DE Powder Blows Back Through Equalizer Line

[pool512]

I've been battling my Hayward DE6020 for the last week. I'm new to my pool, and was noticing that the pressure never seemed to rise, so I backwashed and added DE powder... much of which ended up in the pool. After reading up on possible causes, I took everything apart to look at the grids. Once clean, it was clear that they were broken (where they connected to the ports on top), so I ordered a replacement set and installed yesterday. As I was adding DE powder to my skimmer and it was being sucked in, I noticed a good amount was coming out the side of the pool through what looks to be the equalizer line of the skimmer.

Three questions...

1. Why would DE powder be coming out the equalizer line into the pool? Am I doing something wrong when adding the powder? There is lots I found on DE coming through the returns, but nothing RE: coming through the equalizer of the skimmer (unless I was searching incorrectly).
2. Will the DE powder in the pool be absorbed by the filter as it gets sucked in to the drains, or do I need to vacuum to waste to remove it? There is not a lot... it's mostly visible when running a brush or leaf rake over the bottom.
3. My pressure seems to always be at 12-14 PSI while operating. The green arrow was set to 24 PSI when we bought the home, which makes me think it was at that level at some point. What is a normal (understanding all systems are different) starting point for a DE filter like this?

Pool is about 16K gallons in-ground.

Thanks so much in advance!

 

[ajw22]

Why would DE powder be coming out the equalizer line into the pool? Am I doing something wrong when adding the powder? There is lots I found on DE coming through the returns, but nothing RE: coming through the equalizer of the skimmer (unless I was searching incorrectly).

As you are discovering an equalizer line in the skimmer is a PITA. You need to plug the equalizer line when adding DE to prevent some of it flowing down that line into the pool. You are not doing anything wrong.

Will the DE powder in the pool be absorbed by the filter as it gets sucked in to the drains, or do I need to vacuum to waste to remove it? There is not a lot... it's mostly visible when running a brush or leaf rake over the bottom.

Yes & Yes. Either way you need to get it off the pool floor and into the filter.

My pressure seems to always be at 12-14 PSI while operating. The green arrow was set to 24 PSI when we bought the home, which makes me think it was at that level at some point. What is a normal (understanding all systems are different) starting point for a DE filter like this?

Filter pressure depends on the pump and equipment you have. Any filter pressure below about 25 is ok. 12-14 is just fine.

I would not read anything into where that green arrow is.

We recommend you clean your filter when pressure rises by 25% from the clean PSI. My DE filter runs 7 PSI at 1600 RPM and 18 at 2400 RPM.

 

[pool512]

Thanks so much! Glad to hear it's a simple fix, and I didn't think about the different pump speeds... I'll have to check again, considering the speed at the time I check.