Looking to upgrade filter?

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J

jmagoo

0
Jun 8, 2017
10
Montreal/Quebec
Hi, i have a sand filter, have had it for 8 years and i should change the sand before the start of the season, i'm looking into getting something better,
D.E or cartridge i'm leaning towards cartridge, i understand that bigger is better and that's ok, price is not my main concern, i want a filter that gets me great water and less hassle to maintain and that it will last a long time i live in Quebec, Canada and the set up is my shed if that matters? Thanks
 
Welcome to TFP!!:handwave:

Unless the sand has been "damaged" bu using certain pool store chemicals (flocks and clarifiers mostly) the sand never needs to be changed.

Do you find the sand filter to be a "hassle to maintain"? I personally find DE and cartridges harder.
 
j,

Welcome to TFP... a great place to find the answers to all your "Sandy" questions... :shark:

I agree with Tim about changing the sand....

But, I have the Pentair CCP-520 cartridge filter... I clean it twice a year, but then my pool never closes. If I closed, like I am sure you do, then I would only clean it at closing...

The maintenance difference between your sand filter and my cartridge filter is that you have a little pain every few weeks (to back wash) and I have a much larger pain twice a year... :p

It takes me about 2 hours to disassemble the filter, clean each of the four cartridges, reassemble the filter, and then start the pool back up. It is not a very hard task, but takes a little time and you need to plan on getting wet... The cartridges cost quite a bit more than sand... I have yet to replace them, and based upon how they currently look after 4 or 5 years, I expect to get a good 10 years out of them.

I have two DE filters at other pools and only clean them twice a year... From a cleaning point of view, there is not much different between the DE and cartridge. If and when they bite the dust, I will replace them with cartridges filters.. Cartridge filters have no multiport valve, so the plumbing is simpler and just one less thing that can go bad.

If you have to backwash often, then I doubt that the problem is the sand or the type of filter... Sparkling water comes from having the right chemical levels in your pool water and not because of the filter.

If you want to know more about how to keep your water TFP clear.. just let us know.

Thanks for posting,

Jim R.
 
:wave: Welcome to TFP jmagoo

+1 --> Unless the sand has been "damaged" by using certain pool store chemicals (flocks and clarifiers mostly) the sand never needs to be changed.

Personally I like my sand filter.
 
Jimrahbe said:
The maintenance difference between your sand filter and my cartridge filter is that you have a little pain every few weeks (to back wash) and I have a much larger pain twice a year... :p

It takes me about 2 hours to disassemble the filter, clean each of the four cartridges, reassemble the filter, and then start the pool back up. It is not a very hard task, but takes a little time and you need to plan on getting wet... The cartridges cost quite a bit more than sand... I have yet to replace them, and based upon how they currently look after 4 or 5 years, I expect to get a good 10 years out of them.
Click to expand...
See Jim, you just made my argument....

There is really no pain with sand.

Turn off pump.
Move lever to backwash
Turn on pump
Watch the color of the water coming out of the hose, wen clear
Turn off pump
Move lever to rinse
Turn on pump
Wait 1 minute, turn off pump
Move lever to Filter
I'm done

I didn't get wet, I didn't have to disassemble anything and I didn't have to fool around with measuring DE powder and hope everything goes right. Heck, I could even do it with an adult beverage in one hand.....

The main problems I see with cartridge filters is that folks buy the least expensive one "rated" for their pool. They end up with a single cartridge filter that tehy have to clean ever few weeks. They look at your multi-cartridge monsters and shy away, too much money! Secondly, the cost of replacement filters can run into some cash. Heck the small cartridge for my hot tub runs $50 or so, even shopping on line.

The problem with sand filters is that the pool stores tell folks to make backwashing part of their weekend routine along with "shocking" the pool. I never closed my pool and I had to backwash about every 3 months. People need to learn to backwash bu gauge pressure, not time.
 
I'm with Tim on this one. It takes me longer to clean the skimmer and pump baskets than it does to do a back wash. Sometimes I backwash the filter because I happen to be over by the pump and its so easy to do.
 
I have had both and I will state for the record that all my future filters will be sand.
 
Two years ago their was a contractor working beside my backyard and he was on a scaffold all summer grinding the mortar between the bricks, and all the dust went flying in my pool, since then i have problems cleaning my pool, also i replaced my 2 HP pump for a Pentair intelliflo 2 VST and i think it's too powerful for the filter, every time i would vacuum the fine dust it would come back through the return jets,so i always have fine dust at the bottom of the fiberglass white pool, so the pool always looks dirty. Since i have a SWG and i backwash i had to top off the pool with water and salt levels would go down, until it was too low then i would to put some back. I think my filter is not well adapted for my pump now(max flow rate of 62) hayward pro series s-244t. that's why i was think about cartridges because they have a higher flow rate.
 

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jm,

I don't know that you are wrong, but I'm not sure you are right either... :p

Not sure what you are basing your proper filtration to GPM criteria on... :confused:

As far as I know, there is no specific amount of GPM that is required to keep a pool sanitized.. I think the important part on sand filters is running too high of a flow.. as far as I know you can run as low as you want..

I run my IntelliFlo 24/7 at 1200 rpm and my pool does not seem to care what the GPM rate happens to be...

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
The slower the water goes thru the filter the better the filter will be at removing stuff from the water. That's why filters are so big it helps them reduce the relative velocity of the water going thru them.

There is no need to run the filter at 80 pecent flow capacity. It's good you arent pushing it to 100percent capacity.
 
My pool guy is a fan of pentair products and he highly suggested me to get a tagelus sand filter with clear-pro technology, that's what he has at his home, says it filters down to 6 microns, never heard much about clear-pro, is this a good filter?
 
Don’t know anything about that one, but here for another vote for sand filter!
 
Sand filter vote! (even on tiny pools, lol) Yes for overkill!


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