micron filter off Amazon for 20 bucks. I tried using it by attaching it to one of my return ports.. but because I have three returns I was only capturing only about 1/3 of the returning water at best.
So.. I set to thinking of a way to optimize the process.... Its a dangerous thing me thinking...
I wanted to put a filter in line someplace where I would catch as much of the water as possible. I thought abut my skimmer but the problem there is sometimes I'm using my pool bottom cleaner and the filter could not be used.
Then I thought I could buy a "Leaf Catcher" to put inline with the bottom cleaner...but then It would be there when I wasn't using the cleaner.
So I thought some more... working back up the system I started looking at my pump basket.. and thought it would be the perfect spot.
So I fashioned a template from some paper and cut out a template that would fit the inside of the basket. I cut up the filter material using the template and got a needle and thread and stitched up a "sock" that fits INSIDE the basket.
So now I'm filtering out 100% of all the water that passes thru my system. I later placed in a large gauge mesh screen to make cleaning the small leaves etc from the filter material quicker.
In one nights filtering (I run all night ~10 hours at about 1500 rpm ie slowly) Ive removed about 3/4 of the particles in the water
My next move is to use plastic rivets to secure the fabric in place and permanently to the basket (the fabric moves a bit when under a full speed run) and to use that basket (I have two baskets now one normal and a second with the sock) only occasionally to polish the water as needed and only run at about 1/2 speed.
Ive been monitoring my flow rates and pressures.. all are right where they were before using the sock. I am a bit worried that if the sock should get a heavy load of "stuff" that there might be a small problem with flow rates.. so Im keeping a eye on the system for that.. all in all I pretty happy
I read about the "ScumSock" thing and purchased myself a 1 micron filter off Amazon for 20 bucks. I tried using it by attaching it to one of my return ports.. but because I have three returns I was only capturing only about 1/3 of the returning water at best.
So.. I set to thinking of a way to optimize the process.... Its a dangerous thing me thinking...
I wanted to put a filter in line someplace where I would catch as much of the water as possible. I thought abut my skimmer but the problem there is sometimes I'm using my pool bottom cleaner and the filter could not be used.
Then I thought I could buy a "Leaf Catcher" to put inline with the bottom cleaner...but then It would be there when I wasn't using the cleaner.
So I thought some more... working back up the system I started looking at my pump basket.. and thought it would be the perfect spot.
So I fashioned a template from some paper and cut out a template that would fit the inside of the basket. I cut up the filter material using the template and got a needle and thread and stitched up a "sock" that fits INSIDE the basket.
So now I'm filtering out 100% of all the water that passes thru my system. I later placed in a large gauge mesh screen to make cleaning the small leaves etc from the filter material quicker.
In one nights filtering (I run all night ~10 hours at about 1500 rpm ie slowly) Ive removed about 3/4 of the particles in the water
My next move is to use plastic rivets to secure the fabric in place and permanently to the basket (the fabric moves a bit when under a full speed run) and to use that basket (I have two baskets now one normal and a second with the sock) only occasionally to polish the water as needed and only run at about 1/2 speed.
Ive been monitoring my flow rates and pressures.. all are right where they were before using the sock. I am a bit worried that if the sock should get a heavy load of "stuff" that there might be a small problem with flow rates.. so Im keeping a eye on the system for that.. all in all I pretty happy