Hayward s200 sand filter leaking

[CraigChing]

I recently replaced the zeo sand in my filter with regular sand. I’ve put all the bolts back on (what a pain!) and now it’s leaking. I did replace the o ring and lubed it, maybe I didn’t use enough? I’m also concerned about how tight I should tighten the bolts. When I took them off, I could just use my finger and thumb to hold the bolt and a wrench on the nut and they came off pretty easily. I tried to only tighten that much, but when it leaked, I put a wrench on the bolt and tightened them more. I didn’t crank down on them, but they’re tight.

Any suggestions on my next course of action?

 

[kellyfair]

Are we talking a drip every few seconds, or something more?

Are you sure no sand got trapped when closing and tightening?

 

[CraigChing]

Yeah, drips here and there every few seconds. I thought I got all the sand off the surface, I could’ve gotten sand on the o ring when installing that, it was a bit challenging getting that big o ring around by myself.

 

[kellyfair]

I hate to say it, but you might have to redo.

 

[CraigChing]

Yeah, I’m resigned to a do over, but what did I do wrong so I can be successful next time? Can you tighten the bolts too tight? How tight should they be? And for the lube, be generous? Or just a slim bit all around?

 

[CraigChing]

Does it matter if it was wet in the o ring groove? I did spray off excess sand with a hose before installing the o ring.

 

[kellyfair]

Clean the groove, I’d dry it a bit. Then lube the ring, leaning more towards generous than barely. But not goopy. Tighten bolts by hand then just a bit more.

 

[CraigChing]

Thanks Kelly! Looks my agenda for tomorrow is set!

 

[kellyfair]

Thanks Kelly! Looks my agenda for tomorrow is set!

Keep us posted!

 

[CraigChing]

Well, after opening the filter backup (my fingers are still raw from all those bolts!), the cause was obvious. What I didn't mention was that I had put all the bolts back on with just the bolt and nut attached and was going to tighten them later. But with all the activity of opening the pool (this was our first time doing it ourselves), I forgot to tighten them down and fired up the pump. I realized pretty quickly that I had a problem, so I stopped the pump and tightened everything up, but the damage was done by that point. After opening the filter back up yesterday, it occurred to me exactly what I'd done.

I took the top off, cleaned up the sand around the edges, pulled the o ring back out, cleaned that all up, reinstalled everything (and also fixed another blooper, I had reinstalled the top diffuser upside down!), tightened everything up and no more leaks! Well, no more water leaks, I do have an air leak to track down, but hopefully that's just the pump lid gasket. I've included pictures for the humor of my errors

 

[kellyfair]

Happens to us all! My most recent bonehead move was to forget that my skimmer is on the left side of the return on my current pool (it was on the right side on my previous pool) and connected pump and filter exactly like I did before. When the water flow blew the lid of my skimmer I quickly realized what I had done.

 

[CraigChing]

Oh my god! That’s funny, thanks for sharing!