Mesh vs. Fine Filters Dolphin S200

[PoolStored]

The trusty Dolphin DX3 that saw me through the SLAM that brought me to TFP died. R.I.P. Bought an S200 with both mesh and fine filters.

I used the mesh filters when the mesh cover was on...seemed ok, kept coming back with junk. When I pulled the cover I switched to the fine pleated filters. I'll be honest, I haven't been impressed. Seems like I have to run it multiple times, and it rolls over stuff and it doesn't get sucked in...chalked it up to the design (filter/single door vs. DX3 bag/double door)

Had a storm this week with lots of leaves...pool was a mess. Got to thinking, maybe the mesh filters flow more, allowing the S200 to flow more water and suck more stuff up, so I switched 'em.

What a difference. Cleaned the whole pool up in one cycle.

Anyone else have this experience?

 

[Jimrahbe]

PS,

I use the pleated filters 100% of the time and I just don't have a problem.

My S200 style robots pick up everything in the pool in one cycle 90% of the time and 100% of the time if I have to run two cycles.

I think it is you..

I have no idea what it is.. I have gunite pools and have never tried my robots in a vinyl pool.

It does make some sense that the pleated filters, after they get dirty, might cause the water flow to decrease. But that is why they make leaf nets.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[DrewLG]

It does make some sense that the pleated filters, after they get dirty, might cause the water flow to decrease. But that is why they make leaf nets.

... and why they make a leaf-catching mesh prefilter for the pleated filters: Amazon.com

 

[PoolStored]

... and why they make a leaf-catching mesh prefilter for the pleated filters: Amazon.com

What's the purpose of that? I don't get it...

 

[blazer58]

I run a mesh inside my pleated filter
Mesh stops the big stuff and some of the fine
Pleated gets the rest
Normally only one run to clean the pool
I have also used two mesh which also works
(When my old dolphin saved I saved the screens thus I now have three. One pleated, one large mesh and one mesh that fits inside the two )

 

[SnoopD]

I think I may end up in the same camp as PoolStored and want to get a coarse basket only for my S400/active 40. The concept is that most of the time I need it to help with leaves, not try to do fine filtration. But... I'm fully aware this is spoken as someone stuck in yesteryear with my old school pressure side Polaris which could only suck up large debris. Once fall really hits (when I always have to give the Polaris some help with my net or clean out the Polaris 2-3x a day for a few weeks) I'll know for sure. But in those cases, a coarse-only basket could be better for a bit. I'll need to wait until fall to know.

On the flip side, every time I wash out the pleated filter basket and see all the stuff that comes out of it I pat myself on the back that I just extended the amount of time before I'll have to crack open the large media filter canister to do a thorough clean of them. Ha. But the dual stage is nice to reduce the amount of chunks that get wedged into the pleats.