We've been looking at buying a new pool heater & variable speed pump for a while, but haven't gotten around to it yet, and now suddenly our old DE Filter housing started leaking from a pin-prick type crack in the lower part of the housing, as well as another place just below the clamp. Maybe it shouldn't have come as a complete surprise since just a few months ago the drain plug started leaking, which we fixed by replacing the plug, but from a bit of searching it doesn't seem like there's a safe way to patch the housing, and of course it could start leaking from other places any time soon.
We've been looking at some filter type comparisons and from what we've read so far it looks like the cartridge filter sounds like a much better type than DE filter, we've always hated doing backwash, getting all that gunky DE mixed water in the backyard lawn, and then having to replace the DE and not really knowing how much you need to add since you don't get rid of all of it from backwashing, the messy/dusty DE powder that you don't want to be breathing in, and all the water waste from doing the backwash, losing a lot of CYA in the process as well.
Since according to a lot of those comparisons claim that a cartridge filter can filter down to 5-10 microns depending on the source, which would only be marginally worse than DE 3-5 microns according to the same comparisons, that would be a decrease we'd be willing to take for all the other improvements like no backwashing, no DE mess, better energy efficiency & water saving. But, when we started looking at actual cartridge filter models from Jandy, Pentair etc they either say down to 20-30 microns or don't specify the micron filtering levels at all in either product specs on the website, brochures or even the manuals. We even tried calling the manufacturer Jandy yesterday but they didn't have a clue, and were going to "check and call back" which we're still waiting on...
So, does anyone know which are the best cartridge filter models, and if any of them can actually filter down to the listed 5-10 microns, and which is the easiest to remove the filters for cleaning?
Currently, we have a Pentair FNS Plus FNSP60 DE filter.
We also have 3 Pentair WhisperFlo WFE-8 2HP 1.30SF pumps (horribly inefficient pumps that we want to replace at least the main filter pump with a variable speed pump, probably either Pentair IntelliFlo or Hayward EcoStar which we for some reason also have problems finding good information about to compare them)
Our MiniMax N7 natural gas heater has not been working for as long as we've lived here, and would like to replace with either a new natural gas heater or maybe a heat pump, which... SURPRISE! we've also had problems finding data about the different models for comparison.
What's up with the complete lack of any kind of important specs data on any type of pool equipment it seems?! You can't find the most important filter specs (micron levels) on a filter, you can't find the most important specs (energy efficiency) for pool pumps, and you can't find the most important specs (efficiency/energy consumption) on pool heaters, particularly on heat pumps...
Hoping we have better luck finding info here on the forums from people who seems to more often than not know more than the manufacturers do about their own products.
Since our filter is broken we of course can't run our pump right now in the middle of summer, so we really need to get this taken care of ASAP, any help appreciated! Right now we're just trying to keep the pool decently clear by manually brushing out a gallon of chlorine every other day & running our favorite toy - the Dolphin Z5 robot cleaner.
We've been looking at some filter type comparisons and from what we've read so far it looks like the cartridge filter sounds like a much better type than DE filter, we've always hated doing backwash, getting all that gunky DE mixed water in the backyard lawn, and then having to replace the DE and not really knowing how much you need to add since you don't get rid of all of it from backwashing, the messy/dusty DE powder that you don't want to be breathing in, and all the water waste from doing the backwash, losing a lot of CYA in the process as well.
Since according to a lot of those comparisons claim that a cartridge filter can filter down to 5-10 microns depending on the source, which would only be marginally worse than DE 3-5 microns according to the same comparisons, that would be a decrease we'd be willing to take for all the other improvements like no backwashing, no DE mess, better energy efficiency & water saving. But, when we started looking at actual cartridge filter models from Jandy, Pentair etc they either say down to 20-30 microns or don't specify the micron filtering levels at all in either product specs on the website, brochures or even the manuals. We even tried calling the manufacturer Jandy yesterday but they didn't have a clue, and were going to "check and call back" which we're still waiting on...
So, does anyone know which are the best cartridge filter models, and if any of them can actually filter down to the listed 5-10 microns, and which is the easiest to remove the filters for cleaning?
Currently, we have a Pentair FNS Plus FNSP60 DE filter.
We also have 3 Pentair WhisperFlo WFE-8 2HP 1.30SF pumps (horribly inefficient pumps that we want to replace at least the main filter pump with a variable speed pump, probably either Pentair IntelliFlo or Hayward EcoStar which we for some reason also have problems finding good information about to compare them)
Our MiniMax N7 natural gas heater has not been working for as long as we've lived here, and would like to replace with either a new natural gas heater or maybe a heat pump, which... SURPRISE! we've also had problems finding data about the different models for comparison.
What's up with the complete lack of any kind of important specs data on any type of pool equipment it seems?! You can't find the most important filter specs (micron levels) on a filter, you can't find the most important specs (energy efficiency) for pool pumps, and you can't find the most important specs (efficiency/energy consumption) on pool heaters, particularly on heat pumps...
Hoping we have better luck finding info here on the forums from people who seems to more often than not know more than the manufacturers do about their own products.
Since our filter is broken we of course can't run our pump right now in the middle of summer, so we really need to get this taken care of ASAP, any help appreciated! Right now we're just trying to keep the pool decently clear by manually brushing out a gallon of chlorine every other day & running our favorite toy - the Dolphin Z5 robot cleaner.