Dog Hair and pine needles with sand filter

[fisherman]

Hi
I thought I would share this one. I have been a steady lurker for a while picking up many tips to maintain clear water. Lately my pump pressure has been steadily increasing and sometimes while vacuuming I would see dirty water coming back through the returns. I thought initially that my gauge must be bad and maybe a bad spider gasket but the other symptoms which include a slight decrease in flow suggested otherwise. I have three large pine trees around my pool which drop thousands of needles into the pool each season and a large labrador who loves to swim daily. His fur does clog the skimmer and pump strainer basket but this is not a big deal.

I am probably one of the few people on the planet with an old Jacuzzi Laser sand filter so I have been reluctant to perform the "deep cleaning" or inspect the valve etc for the fear of tearing a brittle gasket that I would be challenged to find.

Anyways the time has come so I took it apart. I put my hand in the sand and sure enough the top layer was a coagulated mess for the first inch or so. It had the consistency of bread dough. I scooped out this mixture of gook, dog hair and pine needles, all of which could not pass through during routine backwashing. Below this layer was nice clean sand. A quick rinse before switching to filter and the system was once again running nicely.

I tried to post a pic, but the file was too big. I am sure everyone can get a mental image of a small pile of coagulated sand mixed with hair and needles.

Something for other dog/pool owners to watch for.

 

[scott39]

My border collie loves a daily swim. Lots of fur in the skimmer baskets and the pump suction basket. Both are easy to take care of with a regular cleaning.

I have a cartridge filter, so won't have the same problem there.

Thanks for posting!


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[Texas Splash]

If you haven't done so already, some of us use a skimmer sock to wrap around the skimmer to catch some of those smaller items before they make it to the pump basket and/or filter. I use a 1 gallon paint strainer that I purchased at a local home improvement store and it works well to catch the really small bugs and dog hair that would normally go right through my skimmer. Just a thought. My dog loves the water too.

On a side note - to post a pic .. have you tried linking from Photobucket? That's what many of us do here on TFP. Upload your pics to Photobucket (free), then copy & paste the IMG code for that pic from Photobucket to your TFP post. Works great.