Doughboy Media Master filter problem

[Traveller]

First post - and I have to start by saying what an awesome community this is! I opened my pool this year to find a swampy green mess (cover tore). Researching how to get rid of the algea led me here and I spent last weekend reading every page of pool school, and hundreds of posts. So far I have bought my first real test kit, emptied my local Costco store of bleach, discovered borax for the first time, and now have a blue pool that I can mostly see the bottom.

The pool became ours when we bought the house a few years ago. It is a doughboy 24' round above ground and came with a doughboy Power Pak II 1hp pump and a sequel II DE filter. The filter worked great last year until late season when 2 grids failed. Replacement was expensive and I frankly hate using DE (messy, constant backwashing, etc) but it sure did filter incredibly well. I picked up a used doughboy media master 1600 (150 lbs sand) filter for almost free to replace it.

Here is my problem and question - filtering was very slow with the sand filter although I didn't know what to expect having never had a sand filter before. Once the water was starting to clear I vacuumed for the first time and had a ton of debris coming out the return. I checked the sand and it looks fine. Before I put it in service I gave it a once over and everything appeared in good shape. I also replaced the spider gasket and head sealing gasket before putting it into service. I do not detect sand in the return, so I suspect it is a top end valve issue. Note that this style filter does not have laterals, but a slotted bottom drain piece that appears fine. Backwashing does show dirty water but not as much as I would expect. The fact that the tank has dirty water in it plus the pool slowly getting clearer shows it is filtering somewhat.

I searched the site and found 2 posts from prior years where people described the same issue with this filter, but neither thread offered a solution. So, am I on the right track thinking top-end? Is this common with this filter? Any specific things to look for?

I'm off to the pool to tear the top off and see if I can discover its issue.

 

[Bama Rambler]

The first thing is that a 150 lb sand filter is a very small filter for that size pool. It also takes a sand filter a while to clear a pool. However it does sound like there's a problem with the valve.

 

[Traveller]

I was afraid it was going to be too small, but figured I would try it out as it was free plus cost of new gaskets.

I still think something is wrong with it but cannot figure out what. I took the entire top end apart today and everything looks perfect. The spider gasket is new the valve assembly looks perfect. Then I checked the alignment of the valve ports to the manifold for each handle position and all is well. The riser tube is seating well into the upper end. I am stumped.

I buttoned it back up and it is filtering away but it was too dark to tell if debris was still coming back through the return. I'll check that tomorrow.

If anybody has any other thoughts I am all ears.

 

[Traveller]

Problem Solved!!

I how am filtering perfectly - woohoo!!

How did I solve it you ask? I replaced the filter. I went over every single part of that Media Master filter and found nothing wrong, but it would still spew out dirty water.

This morning Craigslist came to the rescue with a sweet deal on a gently used Hayward S220T. Picked it up, went over it thoroughly and hooked it up tonight. Everything looks like it is working great but we will see how the water looks tomorow.

I have been running the media master for 8 days straight and can just see the deep end bottom this morning for the first time. The water is still slightly cloudy though. So now we see what the new one does to clear it up. I can't wait! I am also thrilled that it is a mucho bigger filter.