DE coming through return - clogged or broken?

[xfilegirl]

After thinking I was fighting dead algae, now I'm thinking the cloudiness is caused by DE/dirt coming back into the pool from the return. My husband ran our DE filter without DE when he opened the pool. It ran like that for quite some time in a green swamp. I killed off all the algae but I can't get the cloudiness to clear. I saw that every time I turned the filter on after bumping it, it ran cloudy white for the first 5 seconds or so. I originally thought that was just the force of the water coming out strong. Upon further examination I now see that it's a puff of cloudiness coming out. So it's either DE or dirty pool water shooting back into the pool. Even when I bump the handle, before turning on the motor, little puffs of dirty water come out of the return. Is this something that cleaning the grids in muriatic acid would fix? Or do I need a whole new set of fingers for $600

 

[nobody291]

When I've had DE entering the pool like that, it's always been a cracked filter grid. Take the filter apart and check for grid cracking, especially around the round plumbing fitting that snaps into place at the bottom of the filter. If they all look good, then post back here and someone will help you troubleshoot further.

 

[xfilegirl]

So I ended up taking the entire filter apart. Found 6 broken fingers and a broken o-ring. Replaced them. Cleaned the fingers in detergent, muriatic acid, and also gently hand scrubbed each finger since the soaking and rinsing did not get the embedded dirt out. Got it looking almost like new. Put the whole thing back together, lubing all necessary places. No leaks anywhere. Added my initial DE and the filter ran great - 15psi which it hasn't done in a couple of years actually. Held that initial psi for a good while before I had to bump. After bumping about 4 times in a few hours I backwashed and recharged 80%. That was at about 8:30pm. I just had to go back out and bump as pressure rose high enough where there was no more circulation. On the plus side I am starting to see the bottom (if I squint hard enough lol). Hopefully in the morning I'll see more of a difference though I won't be able to run this thing while I sleep. It's going to clog up again within the next 90 min I'm sure. Probably need to dump and recharge again in the morning so I'll just turn off the filter before I call it a night.

As for the original issue...it's still there even after fixing the broken fingers. When I initially put the filter together and started it up we got a little bit of dirty water coming from the return but not as much as before. Not sure if it was dirty water (as we're in the milky blue stage of cleaning up algae during a slam) or DE. Just now when I went out to bump and restart because the circulation went down to nothing, I got A LOT of dirty water(/DE?) coming out from the return after starting it back up. So I'm not sure what's going on. I just hope that I'm not going in circles here as I'm filtering stuff but then throwing it all back in the pool when i have to bump. Or is it normal to get some blowback in the pool when you're cleaning up dead algae?

 

[1poolman1]

After thinking I was fighting dead algae, now I'm thinking the cloudiness is caused by DE/dirt coming back into the pool from the return. My husband ran our DE filter without DE when he opened the pool. It ran like that for quite some time in a green swamp. I killed off all the algae but I can't get the cloudiness to clear. I saw that every time I turned the filter on after bumping it, it ran cloudy white for the first 5 seconds or so. I originally thought that was just the force of the water coming out strong. Upon further examination I now see that it's a puff of cloudiness coming out. So it's either DE or dirty pool water shooting back into the pool. Even when I bump the handle, before turning on the motor, little puffs of dirty water come out of the return. Is this something that cleaning the grids in muriatic acid would fix? Or do I need a whole new set of fingers for $600

Do not use acid before removing all oils from the fingers or they will be ruined. Soak in a good filter-cleaner, or real TSP, then if needed, use an acid soak.
Running the pump with no DE in the filter likely pushed debris through the fabric into the fingers and will need to be flushed. Should never do that. May need to disassemble the filter to get it flushed without the debris ending in the pool.

 

[xfilegirl]

Running the pump with no DE in the filter likely pushed debris through the fabric into the fingers and will need to be flushed. Should never do that. May need to disassemble the filter to get it flushed without the debris ending in the pool.

I know that, but my husband forgot and had turned it on to test the pvc pipe conversion installation he had just completed. So I tried to go easy on him lol. But in any event, I'm past that step - see my update above. I used the automatic dishwasher detergent first to remove the oils. Rinsed all of it off. Then I used the 10:1 muriatic acid/water soak. Rinsed all of it off. Then I disassembled the nest and cleaned each finger individually. All mesh was in tact - no tears. Replaced broken fingers and o-ring. Lubed it up during reassembly...the rest of what happened is above.

 

[xfilegirl]

So I think the filter manual has answered my question: "Cleaning is recommended when the gauge pressure rises more than 10psi in less than a 24 hour period or when cloudy water returns to the pool for more than 30 seconds after regeneration." So I guess the cloudy water returning just means it needs to be totally cleaned....every hour and a half...

 

[Hoster]

So I think the filter manual has answered my question: "Cleaning is recommended when the gauge pressure rises more than 10psi in less than a 24 hour period or when cloudy water returns to the pool for more than 30 seconds after regeneration." So I guess the cloudy water returning just means it needs to be totally cleaned....every hour and a half...

Have to been able to resolve this? 1poolman1 is also helping me out as well.

 

[xfilegirl]

Yes, during the slam while I was clearing out the dead algae, I stopped bumping. I went straight to backwashing. Once the water was clear I no longer have the issue of the dirty water coming through the return jet on startup or bumping. So the manual seemed to be correct...my filter was just too dirty at that point and needed to be backwashed.