Hayward DE filter to replace cartridge

[Drew80]

I have a Hayward C3030 cartridge filter, and it's either undersized or I just deal with more issues than most because of all the trees surrounding our pool, but I have to clean it way more often than I want. About 10-15 times a year. When there are a lot of organics in the pool like spring and fall, it's about once and sometimes even twice a month. I need to upgrade to a larger filter, and while I'm at it I'd like to switch to a filter that allows for backflushing. Taking apart and cleaning the cartridge filter is a real pain.

I'm thinking of replacing with a DE filter, and I'd rather not have to do any plumbing. Are there any Hayward filters that are drop-in replacements for my current filter?

 

[1poolman1]

I have a Hayward C3030 cartridge filter, and it's either undersized or I just deal with more issues than most because of all the trees surrounding our pool, but I have to clean it way more often than I want. About 10-15 times a year. When there are a lot of organics in the pool like spring and fall, it's about once and sometimes even twice a month. I need to upgrade to a larger filter, and while I'm at it I'd like to switch to a filter that allows for backflushing. Taking apart and cleaning the cartridge filter is a real pain.

I'm thinking of replacing with a DE filter, and I'd rather not have to do any plumbing. Are there any Hayward filters that are drop-in replacements for my current filter?

For a pool surrounded by trees, you might want to consider a sand filter. Even a DE filter in that environment will need to be taken apart and then you have to deal with DE and its mess. If you want Hayward, an S-244T2 would work. For a really dirty pool, S-310T2. The last 2 in the model indicates a 2" valve. With a VSP a S-244T or S-310T would work.

 

[Drew80]

Thanks @1poolman1. Why does the VSP change the filter type - I don't understand that.

 

[IUsedToSail]

I went the opposite direction this past season.

My young children (boys) and their friends defile the pool and get all sorts of debris in it, I also get a lot of leaves from the trees and plants around the pool. Additionally, our dogs like to knock pebbles and sandy dirt into the water. I had a 36sq FNS Plus DE filter which I was back washing fairly frequently. At the beginning of this season I switched to a 425 sqft cartridge filter with a cyclone pre-filter in front of it. I also started religiously using and changing out skimmer socks, sometimes doubling them up when the pollen was really heavy. I've managed to go all season with maybe 1/2-1lb of filter pressure increase at priming speed. I know some folks state the cyclones aren't really needed but it has consistently filtered out 2-3 tablespoons of grit a week, most of which I'm guessing is coming from the main drain.

 

[jklocke]

Here's my 2 cents...

I changed from a DE filter to a cartridge filter this spring. I have not missed backwashing and recharging the DE filter at all! Like above, I would recommend trying skimmer socks on your system before switching to sand or DE. I find that they catch a lot of the little stuff that would end up in the filter and are way easier to change and clean. I haven't had to clean my cartridges all summer either, and the pool is just as clear as it was with DE.

 

[jark87]

Our pool is surrounded by trees, most of which produce millions of small, grain-like seeds in the fall and spring. Even with that situation, I only have to clean the filter 4-5 times per year. I usually don’t take the filter completely apart. I pull out the grid assembly and hose it off thoroughly, including in between the grids. It’s not that hard and I don’t find DE to be a mess at all. Total time from shutting off the pump to starting it back up is about 30 minutes.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Drew,

I am a big cartridge filter guy, but if I had to clean my cartridges even once a month, I'd find something else. I agree with 1poolman1 about going with a sand filter.. I'd never ever, ever go back to using a DE filter again.

But I am a little puzzled as to why you have to clean your filter so often. 99% of the stuff that falls off of trees should not be making its way into your filter to begin with...

What criteria do you use when deciding to clean your filter?

Do you use hairnets in your skimmers?

Do you vacuum your pool, or do you have some kind of cleaner?

