Hayward S200 Sand Filter Leaks After Deep Cleaning

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superdave5599

Well-known member
Mar 20, 2023
250
Wamego, Kansas
Pool Size
30000
Surface
Vinyl
Chlorine
Salt Water Generator
SWG Type
CircuPool Universal40
Hey all-

Bought this house in December with the pool. I've been working on learning all about it and getting things set up and ready. I read the deep cleaning procedure and decided to do that. I had ordered a gasket kit on Amazon and thought I was all prepped and ready. Undid all 24 bolts and popped the top half off and got to work. I did decide to weigh out 100 lbs of sand and replace with new, because it was real dirty, taking forever to clear up, and had the bags of fresh filter sand at the house anyway.

I put it back together with the new giant o-ring, which I lubed with the Jack's Multilube. After bolting everything together, I had a pretty good leak. Tried again the next day, thinking maybe it had shifted or otherwise got wonky. Also tried to do a bit better of a star pattern with the bolting. Still leaked.

So I went to the pool store and bought an OEM giant o-ring, and even got a fresh set of bolts. I'd also watched a YouTube video where the guy said that using the lube is a common cause of leaks. And tonight tried again. I'd printed out a diagram of a star pattern, and even numbered each bolt hole on the top half accordingly, so I would easily do the correct bolting pattern without having to go back and forth to the diagram and count bolts and all that.

I was confident that I'd be able to make a post stating it I got it all figured out, and even though I didn't know what the fix was (removing all the grease, using an OEM gasket, or triple-checking that I had the right star pattern) I'd finally gotten it.

But when I fired up the pump after all that...

IT NOW LEAKS MORE THAN THE FIRST TWO TRIES!

I did see one comment where someone said that adding DE actually seemed to help. I suppose the tiny particles just plugged up the leak. So I followed the procedure as described, noted the amount needed to raise the PSI about 1 PSI for future reference, and then added a little more for this time, figuring I'll just end up flushing that bit out next time I backwash the filter and maybe need to do it a little sooner.

Anyone have any sort of advice of where to go from here? It did not leak before I started all this. My wife suggested I call the pool store and have someone out; I told her they would probably just try to sell me a new filter.

It's even more annoying because the pump and filter are set up under our deck, so to do all this, I have to be crouched over the whole time.
 
You might want to compare notes with the discussions below. They tried a couple other things as well.

Hayward S200 Sand Filter Leaking

I replaced the sand on this filter, which I have done a couple of times without incident. When I fired the system back up the filter was leaking where the top cover meets the base. I made sure the screws were tight (the many, many screws to secure the top cover to the base of the filter. Today I...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com

Guidance replacing O-rings and deep cleaning my Hayward S200?

Hello all, I recently inherited my pool and Hayward S200 filter in February; it was originally installed in 2007. I came across the "deep cleaning" procedure listed in the sticky above and I'd like to do that (since I'm quite certain it's never been done!), AND replace a bunch of leaking...
www.troublefreepool.com www.troublefreepool.com
 
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Hmm...
I saw that second thread and unfortunately the poster never posted a conclusion, so no way to know if changing the pump helped or not. But for my case, the pump and filter worked together for God knows how long with, presumably, no problems. It certainly was fine for the month it ran before I decided to delve into this.

As for the second thread, I did try twice with greasing it and had leaks. As mentioned in that thread, I carefully cleaned out the channel and all that. After having tried that, I did use the second new (OEM) gasket dry (cleaning out all the old grease from the channel) because of the video I saw where the person said that was a common mistake.

Per one of those threads, last night I didn't crank down on the bolts initially, just got them good and snug to start. Then I tried both loosening a bit and also tightening more while the pump ran. Still leaking!
I guess it did leak *less* with the suspect (not OEM) gasket and grease, so I could try the OEM gasket and grease and see what I get.

I wish I could find a torque spec for the bolts; then I would know for sure I could get it "right" rather than guessing on if they might be too tight or not tight enough. BTW, I didn't crank the bolts all the way down in the star pattern, I did a sequence, working through the star at least 3 times initially just like I would working on a car's head gasket.
 
Just a bump to see if anyone has any sort of suggestions? Recommended torque values? A "Well, I have that filter and XYZ worked for me?"

Ha ha, it is leaking a lot! I'm pretty frustrated with it, and am seriously considering just giving it a goodly bit of RTV silicone sealant and moving on with my life, even though that might not be considered to be the "best" way to do it. Future Dave can worry about cleaning that off when he decided to deep clean the sand again.
 
