DE Filter Troubleshooting

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PoolRobR

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Jun 7, 2007
2
Hi All,

Can anyone offer a troubleshooting guide for DE filters? For instance, what are the symptoms of too much powder? Too little powder? What should the filter pressure be? And so on.

Here's my situation. I've got a Hayward Perflex EC65 DE filter, and a Hayward 3/4 hp SuperPump. If I turn the pump on in the morning, by late afternoon I've got no flow through the filter. If I bump the filter (regenerate, I think they call it), I can get several more hours of good flow. So I think the filter needs a new batch of powder, so I follow the instructions and backflush all (or most) of the powder, then add some more powder to the skimmer. The exact same thing happens, no flow after several hours. Bear in mind the water is crystal clear during all this time.

So, I disassemble the filter, completely clean the filter housing and the fingers. This thing is like new at this point. Ressemble, add the recommended amount of DE powder, and within 6 hours or so, the flow is once again negligible. The pressure when freshly assembled is about 23 pounds, and when the flow stops a few hours later the pressure is 25-26 pounds.

I'm at a loss. Any ideas?

Rob
 
I am having a similar problem with my DE filter. I just installed a new pump yesterday. Every few hours I have very little flow, until I regenerate the filter. Then it works fine for a few hours. I, however, have been fighting algae, and thought it was due to a lot of junk in the water, so I drained the filter and added new powder, etc... Still have the same issue. If I find anything, I'll let you know.

Shelly
 
I have a similar problem with the same filter/pump combo. One thing I did notice in your posting was the pressure right after you cleaned elements seems high. On my pool, I remove the elements, pressure wash them, carefully so you don't damage the fabric, and then give them the recommended (owners manual) acid soak for a 1/2 hour (1 gallon of muriatic acid in a 5 gallon plastic bucket. remember to add Acid to Water, not the opposite). After I rinse the elements and put it back in the filter, my initial back pressure, before adding the DE is 5-8 PSI. After I add the DE, I'm only up to 12-15 PSI. My filter seems to stop flowing water too when I hit 25-30 PSI.
My question is how much DE to add? The manual says 6 Lbs (9 one LB coffee cans). This seems to clog up more quickly than if I only add 6-7 cans of DE. The filter and pump is 5 years old, but my old 15+ year old filter/pump behaved the same way. The 6 can charge was recommend to me by the previous owner. What is your DE charge and how do you measure it?
thanks
mike
 
Hi all, you've stepped into "The Wasteland" :twisted: ! I've posted a lot of this stuff on PF, give me a few days to figure out the X-links and it'll be a part of this forum.

As a quick, and thereby incomplete, answer:
Too much or too little DE can cause filter problems
After you backwash or 'bump and dump' the DE, only add 80% of the start- up DE
Algae is about the same size as the 'paths' through the DE, so an algae filled pool will require frequent cleaning
The best way to clean a DE filter is to take it apart and clean it with a hose - sometimes the 'fingers' or 'grids' need to be chemicaly treated/ soaked.
Most manufacturers don't know how to care for their own equipment

I'll try to find the time before Monday to do the X- links (Friday's a bad day because of our weekly 'safety meeting' at the boss' bar :cheers: ) If you've any questions of me before I can do the linking, ask and I might see it, if I do, I'll tell you all I know
 
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Hi All,

OK, so I've had quite an adventure. I went out last Saturday morning, and gave the bump handle a vigorous yank, and heard a crack. D4MN! I broke both the top and bottom tube plates. Since I was now looking at a repair, I did it right. I bought new tube plates, a new shaft. a new gasket, new o-rings, washers, and retainer clips, and new tube plate screws and nuts.

I disassembled the whole thing, all 120 fingers, trashed all the broken and old pieces, and put the fingers (grids) into a 5 gallon bucket with about 4 gallons of water, and added a gallon of muriatic acid. Set that aside to soak for 30 minutes or so, and meanwhile manually removed most of the gunk that's been floating on the pool surface for the last 5 days while the filter's been broken.

Removed the fingers from the acid bath, rinsed the heck out of them, marvelled at how clean they are, and reassembled the nest. It seems you can't do anything quickly when you're dealing with 120 fingers, especially when you're being careful not to break any. Once all the fingers are in, screw the tube plates together with 16 new screws and nuts. Put the o-rings on the shaft, and the lower washer and retainer clip on, slide the shaft through the whole in the center of the tube plates. Remove the shaft from the center of the tube plates, because with all the o-rings installed, it won't go through the hole.

Spend 10 minutes carefully removing the o-rings without damaging them, now slide the shaft through the whole in the center of the tube plates. Install the o-rings again, slide the washer down, and try to squeeze the tube plates together so the retainer clip will go into the groove. Use large channel lock pliers to install the retainer clip then say a little prayer to please stay together.

That was the quick part. I spent the next hour trying to get the pivot pin out of the old shaft so I could remove it from the filter cover. After beating the heck out of the pin, the bump handle, the filter lid, and various tools, screws, and bolts, and abusing my fingers (not the grids) trying to get the freaking pin out, I remembered I had a set of pin punches in the garage. Slap forehead. Get punches. Pins comes out easily now. So easily, it flew into the grass next to the deck, where I had been doing this repair. Spent the next 20 minutes, while listening to my wife remind me that I'm an idiot, looking through the grass for the pin. I bought all new stuff to replace old stuff, except the pin. GAH!

Wife comes over to help, and finds the pin in 12 seconds. She reminds me again that I'm an idiot.

Get the old shaft out, assemble the new nest into the filter lid, get the pin into the new shaft, reassemble the filter, check for leaks. No leaks, yeay!

I was never sure how much DE powder to add before, so I followed harmug's advice and put in 6-1 lb cans of powder. Filter pressure before powder was around 10 pounds. Once powder was added, pressure went up to about 15 pounds. Very strong flow, and all looks good. I'm going to let it run overnight and check it in the morning.

That was fun.

Rob
 

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