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Drew80]

@Jimrahbe I need to use skimmer socks more often - definitely true. We get a lot of very small debris in the pool - pollen and dust. When I've used skimmer socks, they get absolutely filthy in about 2 days. We recently learned that we have a massive aphid infestation, and that has added a TON of small debris and FC load that I've been dealing with over the last 4-6 weeks. Just sprayed the trees, so hopefully that takes care of the bugs. I'm hopeful that the aphids are a root cause of much of my troubles - the tree guy told us that it was one of the worst he's ever seen, so hopefully getting rid of them helps a lot.

My criteria to clean was 10PSI above baseline when we first installed the pool. At full speed with a clean filter, the PSI would be around 20, so I would clean at 30. My cartridges seem to be nearing end of life at this point as cleaning them only drops the PSI by about 5 - to about 25. I still clean at 30, so I'm cleaning more often right now.

It's very obvious when my filter needs to be cleaned. The first sign is air appears in the pump basket, which I don't really understand. Pressure on our water feature drops noticeably (single pump for everything) and from the spillover. If it gets really bad, the filter provides enough resistance that it fights back against the pump and the pump gets into a resonant rhythm at full speed that you can hear - like a "woom woom woom" sound (technical term). The pressure bounces up and down while it's doing this. I try not to let it get bad enough to ever have that happen, but I've seen it before.

I've owned pools before and not had any of these issues, but I've had a heck of a time with this one. We have more contaminants in the water than I've ever seen, so I've had to learn the hard way to keep my FC much higher than I'm used to. On my last pool, I could get away with around 2-3ppm. On this one, I've recently been keeping it at 10 and not had as many issues. I'm learning.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Drew,

I just wanted to make sure that you were not just depending on the pressure gauge.

When you can feel or see a difference in the way the pool operates, I agree, it is time to clean the filter.

It sounds like you have algae to me, and keeping your FC at 10 ppm is just masking it. But, I've been wrong many times before.

Thanks for the feedback,

Jim R.

 

[Drew80]

@Jimrahbe It's hard to describe the scope of what's going on in my back yard right now. Saying that we have "aphids" doesn't really do it justice. It's like a war zone out there, and it has been this time every year for the last few years. Our entire yard is covered in a thick layer of sticky goo. I've walked across it a number of times and had my shoe pull off and stay glued to the decking. And there are dead leaves EVERYWHERE. I don't think I have algae, I think I have aphids.

I posted a separate thread about it if you're interested. It's been a crazy thing to work through.

Aphids killed my chlorine!

I posted this at the bottom of another thread, but it's going to get buried on the third page so I wanted to create a new thread for posterity. For the last 3 summers in a row, we've gotten a massive rain that has caused my chlorine and CYA levels to drop to 0 and make my water super cloudy, as...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[IUsedToSail]

I'm sort of amazed at your pressure numbers - I run at about 2psi @ 1950 rpms on the pump and 5-6psi at full prime speed. CYA of 20 and FC of 1-1.5.

The aphid situation sounds like something out of a horror movie. We've had some weird swarms of flying ants land in the pool in August, thousands upon thousands of bugs. I just doubled up the filter socks and upped the pump speed to turn over the water quicker.

 

[Drew80]

I'm sort of amazed at your pressure numbers - I run at about 2psi @ 1950 rpms on the pump and 5-6psi at full prime speed. CYA of 20 and FC of 1-1.5.

The aphid situation sounds like something out of a horror movie. We've had some weird swarms of flying ants land in the pool in August, thousands upon thousands of bugs. I just doubled up the filter socks and upped the pump speed to turn over the water quicker.

Well I did say that I thought it might be undersized.

The really fun thing about aphids is not only do they attack and kill tree leaves and leave sticky goo all over the ground, that goo (or maybe the sooty mold that grows on it) apparently cancels out chlorine VERY quickly. I went from FC of 6 to 0 in a matter of hours by spraying off the ground around the pool. I've had this happen a number of times over the years and hadn't been able to explain it until a few days ago.