High pressure Sta-rite System 3 Cartridge Filters

[corsair2002]

I moved away from my house for 4.5 years and recently moved back in. After finally getting the water under control after the pool service managed to run the numbers out of control (280+ CYA) I am now dealing with the issue of high pressure. I bought new cartridges about 5 years ago. They look pretty good, no tears, and I have hosed them down well. From what I recall; clean operating pressure was 10 PSI. Now it's more like 18-20, and after having to do a 75% water replace to fix the water, clean filters are giving me 24PSI.

Any suggestions on what to do? I haven't done the filter soak yet, that's me next troubleshooting step. Can the soak yield a big change? I know what completely decrepid filters look like and these still look pretty good after 5 years, but do the cartridges get internally and irreversible "spent"? Looking for advice before I proceed.

 

[cowboycasey]

they may have calcium scaling on them or had some kind of chemical reaction.. you can do a couple things

1. buy new filters, depending on how the pool was maintained this may be your best option

2. clean in TSP Shop TSP All Purpose Heavy Duty Cleaner at Lowes.com and then clean them in a diluted 20 to 1 MA acid bath This is an exerpt from an old post, I hope this helps

"Soak the carts in a soluion of one cup of either electric dishwasher powder such as Cascade or Electrosal or 1 cup of REAL TSP (not the TSP substitute sold in many places today!) for every 5 gallons of water. Soak the cart overnight and then hose it off again. If you have two carts and have already swapped them out then let the clean one dry in the sun before storing it.

IF AND ONLY IF you have scale deposits on the cart after soaking (or metal staining) the you can acid wash the cart. NEVER ACID WASH A CART THAT HAS NOT BEEN DEGREASED FIRST unless you want to throw it out! The acid will cause the organics to form a cement like mass that cannot be removed. You will find that your filter pressure rises very rapidly and you will need to replace the cart. Also be aware that each time you acid wash a cart or use a commercial acid based cleaner you are causing the Remay Polyester material to stretch and become a bit less effective of a filter so you only want to do this if you really need to.

If you need to acid wash use a 20 to 1 dilution of muriatic acid and soak the cart until the bubbling stops or for about 20 minutes and then hose off again."