DE Filter clogging

[prinzlmeisl]

Same problem. I had this situation before, 2 years ago. Starting with a clear and balanced pool, the EC65 began to clog quickly, within an hour or less. Back then I researched and investigated all I could, got a lot of ineffective advice, all the while the pool turned cloudier by the day.
In the end, I bought a whole new filter because it was less money than for the parts. Within a day, everything cleared up and the filter ran fine.
Now I am at this point again, and I just want to throw out the Hayward filter altogether once and for all. The issue is not with the water, chemical balance, with algae, or with some other controllable parameter. I believe that these filters are failing mechanically somehow.
Like you, I have taken it completely apart, cleaned it and replaced any fingers that seemed damaged (I am on my 4th filter in 10 years of pool ownership and have a lot of spare parts to experiment with ...). When I put it back together, the problems were back right away.
Somehow a new tube nest works and the old one doesn't, even though there is no visible difference.
I went through the process again yesterday. I washed the filter with the host until there was no DE residue visible, flushed it, sprayed it with filter cleaner, soaked it in the bucket, put it back together, and ran the pump overnight. In the morning there was almost nothing coming out of the jets. I pumped the filter a few times, turned it back on, pressure was normal. Came back after an hour, same situation as before. At this point there is only DE and water in the filter (at least nothing else I can see).
I am really not sure what to do now. The price of the EC65 went up and it costs almost $200 more than 2 years ago now. I can't keep doing this. There must be a better solution?

 

[pooldv]

Welcome to TFP!

What test kit are you using?
Give us some test results and we can make a better diagnosis.
How does you water look?

Please add your pool info to your signature so that we can better help you. More here about what to add and how to do it, Pool School - Read This BEFORE You Post

Based on the information you've provided so far I'd bet dollars to donuts that algae is clogging your filter. In 90+% of threads we see about filters clogging rapidly it is an algae bloom. Cloudy water is nearly always algae and bacteria growing in the pool due to insufficient chlorine. It is easy to verify this by performing an Overnight Chlorine Loss Test to confirm if there is something growing in your water.

Do some reading here
ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
TFPC for Beginners

 

[Richard320]

Howdy!

No filter should clog that fast. I suspect a chemistry problem. People with algae and DE filters always complain about losing flow in an hour's time. Here's the confirmation, "...all the while the pool turned cloudier by the day." If there was nothing growing in there, but it was just dust, don't you think it would have settled to the floor?

I'm willing to gamble that you've been chlorinating with pucks. The pool store never mentions that each puck adds CYA to the water, not just chlorine. And as CYA rises, the level of chlorine you need to keep algae at bay also rises. So you "shock" using dichlor powder which adds even more CYA, so as CYA rises, the level of chlorine you need to keep algae at bay also rises. So you "shock" using dichlor powder which adds even more CYA, so as CYA rises, the level of chlorine you need to keep algae at bay also rises. So you "shock" using dichlor powder which adds even more CYA, and in no time at all you have algae and all the powdered shock and trichlor do is kill a little bit of the algae, which clouds the water, while allowing more to grow so you can kill it tomorrow and provide a never-ending supply of dead, bleached, algae carcasses to cloud the water and clog the filter.