Clear Backwash but lowered flow...

[FredFredrickson]

Hi all,

Been doing a SLAM to open the pool this week. Keeping chlorine levels SLAM Level (actually a bit higher because the pool isn't at my house and I'm unable to attend to it multiple times a day).

My sand filter throughput is visibly slowing every day, to the point where the strong outlet feels like maybe half power when I arrive the next day. My pump's pressure gauge broke and I have a new one on order so I'm waiting for that to come in.

That said, with the reduced flow that usually says to me, time to backwash. After I backwash the flow returns to normal speed.

But the backwash just isn't particularly dark or grimey as I expected from years past.

The color of my pool is getting better (see pics) but it's still cloudy as ever.

Time to replace sand? Or working as expected, keep on going?

 

[Texas Splash]

Time to replace sand? Or working as expected, keep on going?

May be time to open the filter and do a thorough deep clean.

Deep Cleaning a Sand Filter

This post will walk you through the anatomy of a sand filter, and then provide a video at the end for how to deep clean your sand filter. The filter used in the photos and videos is a Hayward S180T top mount sand filter. The images are of a similar filter. Obviously not all filters are...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[FredFredrickson]

May be time to open the filter and do a thorough deep clean.

Deep Cleaning a Sand Filter

This post will walk you through the anatomy of a sand filter, and then provide a video at the end for how to deep clean your sand filter. The filter used in the photos and videos is a Hayward S180T top mount sand filter. The images are of a similar filter. Obviously not all filters are...

www.troublefreepool.com

Alright so I deep cleaned and just my luck the replacement pressure gauge arrived this afternoon so I installed it. Got it all put back together and discovered... Still not as much throughput as I expected and the pressure was very low.


So then I had the bright idea to take the pump itself apart and sure enough it was full of pine needles that get though my intake covers.

Cleared that out and now I think I have a really strong flow. Pressure is up quite a bit from before.

Going to see if that helps over the next few days and see what the backwash looks like after I get up 20%

By the way, my new pressure gauge shows a baseline of 6... Am I really backwashing at 7 or 8? See pic

 

[Texas Splash]

Those pesky pine needles. Didn't think of that earlier. Glad you got it.

 

[Newdude]

By the way, my new pressure gauge shows a baseline of 6... Am I really backwashing at 7 or 8?

Yes. Do not use the +10 psi recommendation on the gauge. As you see, that's a 167% increase compared to our 25% increase recommendations. It's a skootch too much, but the industry sure likes to one size fits all everything.