So, on friday, I took the plunge and finally got around to cleaning out the quad de 100 for my 4 month old pool. For the last week, the water had looked dirtier than normal, very small stuff on the top of the water(pollen?), and I knew chlorine/cya/chems was in good shape....besides, getting rid of any plaster dust is always a good idea.
First time opening up the filter, some comments/questions:
a) pentair instructions say to tighten until each side of spring is just touching, I think I did that but am also worried I might have tightened too far
b) the drain thing on the bottom of the filter uses a builtin plastic nut to loosen/tighten and seems to easily deform, worried I'm going to have to replace the cap there if I am constantly opening/closing it.
c) the de cartridges seem easy enough to clean, hose worked fine and media seems sturdy enough not to get damaged easily
d) so, what am I supposed to do about all the de that falls off the filter when cleaning...a bunch fell in a grass area and seems to stick to the soil/clog drains...swept up as much as I could
e) I assume rough ballpark is fine enough for filling up de again, I started pump and then dropped roughly 12lbs of de into skimmer (~2x what was on bag for 48sq ft filter), I slowly dumped in...but didn't dilute before hand..was I supposed to?
f) I'm still somewhat curious what time frame I should get between cleaning of the quad de 100, for a 24K gallon pool...I was told that it would be roughly 6-12 months...not sure if that is realistic.
g) how long does de last, I know it is supposed to stay in the filter, but I assume some gets lost as part of normal process...including occasional opening of pressure relief valve when performing other pool maintenance....will de stay in filter fine for 1yr?
h) Unfortunately, the pressure gauge barely changes as the filter gets dirty.....maybe a half point of psi at most so far...filter psi after cleaning was barely distinguisable from dirty
i) it seems to take a good yank to get the main screw released when unclamping and the spring releases pretty strong slamming the metal belt against my hand (not looking forward to repeat).
But overall, if this isn't a too frequent a task, should be easily doable on my own. I just hope that I'm not having to clean it every 3-4 months.
First time opening up the filter, some comments/questions:
a) pentair instructions say to tighten until each side of spring is just touching, I think I did that but am also worried I might have tightened too far
b) the drain thing on the bottom of the filter uses a builtin plastic nut to loosen/tighten and seems to easily deform, worried I'm going to have to replace the cap there if I am constantly opening/closing it.
c) the de cartridges seem easy enough to clean, hose worked fine and media seems sturdy enough not to get damaged easily
d) so, what am I supposed to do about all the de that falls off the filter when cleaning...a bunch fell in a grass area and seems to stick to the soil/clog drains...swept up as much as I could
e) I assume rough ballpark is fine enough for filling up de again, I started pump and then dropped roughly 12lbs of de into skimmer (~2x what was on bag for 48sq ft filter), I slowly dumped in...but didn't dilute before hand..was I supposed to?
f) I'm still somewhat curious what time frame I should get between cleaning of the quad de 100, for a 24K gallon pool...I was told that it would be roughly 6-12 months...not sure if that is realistic.
g) how long does de last, I know it is supposed to stay in the filter, but I assume some gets lost as part of normal process...including occasional opening of pressure relief valve when performing other pool maintenance....will de stay in filter fine for 1yr?
h) Unfortunately, the pressure gauge barely changes as the filter gets dirty.....maybe a half point of psi at most so far...filter psi after cleaning was barely distinguisable from dirty
i) it seems to take a good yank to get the main screw released when unclamping and the spring releases pretty strong slamming the metal belt against my hand (not looking forward to repeat).
But overall, if this isn't a too frequent a task, should be easily doable on my own. I just hope that I'm not having to clean it every 3-4 months.