Leak at Drain Cap - Sta Rite Sand Filter

[sandrakmcdw]

I am a true Newbie and am learning a lot mainly online because the local "shops" are terribly unresponsive.
I have a large inground pool - 20ft X 40ft. Pool came with the "new house" First year was amazing but nothing but trouble since then it seems.
Last year it leaked - no - it almost drained itself mid winter - leak track or whatever they did showed no place it leaked from - no obvious ground wet spots and after refilling it - went all summer with no further issues. I attributed it to a possible main drain problem with the temperature extremes we had (below freezing then immediate warm up to full summer!)
This year - day before I was going to remove the cover - it lost 1.5 ft of water in 2 days. Called pool place and after a week and a half of no return call - I noticed it was not leaking as fast so I went for it and filled it back to mid skimmer level. By now of course it looked like a green marshy lake! After some turbo shock and salt it started to clear and then the problems began. The polaris pump died! Got one on order but decided to run the pool on recirculate to try to keep some of the algae down and noticed a leak - then a pour from the drain plug on my Sta Rite Cristal Flo Sand filter. No manner of loosening or tightening of the cap makes a difference. After some diagram research - wondering if the lateral drain is the culprit and how to fix that?? Really don't want to involve pool place if I can help it, they just called back about the leak that I had inquired about!!!! Afraid I may have to really get with on that since it did seem to leak some over the past two days, but I would hate to have them look at something I may be able to do myself!!

BTW - sand was replace 2 summers ago and did notice a little drip every once in a while, but nothing like the water pouring out now.
Also, should the water be leaking if on recirculate??

Any help for this newbie DIY'er is greatly appreciated!!!!!!!!

 

[borjis]

oh man, I'm with you on that too.

My local family owned pool store is better than most, but the repair guy is flaky as ****.

I too have a sta rite sand filter drip leaking and at the inlet/outlet of the multiport valve.

He did show up but said I needed a new valve for $ 600 and when I said I couldn't afford
that right now he never got back to me on fixing the sand filter drain plug leak, which I think
is an o-ring seal it just needs, but I don't have a huge wrench to fix myself.

Have you googled your filter for a blown up schematic to see what seals you would need to replace?

 

[sandrakmcdw]

Based on diagrams I have from the manual it looks like the lateral that protrudes thru the drain is chipped around the end. I thought about replacing the drain cap and the o-ring in it as a starting point . . but wondering if there is more to my problem. I thought that when that cap is removed all the water should drain out - I was told that the first year I closed the pool myself. So, every time I take the cap off now - water doesn't pour out - but it does drip. When I turn it on in Filter or Recirculate mode - the water seems to really pour out.
No sand is coming out thank goodness - but could there be something else wrong that will require me to take the whole filter apart and remove the sand???
can that one lateral be replaced without a total break apart of the filter??

I had a small leak around the multiport valve before replacing the sand previously . . replaced an o-ring and made sure everything was nice and tight when putting everything back together and no more leak - at least not in that spot!!