DE or Sand

[leper]

I'm sorry if this question has been beaten to death but im in a dilemma. I have a 20x40 inground chlorine pool that I inherited with my house 2 years ago. Last year was my year with it. Problem is that when i closed it I took apart my old PERFLEx DE filter and kinda broke it. Now im in the market for a new filter. I found the DE to be AWESOME to keep the water clean but the mess at closing was horrible. I'm thinking about getting a sand filter and am wondering if i should get another perflex or go with sand as I have absoloutly NO idea what sand is. Any info either yeah or neigh would be appreciated. The pool is approx. 27000 gallons and was looking at a hayward 24 any suggestions on anything better? Or should i just go back to DE ??? I know i definately don't want cartridge..... Cheers

 

[RobbieH]

Sand is sand, exactly what it sounds like.

Go with what you like. As you said, this has been asked a million times, and basically it comes down to this - just go with what you are used to or like to work with. They all have their pros and cons.

 

[Isaac-1]

I switched from sand to a Hayward Perflex 3 or 4 years ago and have been very happy with it, having said that the Perflex is more work, but does make for a better looking pool in my experience. It is simply a question of do you mind the added work. Also you use much less water with the Perflex, sand must be backwashed much more often wasting much more water, this can be a big issue if you live where there are water use limitations.

 

[JasonLion]

Also you use much less water with the Perflex, sand must be backwashed much more often wasting much more water, this can be a big issue if you live where there are water use limitations.

This is much more about the relative size of the filters and not the sand/DE distinction. With an appropriately over sized sand filter you can backwash hardly at all. Sand does use a little more water for comparably sized filters, but not all that much and backwashing frequency is about the same for filters matched in capacity.

 

[RobbieH]

Last year I didn't backflush all swim season, and I have a large pool.

 

[Dalandlord]

2 years ago I replaced an older DE filter that had become difficult to get to stop leaking at the gasket. I went with a Hayward sand filter and put zeolite in it because I was worried about losing the polished look of the DE. I can tell you I haven't missed the DE for a New York second. I went almost a year without backwashing and only did it then because I had so much rain water to pump out of the pool I went ahead and did it even though the pressure was up less than 5 lbs. I had absolutely no problems with the Zeo but you do have to backwash very good at startup.

It keeps the water every bit as nice as the DE filter. No matter what you choose to put in the sand filter there is certainly no easier to maintain filter. It takes a few min to backwash, you switch to rinse for maybe a min and you're done. I'm a very busy guy and have a lot of other things to do, so that works for me. The one thing I will tell you about the sand filter is some people add a little DE after backwashing to get the DE water polishing and there is nothing wrong with doing that as far as I can tell with sand but if you choose to put the Zeolite or ZeoSand as different sources call it, you do not want to add DE to the Zeo as it filters through tiny pores in the Zeo and the DE can clog those pores. And frankly it works so well without it you won't want to anyway.

You are in great hands with these guys so you will be great no matter what type filter you choose.