How to backwash filter?

[RookiePoolGuy]

I recently bought a house with a pool a few months ago, and had no real issues during the summer. The previous owner rented out the house and had no real idea how any of the values worked. I figured most of it out due to the home inspection (photos attached), however I was cleaning out the cartridge filters today and noticed a ton of pine needles and dirt at the bottom of the filter. Even after cleaning out the cartridges, my psi is still at 20 (it was 20-25 before). I cleaned out my pump and skimmer baskets as well. I'm wondering how I can backwash to get rid of all the needles and dirt? I don't know too much about my pool, so I will give any information as needed, but any help would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum!

You do not backwash cartridge filters. You remove them and clean them with water. If they appear gunked up at all soak them in a trash can filled with water and some TSP or automatic dishwashing detergent. That will remove oils. You may just need new cartridges, especially if they have not been regularly cleaned.

You should be able to remove the items from the cartridge filter housing by hand.

If you could provide more details on your equipment it could help. See this for your signature - Pool School - Getting Started

Take care.

 

[Jimrahbe]

rpg,

Welcome to TFP... A Great resource for all your pool questions. I was married in Sacramento, but I won't hold that against you....

You don't generally have the ability to "Backwash" a Cartridge filter. You would normally take the cartridges out to clean them and remove the plug at the bottom of the filter housing to drain the remaining dirty water.

Not sure your filter has a drain, but if not, you could unscrew the unions that hold the pipes to the filter or maybe a shop vac to suck out all the gunk...

I would think that a "clean" pressure of 20 would be higher than normal for your system, but all pools are different, so there is no way to know for sure.

Once you clean everything out, you could leave the cartridge out and run for a few minutes and see what the pressure is. If still 20 psi, you could eliminate the cartridge as the problem.

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.