Getting gritty DE at returns in pool

[JamesR]

Yesterday I noticed a ring of white debris on the pool floor around each floor return and a spray of gritty white material in front of each spa wall return. DE is the only thing I could think of. I yanked the filter and Installed a spare that I had rebuilt several years ago with new Pleatco pleats. So far, so good. So I disassembled the one I removed and inspected it thinking I’d see a good size tear. I found no rips in any pleats. The only thing I see is that on top of one of the panels, the stitching does not seal the pleat tight against the plastic tube. Do you think this gap is enough to let DE flow by it and get back into the pool? Pics below show a tight fitting section around the pipe, which 7 of them look like and then one with a small gap. When assembled, the top cap does smoosh down on that gap area and reduce that opening considerably but I still see a little daylight through it compared to the other 7.

 

[Texas Splash]

I'm not a DE owner, but that stitching does seem a bit loose and suspicious to me as well. If all the others look good with no tears, and you see no problem at the manifolds, I would be suspicious about that one. You probably don't care to tear down and replace everything at this point since the old unit is up & running, but perhaps mark that one item and set it aside. Get a replacement or pull a good one from the good (spare) unit currently in use and replace it later to see if that makes a difference.

 

[JamesR]

I'll have to see if I can just buy one replacement panel and rebuild this assy as a spare. Then I could reassemble and test it the next time I pull the grids for a full clean.

 

[1poolman1]

I'll have to see if I can just buy one replacement panel and rebuild this assy as a spare. Then I could reassemble and test it the next time I pull the grids for a full clean.

Why not just get a needle and polyester thread and sew it tighter? There used to be a women-owned company local to me that used to do that. Then they recovered the grids. Then they formed Letro. Then Letro was purchased by Pentair and they don't live here any more.

 

[JamesR]

You know….. that did cross my mind. I might just do that. I mean really….. how hard can it be?