sand/dirt out of return jets after 10 mins of vacumming

[tkdtime]

Hey all,

New to the forum, it seems that there is an awesome community here. I just bought a house and also am a first time pool owner.

I have switched to the BBB method after dropping over $300 in chemicals at the pool store to get my green pool blue. All I can say is thank you to the forum for making it so clear to understand!

I have an inground pool with a hayward sand filter.

Once my pool became clear enough to see the bottom, I started vacumming all the dirt/dead algae off the bottom (there was a lot!!). At first, I was vacumming with my multiport valve on filter and noticed that, after about 10 mins of vacumming I saw a steady stream of dirt coming out of my return jets.

Is this an indicator of broken laterals in my filter? Or more likely channeled sand? No dirt comes out of my return jets when the pool is filtering normally... only when vacumming. To avoid this, I have switched to vacuuming to waste, but of course, it takes me a lot longer since I have to replace water.

Thanks for the help!!!

 

[db13berry]

With a very dirty bottom, what your filter is doing on filter is normal. What is happening is the sand is getting more dirt than it can handle and pushing it back out. You are doing the right thing by switching to waste. It may take longer as far as vacuuming, but your water will clear faster by vacuuming on waste. If you continue to vacuum on filter, you will have to wait for all that circulating debris to either filter through the skimmer or settle to the bottom again, then start the process all over. Once your pool is clear and clean, it is ok to vacuum to filter for just the few particles that may be sitting on the bottom.

 

[linen]

How often are you backwashing your filter? We recommend when the filter pressure has increased by 25%. Backwashing too often reduces the filtering efficiency. It is unlikely your filter is channeled, but it might be worth doing a deep clean of yours. This thread has the directions: http://www.troublefreepool.com/my-sand-is-channeled-how-to-fix-it-t7626.html

I does not sound like a broken lateral to me. You would be returning sand to the pool and that should happen in normal filtering mode as well.

 

[tkdtime]

Thanks for the help! I'll keep my current strategy. I've been backwashing every few days, but not necessarily because my pressure has gone up 8-10 psi. I replaced the pressure gauge this weekend and see my pressure hovering around 10 psi. It hasn't really increased so I'll chill out on the backwashing

 

[duraleigh]

It hasn't really increased so I'll chill out on the backwashing

actually, you probably need to backwash MUCH more frequently. I am pretty sure you are sucking up so much stuff so fast that the filter is quickly filling up. When it does, it can create enough pressure on the multi-port that it forces it (the multi-port) to open up and let the water by-pass the filter and return to the pool.

As soon as you see that dirt returning to the pool.......backwash. It doesn't have to be a backwash to crystal clear but I think you have to get some of the junk out of your filter and it will start filtering again.

The identical thing happened to me last Spring when I was attempting to clean up an incredible amount of junk that had settled on the pool floor. It was the only explanation I could come up with and the backwashing worked.

 

[kjcole]

Exact same thing is happening to me as I try to vacuum up the silt and debris that sifted through my mesh cover all winter. My concern is that when I backwash I don't see the same degree of discolored water that I'm used to. I was just about to tear down the filter and look for channeling/busted lateral (and change my 4-yr old Zeobrite) when I came upon this thread. I do lose suction after a few minutes of vacuuming as the stuff plumes out of my return, so maybe this stuff just clogs the filter quicker than I'm used to and then works past the multi-port as suggested. I'll vacuum to waste today to get the junk out. The real test is whether I can get my sparkly water once the chemistry is balanced.

Kelly

 

[Stag77]

I am having a similar problem. I have a DE filter and it only has backwash and filter options, no backwash to waste. After about 10 minutes of vacuuming I start to see green returning from the Jets. I guess this is normal?