DE Filter Questions

[tagprod]

Well I was helping a friend out this week. He has a newer Hayward DE filter. It was filthy so I sprayed it down with a hose and got all the gunk of. The pressure gauge was reading 35-40. After cleaning off the filter (but before adding any DE) it was still reading 35-40. The water flow and suction in to the skimmer is greatly reduced. There's a valve to go to recirculate and water flow is great when it's in that position but when I go back to running water through the filter the water flow is very weak. He's got algae and I think we need better water circulation to help combat it. Any ideas? When I add the DE is it going to make that much of a difference to the filter pressure?

 

[waste]

Brian, those grids need to be cleaned before adding more DE!!! When you hosed the grids, did you get all the gunk out of the middle, or just hit the outside? I imagine that you did a thorough hosing, when you finished rinsing them you probably noticed that the water was draining out of them slowly and the fabric was bowed out at the bottom, full of water. You need to soak them in a mixture of powdered automatic dishwasher detergent and water - be sure that the entire assembly gets soaked (if the only basin you have will only soak 1/2 the unit - soak it for a few hours and turn it over so the other 1/2 gets soaked too. Once you've done that- dump the mix, rinse the grids and soak them again, this time in a ~ 1: 10 muriatic acid (31% muriatic acid) to water mix for another 3 - 5 hours and rinse them again. At this point you should see the water flowing out of the grids freely :-D Now your ready to reinstall them in the filter and you should be all set to go!

Please take a look at the DE sticky for use and care for a DE filter

 

[tagprod]

I cleaned the filter by taking all the grids out and hosing them down thoroughly. If I didn't know better I'd think something was wrong with the gauge. The only concern I have is that the flow is minimal.

 

[JasonLion]

As waste said, you need to soak them in powdered automatic dishwasher detergent and then muriatic acid. Just follow the directions in his post.

 

[tagprod]

I had my doubts about this. I hosed each one off individually and they looked fine, but I soaked them in automatic dishwashing soap. I even bout a big trash can so I could submerge the whole thing. I'll be danged if it didn't work like a charm. Pressure dropped from 38PSI to about 24. (I'm not convinced the pressure isn't actually a little lower but that's what the gauge read) It was running very quiet and smooth. Flow from the returns was much better. Thanks Waste!!!!