Backwashing sand filter always necessary?

[gevdog]

I just had new sod put in my yard and I don't want to keep saturating it with the high volume of water that comes out when I backwash my filter. Plus I'd rather not keep adding water to my pool each time. I was wondering if it's necessary to backwash every time I vacuum the pool? The sight glass is always clear and the pump pressure never seems to go above or below 15 psi. Is it only necessary to backwash when the pump pressure starts to climb?

PS. Due to the tree cover I have in my yard, there's lots of debris that ends up in the pool so I'm vacuuming it around every 2 days

 

[Texas Splash]

You only need to backwash when the pressure increases by about 25% from the original/clean starting pressure. Other than that, you're fine.

 

[sktn77a]

How long are you backwashing for? After a vacuum, you shouldn't need more that about 30-60 seconds(?)

 

[gevdog]

I'm only backwashing for less than a minute, but there's still a large volume of water that comes out & I don't want to saturate my lawn (already had an incident where I washed away topsoil and new grass seed....but that's another story). After reading the ins & outs tutorial on sand filters I realized one thing I've been neglecting is doing the rinse after a backwash. Would it be okay to do a rinse for a few seconds without doing a backwash?

 

[sktn77a]

Well, you need to flush all of the debris and junk off the top inch- or-so of the sand so, depending on the dead space, I think you'd need more than a few seconds. It usually take at least 30 seconds to clear the sight glass but you may get away with less just to get the big stuff out. If 10 seconds is enough to get the pressure back down to normal. that may work for occasional vacuuming.

Not sure if rinsing, without first backwashing, would accomplish much.