Try this, take it apart.remove the o ring. Thoroughly clean both channels, top and bottom.Dry completely. Using a caulking gun fill the bottom channel with silicon. Put the o ring into the channel and push into the silicon. Then use the gun to put another bead on top of the o ring. Carefully put the rop on and put the bolts in using a star pattern . Let sit for 24 hours



.

,
 

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oldprophet said:
Try this, take it apart.remove the o ring. Thoroughly clean both channels, top and bottom.Dry completely. Using a caulking gun fill the bottom channel with silicon. Put the o ring into the channel and push into the silicon. Then use the gun to put another bead on top of the o ring. Carefully put the rop on and put the bolts in using a star pattern . Let sit for 24 hours



.

,
Click to expand...
To be clear: You're suggesting silicone sealant, like RTV sealant? Or like bathtub sealant? NOT the grease? (I ask that because the grease seems very much like dielectric grease I would use on car electrical connections, and I believe is a silicone based product.)

I am certainly thinking about this, though am hesitant to potentially make my life much more difficult next time it is time to deep clean the sand.
 
duraleigh said:
I would not suggest silicone. A thorough cleaning of the grooves and probably a new oring. Silicone seems wa-a-ay too permanent!
Click to expand...
I appreciate your imput, too! On Tuesday, before I started this thread, I did that. Cleaned the groove very well and installed a brand new OEM o-ring. I did note that it fit the groove perfectly vs the aftermarket o-ring I had tried, which seemed ever so slightly too large and kinda wanted to bunch up.

I did install that OEM o-ring dry as I had seen suggested one place. But I do see way more suggestions to install it greased/lubed. I did try the aftermarket o-ring with lube, but I guess I could try this one with lube and see what happens.

Flying Tivo said:
Can you take a picture or small video of where its leaking? Also pictures from all sides of the MPV.
Click to expand...

I guess I can try. But it is simply leaking from where the filter body halves come together. I can see water seeping up through the threads on some of the bolts/nuts, but also it is just coming from the two halves.

It is coming from several places around the perimeter now. It is NOT running down from the MPV or whatever. That is a side mounted unit anyway.
 
If it is perfectly clean and lubricated with silicone lube and the bolts are tightened properly, it should not leak.

Make sure that you have the correct O-ring.

Check for any cracks.

You can use aquarium silicone on the O-ring and allow it to dry, but you will probably not be able to open it again.

44857814.png
 
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superdave5599 said:
To be clear: You're suggesting silicone sealant, like RTV sealant? Or like bathtub sealant? NOT the grease? (I ask that because the grease seems very much like dielectric grease I would use on car electrical connections, and I believe is a silicone based product.)

I am certainly thinking about this, though am hesitant to potentially make my life much more difficult next time it is time to deep clean the sand.
Click to expand...
Yes. Clear silicone sealant, not RTV sealant
 
superdave5599 said:
I am certainly thinking about this, though am hesitant to potentially make my life much more difficult next time it is time to deep clean the sand.
Click to expand...
In my opinion, deep cleaning is mostly a waste of time as is replacing the sand.

If you are getting sufficient flow to backwash, this should be enough.

The ideal flow rate is about 15 gpm/square foot.

If you find that deep cleaning does anything, then the backwash rate is probably insufficient.

I would generally avoid a permanent or semi-permanent fix like aquarium sealant.

However, if you cannot get the leak to stop any other way, then you don’t have much choice other than to do a permanent fix or replace the filter.
 
Ok...

I am willing to give it one more go with the OEM o-ring and lube it up this time.

If that doesn't work, I will probably go ahead and try the aquarium silicone, but a thin smear rather than glopping it on. And maybe not cleaning the lube from the bottom groove, so hopefully that would allow me to get in there again if needed. Or perhaps I'll just plan for this to be the last time and prep for purchasing a new filter in a couple years or something.

I'd backwashed the filter several (at least 5 or 6 times) before messing with this, and still saw a lot of dirty water coming up as I did the deep-clean procedure. I did replace about half of the sand in there as a part of it, so I suppose that maybe buys me a bit more time.

But one question remains:

Is there a suggested torque value for the bolts?

I've looked and looked and googled and even found what looks to be an installation manual .pdf online and cannot find this info. Should it be closer to just snugged down or cranked down tight? Cause I've tried both.
 

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