Isaac-1 said:
I just wanted to say since Alice mentioned it (even though she probably lives hundreds of miles from the worst of it) , west Texas dust is evil. I used to go out to west Texas camping every couple of years and I can tell you West Texas Dust is some of the some of the most annoying "dirt" in the world, it is made up of micro fine particles, think talcum powder or finer, now add a static charge so it sticks to everything. When I would get home from a camping trip everything would be covered with it, it would not wash off of tents, instead it would clump together in a paste like mud and turn back to dust as it dried. Clothes had to be washed multiple times to get the dust out, things like shoes, sleeping bags, etc would never be the same again, there is just no way to get all the dust out.
Back to the question, simply put you have suspended particles, to reduce them you need better filtration, DE Is the best type, I could not believe the difference it made when I installed a DE filter to replace a sand filter a couple of years ago. DE filters also take the most work, but you know what they say about getting what you pay for....
Ike
Uh Oh.......... don't get geekgranny started on dust.
You have most beautifully and aptly described my whole existence. One doesn't fight it; one adapts. Wow, can I quote you? I'll give you credit. :-D
We live at the highest elevation between the OK/TX border to the gulf coast, on an escartpment, that separates the Prarie lands of west Texas, beginning just east of Fort Worth, and the Piney Woods of east Texas. That's geological. This area is know as the Cross Timbers, that harbors plant species from central Texas, west Texas, and east Texas. Quite unique. The escarpment, an uprising, is composed many geological periods, and is rich in shale (and gas underneath), limestone, and clay deposits; or can we say chalk. :!: :?: :!: Just south of us, seven miles, are three of the ten largest cement factories in the US. Most, if not all, of the raw materials are mined locally in open pits. From spring through summer, and part of fall, much of our wind comes from the south. Being at the high elevation, by Texas standards, we get much of our wind, the rest of the year, from the north west Texas plains.
I intimately know the "cement" dust. It is finer than DE powder and shares many of its properties, including sapping the moisture out of bugs and human skin. I have referred to my DE filter, using cellulose, as a mini cement factory. What ends up in my pool, on a weekly basis, is surely more, in one weeks time, than most people encounter in a whole year. The powder finds it's way through the tiniest spaces. You have to wear gloves handling anything the dust lands on as the dust saps the moisture right out of your skin. I vacuum walls and ceilings a few times a year. AC filters are vacuumed, or washed, weekly. There's no dusting here until surfaces are vacuumed. Now, I'll have to admit, my country house dogs bring the majority of the dust into the house so people who live in "normal" houses do have less dust than we have.
It is very difficult for most people to grasp the concept of such EXTREME conditions. You have explained it so well and verified what I attempt to describe, over and over again.
Thank you.
I have a Pentair Quad 80 filter. It and the Intelliflo VF demand that I backwash weekly, using cellulose. I do, occasionally, fool the pump into "thinking" that the filter is less clogged than it really is by upping my clean starting psi in the settings. I had resigned myself to skip the weekly backwash and open the filter to hose off the stuff (Quad uses cartridges instead of grids) that is so difficult to remove via backwashing. Today I didn't have time to do that so I used a technique of backwashing, rinsing, sitting, over and over again, that did result in a considerable lowering of the filter psi. It only took about 500 gallons; the least amount of water I've used backwashing since installing the new filter.
Thanks Ike. You are my new hero. See, you guys, I'm not totally off my rocker. I don't deny a tendency towards exaggeration, at times, but there is no way one can exaggerate enough when describing this evil, microscopic dust.
gg=alice