First cartridge filter flush

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jeffchap

jeffchap

Bronze Supporter
TFP Guide
Jun 26, 2012
2,387
Edmond OK
Pool Size
27500
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
Pentair Intellichlor IC-40
So I just completed my first cleaning of my cartridge filters after buying the new house/pool last summer. That's 2 hours of my life I'll never get back. Worse yet, it's 2 hours I could have spent in the pool.

After having used a sand filter for years with my previous pool, I just don't see the advantages to a cartridge system. With a sand filter, I could have simply turned it to backwash, jumped in the pool, and then gone back in a few minutes and switched it back over to filter.

I know cartridges have their proponents here, but I don't get it. When these filters need replacement, I'm going to ditch the entire system and put in a sand filter. It just seems so much less maintenance and I don't notice my water being any more noticeably clear than what I had before.

Just my two cents worth...
 
Are you using hair nets in the skimmer basket? I clean my cartridge filter once a season. It's so much better than a sand filter. You're experienced on these threads...... You see 100x more problems and issues with sand filters than cartridge filters. There are so many more parts that can fail, like broken laterals, multiport valves, sand in the pool, and its harder to use a sand filter when there's algae. Also, it shouldn't take 2 hours to clean a cartridge filter. I'm a cartridge filter user for life.
 
richierich said:
Are you using hair nets in the skimmer basket? I clean my cartridge filter once a season. It's so much better than a sand filter. You're experienced on these threads...... You see 100x more problems and issues with sand filters than cartridge filters. There are so many more parts that can fail, like broken laterals, multiport valves, sand in the pool, and its harder to use a sand filter when there's algae. Also, it shouldn't take 2 hours to clean a cartridge filter. I'm a cartridge filter user for life.
Click to expand...

No, I'm not using nets in the skimmers. That's just another hassle I feel I shouldn't have to deal with. Maybe I just got lucky, but I never had a bit of trouble with any of the sand filters I ever owned.

I agree, it doesn't take two hours to clean "A" cartdridge filter. But my system has FOUR of these 3 foot tall mamma jammas. And no matter how long you spray them, dirt just keeps coming out. I finally told myself it had to be better than it was, and put it all back together.

To each his own -- I guess that's why they make both kinds.
 
Agree on "to each his own".

I've got 4 tall cartridges in my CCP420. Takes 35 minutes to hose down all 4, including the little twigs that get stuck in the bottom near the end of the spray-out. Got to 35 minutes from about 60 minutes by getting a higher capacity hose (was already using a jet spray nozzle with the smaller capacity hose.) The bigger hose made a big difference.
 
My filters have tons of pine needles stuck in them. I'm sure the nets would help with keeping those out of the filters, but I imagine clearing out the nets daily would be a major hassle. They are like little porcupine quills. BTW, I bought the pool with the landscaping already in place -- I would never plant trees with needles near a pool again. Apparently the prior owner wasn't aware of this when he had it done. The trees are too big (read "expensive") to consider replacing now.

WP_20180405_20_06_16_Pro.jpg
 
I just started using the socks in my skimmer baskets a few weeks ago. Since I was installing brand new cartridges, I thought it would be useful to observe the difference from the last few years with the old cartridges and no socks. During our first big pollen dump, I had significant amount of small stuff in one of the socks on the side of the pool that the wind blows to. My upside thought was "Yea! That's less stuff to clean out of my filter cartridges." My downside thought was "I need to inspect the nets every couple of days or the debris might block flow!" I'm thinking I won't leave the socks in when we go on vacation.

Our neighbor has a wall of privacy trees that drop those narrow little ~2" long leaves in our pool (don't know the tree name). I hate them because they get stuck going part-way through the pump basket and they are a pain to pick out of the basket one by one. A few get through the basket and into the cartridges.

Jeffchap, I noticed that you have Jandy automation with a Pentair SWG. How does that work?
 
2¢

I'm thinking of using the skimmer socks. But there's info here about using cheap hair nets for that purpose. I'm thinking they'd be less work, not more, because instead of dealing with clearing the basket, and picking out all the stubborn stuff, I'd just pull the net and toss it, put in a new one. Disposable. Checking it every day or two wouldn't be an increase for me, I do so anyway. And I'm thinking there's another obscure advantage: all that little stuff that gets by the baskets ends up in the filter, where it remains until chlorine eats it up. I don't know how long that takes, or how much chlorine that takes, but it occurs to me the less organic matter in the filter means the less chlorine you'll use (along with the less filter cleaning you'll do).
 
Dodger said:
IJeffchap, I noticed that you have Jandy automation with a Pentair SWG. How does that work?
Click to expand...

No problems, but the automation doesn't control the SWG at all, other than to turn it on when the pump comes on. I still have to set the % for the SWG manually with the buttons on the IC40's control panel.

That's no big deal, because I seldom change the setting. But the automation doesn't control my heater either, and that would be nice. I get the water temp readout, but that's all. The automation just controls the pump run time, the valves for the water features and the lighting.
 
Dirk said:
2¢

I'm thinking of using the skimmer socks. But there's info here about using cheap hair nets for that purpose. I'm thinking they'd be less work, not more, because instead of dealing with clearing the basket, and picking out all the stubborn stuff, I'd just pull the net and toss it, put in a new one. Disposable. Checking it every day or two wouldn't be an increase for me, I do so anyway. And I'm thinking there's another obscure advantage: all that little stuff that gets by the baskets ends up in the filter, where it remains until chlorine eats it up. I don't know how long that takes, or how much chlorine that takes, but it occurs to me the less organic matter in the filter means the less chlorine you'll use (along with the less filter cleaning you'll do).
Click to expand...

Yea. The reason I started using the socks is to reduce demand on cleaning the filter and pump basket, but also to clear out organics more frequently.
And I chose the reusable socks in order to be a little more environmentally friendly. Same reason I prefer the reusable Hasa jugs of MA and Chlorine.
 

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I've got one of those filter flosser attachments and it works great. I agree that cleaning filter cartridges is a fair amount of work. We have lots of trees and I have to clean the filters at least spring and fall and sometimes twice if it is bad with the tree junk. I bought a robot last year and when I cleaned the filters last fall they were cleaner than they've ever been before. Really didn't even need to be cleaned. I'm definitely going to be in the once a year crowd going forward thanks to the robot.
 
At the risk of sounding like a Negative Nelly, I tried the skimmer socks and they suck. Maybe they trapped a few pine needles that would have otherwise made it to my filter, but dumping them is a PITA. The needles were all stuck to them, and then I had a mass of soggy, dead June bugs stuck all over them that I had to pick off by hand. Yuck!

On a positive note, the socks are just perfect for adding CYA to the pool, so at least I'll get some use out of them.
 
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