Ut oh, vacuumed pool in backwash mode.

[iulenny]

Hello all. I'm not really new to pools, but new to my new sand filter(previously had a cartridge filter). I was trying to vacuum my pool to waste and for some in reason in my mind I thought I was, but I set the valve on backwash. So I vacuumed a bunch of dead algae and dirt on backwash. I was told this was a big NO NO by my pool guy who installed it. What can I expect in the future after doing this?

thanks in advance.

 

[JohnT]

Welcome to TFP.

First, you should rinse the filter before returning to filter mode.

What happens may depend on the nature of the debris. If it was dead algae or other fine stuff, it will probably rinse out with no problem. If it was larger stuff, you could potentially have some partially clogged laterals or even some debris stuck in the sand outside the laterals. The latter situation could give you a little more operating pressure on your filter, but realistically I doubt you'll experience any long-term issues.

 

[coloeb]

A sand filter works by passing your pool water through a layer of sand and is returned to the pool after the sand filters out the debris. When you backwash you reverse the direction of water flow and this rinses out the sand. By vacuming on backwash you deposited debris from the pool on the " clean side" of the sand. Depending on what you were vacuming ( normal stuff or algea and debris from winter) it could range from redepositing the stuff in your pool to plugging up your filter.
Turn your filter back to filtering the pool note the pressure on the filter. Is this number about the same as normal? If its 10 lbs higher than normal you could attempt to back wash it. If its higher a better coarse of action would be to replace the sand and start over. Chances are you have not damaged anything at all , and at worst you will have to vacume again in a day or 2.