Filter clogged? HELP!

[yitbos1]

Last night, I noticed that the return flow was somewhat diminished, so I decided to backwash my 200# Hayward sand filter with spider valve (my pressure gauge is broken and I haven't replaced it yet ). I set the valve to BACKWASH, turned on the pump, and nothing happened. I then set the valve to RINSE just to see if it would start flowing and it did. I was running out of daylight at this point so I came back to it this morning.

Now, I can't get any flow with the valve placed in the BACKWASH, FILTER, or RINSE locations. I get good flow with it in RECIRCULATE, though, which leads me to believe this is a filter or valve issue. Does anybody have any ideas where I need to start looking?

 

[waste]

Welcome to TFP!!

I would open the filter and check the sand for being 'impacted'

Can you tell us what chems you've been using? Unfortunately, some chems can 'gum' up a sand filter

 

[yitbos1]

Thanks for the welcome! I've been lurking here for a while now, though.

I opened up the filter last night to check exactly what you suggested, and the sand seemed fine. I did find the culprit, though. The previous owners of the pool had, for some unknown reason, placed a cap in the pipe on the pressure side inside the filter. It must have been blown off when started for normal operation and drawn in when I attempted to do the backwash. You can image what I was saying to myself when I found this...

Thanks for the help!

 

[waste]

Very happy to have been able to help (though leaving a %&**^$% cap in there wouldn't have occurred to me )

I hope the rest of your season is trouble free and you get lots of use out of your pool