DE went back into spa

[xbat]

Hello, I just cleaned out my DE Filter for the first time and when adding DE back to the spa it appears it all came back into the spa. I'm not sure what I'm missing, I made sure none of the grids were torn. Is one of these valves recirculating the water instead of it all going straight to the filter? I turned off the spa and am not running it as I heard you shouldn't run a de filter without de. The filter is a pentair 4000 series. I will attach some pictures and if anyone has any idea what the problem could be I would greatly appreciate the help!

Thank you very much!

 

[Richard320]

It's not likely that all the DE ended up in the spa. A little bit can go a long way.

Your filter appears to be like mine, with an internal backwash valve. It doesn't work all that good. Likes to leak out the waste line, too. Anyway... did you backwash only, or did you open it up? Did you get the vent hose back in the right spot, with the screen on it?

I backwash for a few seconds, then shut it off and open the air bleed and let it all drain out the hose. Then I open it up and blast the grids while the valve is still in backwash. It keeps draining. Then I reassemble and backwash again to rid it of any residue and clean out the hose. The last time I did, I must not have ran it long enough the second time, because I did see a small murky cloud appear when I put it back to filtering. It cleared up overnight and whatever was in the pool got vacuumed up a couple days later.

Can you rearrange the valves to draw from spa and return to pool? That would let you quickly filter out any DE. Or of you don't want to risk pumping DE into the pool, set it to 100% spa in and out and try filtering just the spa. If it clears up in half an hour, it was nothing. If it stays unchanged, you have an internal problem.

 

[xbat]

It's not likely that all the DE ended up in the spa. A little bit can go a long way.

Your filter appears to be like mine, with an internal backwash valve. It doesn't work all that good. Likes to leak out the waste line, too. Anyway... did you backwash only, or did you open it up? Did you get the vent hose back in the right spot, with the screen on it?

I backwash for a few seconds, then shut it off and open the air bleed and let it all drain out the hose. Then I open it up and blast the grids while the valve is still in backwash. It keeps draining. Then I reassemble and backwash again to rid it of any residue and clean out the hose. The last time I did, I must not have ran it long enough the second time, because I did see a small murky cloud appear when I put it back to filtering. It cleared up overnight and whatever was in the pool got vacuumed up a couple days later.

Can you rearrange the valves to draw from spa and return to pool? That would let you quickly filter out any DE. Or of you don't want to risk pumping DE into the pool, set it to 100% spa in and out and try filtering just the spa. If it clears up in half an hour, it was nothing. If it stays unchanged, you have an internal problem.

I removed all the grids and cleaned them. The first time I forgot to put in the vent hose, so I assumed that was the issue when de filled the spa. I ended up draining the spa and refilling it as I needed to lower cyanuric anyways. When I turned the pump back on after refilling it there was more de that clouded the water, not sure where all of it came from as I drained the spa and backwashed after refilling before filtering. All of this equipment is just for the spa, I have no pool. I don't want to run the pump and run the risk of damaging anything.

 

[Richard320]

Then it sounds like it's time to open it up again and really give it a going-over. It won't take a large gap with the pressure and flow a pool pump can generate, to move a lot of DE.

 

[xbat]

I have opened it up multiple times to look everything over and I don't see anything wrong. Is it possible any of those valves are recirculating the water? Seems like so many valves for a 1,000 gal spa. I guess I will try and drain and refill the water once more. How can I be certain all the de is out of the system before filtering it again? Thanks a lot for your help btw!

 

[xbat]

Ended up running the filter and all is good. I assume the de that entered the spa when I filtered it the second time is because de got inside the filters when I backwashed. Thank you for your help, Richard! Happy 4th!