Upgrading to an additional sand filter

[nutria]

Hi everybody,
I have a pair of pools connected by a spillover but with essentially independent pump and filtration systems. I am slowly trying to reduce the amount of maintenance. I installed a SWG recently and changed the 30 year old single speed pumps by variable speed ones. One recurring issue is cleaning the DE filters. Our pool gets a lot of debris from trees, etc and it is one of the tasks we dread. We have a non-functional gas heater that we have been meaning to remove and I was considering putting a sand filter there in series with one of the DE filters. The thinking is that the sand filter could take care of the main cleaning and be simpler to maintain, the DE would be in recirculate (bypass) for the periods when the pool is not being used as intensively (we don't close the pool). Are there any problems with this approach? Are the tagelus filters a good option? Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[CJadamec]

I've wondered for a long time why using a sand filter as a pre filter for a DE or cartridge filter wasnt a more common idea. Other than cost and added plumbing complexity. Of course you will have added back pressure on the pump so your pump rpms will have to get bumped up a bit.

 

[duraleigh]

You will have a much bigger head loss so that's probably not very efficient but, aside from maintaining two filters, it should be no problem.

Why not just one large sand filter.......that's your best option, I believe.

 

[nutria]

Thanks for the replies. I am not saying that this would make sense when designing the system from scratch, but rather as an improvement on an existing arrangement. I could just replace one of the DE filters by a large sand filter, but it seems a waste to just throw away a perfectly nice DE filter, and because I am taking out a non functioning gas heater, there hardly is any increase in plumbing complexity. Regarding the increase in head, I suppose that is a consideration but I would normally only run one filter at a time, and I do have a 3 HP VS pump for that loop, so I am guessing it should be okay. Any other reasons I should not do this? I really appreciate the feedback

 

[abycat]

You will have a much bigger head loss so that's probably not very efficient but, aside from maintaining two filters, it should be no problem.

Why not just one large sand filter.......that's your best option, I believe.

I run a 1000lb sand filter with two sized quartz sand in mine and it performs flawlessly. I'm not a big de fan but sure love sand

 

[setsailsoon]

Nutria,

Here's an alternative to consider. Put a cartridge filter in parallel with your DE. Properly sized the new filters last several months between cleaning and the elements last for years. They filter smaller particles than most sand filters and almost as good as DE. I'd bet you'll end up never running the DE. When I first moved in I thought the filter would be one of my first things to change. But I really like this thing. It's 3 years old and I changed the cartridge last year just because I thought 2 years was enough. I've since learned many go 3-5 years. Same thing goes with cleaning the cartridge. I thought this would be an issue until I found out it has one single very large element so cleaning is a matter of removing the top of the housing by removing the ring nut (no tools needed). My pressure drop never gets to the recommended level so I just clean it every 3 months... takes about 30 min with a filter cleaning wand from Amazon.

I hope this helps.

Chris

 

[mas985]

I understand the issue about cleaning a DE filter and wanting to change that but I don't see any advantage of keeping the DE filter. Sell it and help pay for the sand filter.

 

[JoeSelf]

How about skimmer socks?