Wet-Dry Vacuum needed for filter sand removal

[C3Cl3N3O3]

I'm planning to remove and replace the sand in my sand filter (Hayward S220T) in order to replace cracked laterals. I want to do an ample amount of planning beforehand to reduce the amount of downtime. I have a basic low-end 2.75 HP Shop Vac. I'm a bit concerned that it won't have enough power to suck 250 pounds of damp silica sand out of there in a reasonable amount of time. Anybody have any experience or recommends here? I suppose I can rent one if need be.

The sand filter is currently "hard plumbed" in there with no unions so I can't really experiment ahead of the tear down.

 

[kimkats]

I did mine by hand before I found out that I could have used a shopvac! My poor hands were raw before I was done.

I do know that you will not be able to get it all out in one load. There is just not enough room in the holding tank. When I have to do it again I will use my 4.0hp vac. and put it in my wheel barrow so I can just dump the vac tank into the Wheel barrow with out lifting it.

I hope you will be adding unions while you are doing this. I find it to be helpful to be able to look into my filter and run a little water into it when I have a heavy load of small things like ants.

Kim

 

[duraleigh]

This doesn't help now....I am too late to the dance. I was able to roll a friends filter onto it's side and flood the tank with a garden hose. That washed out most of the sand fairly quickly.

 

[C3Cl3N3O3]

Well the 2.75 HP Shop Vac did the job, but it was definitely labored. I really had to shake the hose and help it out with the wet sand quite a bit and it took a LONG time. If I do this job again, I'll probably look into renting a 6.5 HP Shop Vac.

 

[kimkats]

At least you knew to use one LOL. The first time I did it I scooped one small cup at a time by hand! My hands were raw from the sand before I was done NOW I will use a shop vac!

Kim