Advice on refurbishing my old sand filter, purchasing a new one, or moving to cartridge or DE for SWG pool

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J

Jcgage0

0
Jul 1, 2013
68
Cincinnati OH
Hey TFP folks,

My sand filter is showing lots of signs of age. I bought the house with the pool so not really sure how old it is, but the multivalve is worn out and partially pumping to waste when I have it set on filter which is obviously a huge problem and the last straw to having to address it in some way. I put a SWG on the pool a couple years ago and a variable speed pump which have both worked out great!

I'm looking for advice on what to do with the filter. I'm pretty handy so generally do the work myself. My biggest thing is making the pools as maintenance lite as possible.

Refurbish....New or rebuilt multivalve and a creative repair of the leaky drain plug and I would have to figure out why I'm been losing a lot of sand out of the plug too.

New Sand Filter....Not sure if the plastic on the tank is going to break down and potentially render a refurb a waste of time and money. Also any thoughts on sizing would be great. I think I have the specs for my current sand filter and pool up to date in my signature.

Cartridge or DE...Sounds like water stability via no backwashing is a nice plus for cartridge+SWG. Any thoughts on whether this is the best route. I have in the past had issues with soot or small particulate, but that has been better the last few years. I think cause I use a poor mans skimmer sock (cheap hair net) or maybe its the stability of FC with the SWG upgrade.

Any advice and thoughts wound be appreciated.

Thanks,
Jeff
 
Jeff,

I used to be a DE filter guy, but when my pool was installed at my house we could only put in a large cartridge filter.. I was disappointed at the time, but that has changed.. I love the fact that there is no MVP to leak, or DE to mess with. When my rent house filters die, they will be replaced with large cartridge filters.

I no longer backwash the DE filters, just run the pump at a low RPM and open and clean them twice a year.

Everyone has their favorite filter, and for me it is the cartridge filter. Dirt simple... Requires about 2 hours to clean clean the cartridges, inspect and clean the salt cell. if necessary, clean the pump basket etc... Twice a year.. I do it before and after the pool season when it is warm enough to get wet.. :mrgreen:

Keep in mind that I do not close my pool, nor do I ever get algae.. If you routinely get algae, then a cartridge filter will require more effort to remove the algae, as the only way to clean the cartridges is to remove and clean them.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Thanks Jim...the note about algae is definitely one to consider for me. I do close being in Cincinnati and at least for the moment, with a worn out mesh security corver, I open to quite the mess. With no vacuuming to waste built into the cartridge filter that may leave me with a lot of manual filter cleaning when I open.

Not sure if others have experience with cartridge in this scenario. I like the idea of filtering finer particulate and I would likely oversize the cartridge to minimize my cleaning needs, but I don't want to count on my messy openings going away to make the cartridge a good fit.

Any more thoughts?
 
Jeff,

If all you want to do is vacuum to waste, you can install a simple Jandy three way valve between the pump and the filter.. Water would either go to the filter or to waste...

Jim R.
 
Thanks Jim....I would likely still need to utilize the filter to filter the algae and circulate while I kill the algae. I'm assuming a should expect at least one or two extra cartridge cleans during the process.

From the little bit of research I have done so far sounds like algae starts to clog/compromise the filtering pretty quickly.
 

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Jcgage0 said:
Any thoughts on refurbing vs. buying a new sand filter?
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Unless the pressure vessel or the laterals of the sand filter is bad, I'd just fix the multiport valve and call it a day.

You didn't specify why you would need "a creative repair of the leaky drain plug ". What is going on there?

As to the MPV, usually it is teh spider gasket that goes bad an lets water move from one setting to another.
 
The drain plug is progressively leaking worst every year. The threads are cross threaded. I've seen some ideas of thread sealing a quarter turn PVC valve to the male threads which is what I mean by creative. However I also have to somehow put a new screen in place or get the old screen back in place that prevents the sand from draining out the through the plug, cause something is wrong there also. I loose a decent amount of sand every time I drain.
 
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