After the 2017 Ventura County Thomas Fire, it's trivial to complain about ash in the pool compared to the lives lost and homes destroyed. But here goes anyway: We came home after evacuation to find our neighborhood standing. But ash was everywhere and we wore face masks for weeks afterward, sometimes even inside the house. Sweeping outside would only move it around and blowers made it worse. A pop inside the vacuum cleaner was the HEPA bag exploding from overfill, just from vacuuming the front porch. The pool was a mess, of course, and the dark bottom wasn't from colored plaster. After a few days I vacuumed the pool. It looked good for a few hours and I was surprised the differential-pressure gauge rose only about one psi. But the next day the bottom was pretty dark again. I removed and hosed off the filter cartridge and it was dirty but not as much as I thought it should be. I vacuumed again, and the next day the bottom was dark again but not as dark as the previous iteration. Windy Feb/Mar whipped up ash clouds several times, even after the rains. Each vac session cleaned up a little but some (most?) ash got though the cartridge pores. Instead of installing a DE filter or a Slime Bag or Duda Diesel Bag, all of which, I've read on this site, would catch the fine particles, I though I'd try an experiment by wrapping some one-micron filter media (see below) around the housing's core. You can see pictures at https://www.flickr.com/gp/115393210@N03/wfH28N
It seems to have worked pretty good but I think it was more work than the slime-bag-type solution. After vacuuming with the one-micron media, I replaced the original cartridge. Bottom seems cleaner so I think I've captured much (most?) of the ash (until the next wind event.) I was surprised that even with the one-micron media, the pressure gauge was only at 4psi, same as with the cartridge, and it did not rise during the vacuuming. I was able to clean the one-micron media pretty good so I can think I can use it again if I feel like it.
Duda Energy 72" x 36" polyester one-micron $24.29 total
Just offering this episode FYI as my "experiment with one-micron filter media."
It seems to have worked pretty good but I think it was more work than the slime-bag-type solution. After vacuuming with the one-micron media, I replaced the original cartridge. Bottom seems cleaner so I think I've captured much (most?) of the ash (until the next wind event.) I was surprised that even with the one-micron media, the pressure gauge was only at 4psi, same as with the cartridge, and it did not rise during the vacuuming. I was able to clean the one-micron media pretty good so I can think I can use it again if I feel like it.
Duda Energy 72" x 36" polyester one-micron $24.29 total
Just offering this episode FYI as my "experiment with one-micron filter media."
