Minimum RPM for salt cell

[Dirk]

I don't really understand why people say you should only clean once or twice a year.

I think most of us use some sort of water spray to clean our cartridges. Depending on how you do it, most (or at least some) of the wear on a cartridge occurs during the cleaning process. The more you clean them, the sooner they'll wear out. And as Jim points out, extra cleanings won't improve flow. It's an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" dealio.

It's the same for your SWG. They sometimes need to be cleaned of calcium build up on their plates. But the typical cleaning process (a mild acid bath and/or very gentle scraping) is rough on the expensive coating on the plates. The more you clean your SWG, the sooner you'll need a new one.

The best thing you can do for both your filter and your SWG is to keep your water within TFP recommended levels. That inhibits both algae in the water (and so on your cartridges) and calcium build up on your SWG's plates.

A "clean" pool is achieved by sanitation (a proper FC level, in most cases). Filtering is more about aesthetics. It produces a "clear" pool. And as you learned above, a clear pool is not necessarily a clean pool. Excessive filter and SWG cleaning is just that... excessive.

20 minutes of my time is well worth the effort to have a clean and efficient system.

Not really. A little fine dirt in your filter actually improves it's cleaning efficiency. I think this is more true of sand filters, but it applies to cartridges, too. Very fine particulate reduces the size of the "holes" through which the water passes, and so better collects other fine particulate. It's why sand filter users sometimes sprinkle a little DE on top of the sand, to improve the filtration (put "DE in sand filters" into the TFP search box).

Pardon me for saying, this is the kind of "newbie overthinking" pretty much all of us work through during the first year or two of pool ownership. I know for sure I drove my TFP mentors crazy with my pool maintenance learning curve. You'll find what works for you soon enough...

 

[crosby1612]

I think most of us use some sort of water spray to clean our cartridges. Depending on how you do it, most (or at least some) of the wear on a cartridge occurs during the cleaning process. The more you clean them, the sooner they'll wear out. And as Jim points out, extra cleanings won't improve flow. It's an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" dealio.

It's the same for your SWG. They sometimes need to be cleaned of calcium build up on their plates. But the typical cleaning process (a mild acid bath and/or very gentle scraping) is rough on the expensive coating on the plates. The more you clean your SWG, the sooner you'll need a new one.

The best thing you can do for both your filter and your SWG is to keep your water within TFP recommended levels. That inhibits both algae in the water (and so on your cartridges) and calcium build up on your SWG's plates.

A "clean" pool is achieved by sanitation (a proper FC level, in most cases). Filtering is more about aesthetics. It produces a "clear" pool. And as you learned above, a clear pool is not necessarily a clean pool. Excessive filter and SWG cleaning is just that... excessive.


Not really. A little fine dirt in your filter actually improves it's cleaning efficiency. I think this is more true of sand filters, but it applies to cartridges, too. Very fine particulate reduces the size of the "holes" through which the water passes, and so better collects other fine particulate. It's why sand filter users sometimes sprinkle a little DE on top of the sand, to improve the filtration (put "DE in sand filters" into the TFP search box).

Pardon me for saying, this is the kind of "newbie overthinking" pretty much all of us work through during the first year or two of pool ownership. I know for sure I drove my TFP mentors crazy with my pool maintenance learning curve. You'll find what works for you soon enough...

Common sense seems to be telling me that cleaner is better. Dirty/clogged cartridges make the pump motor work harder, no? That leads to shorter pump life. Pump replacements are more expensive than cartridge replacements. As far as a little dirt in the filter improves its efficiency... Not so sure about that. I'd like to see some scientific data on that theory.

 

[Dirk]

Common sense seems to be telling me that cleaner is better. Dirty/clogged cartridges make the pump motor work harder, no? That leads to shorter pump life. Pump replacements are more expensive than cartridge replacements. As far as a little dirt in the filter improves its efficiency... Not so sure about that. I'd like to see some scientific data on that theory.

TFP advice is based on scientific data and/or a collective user experience (400K users times many years (sorry, I don't know the exact number of years (at least 17))). So you can choose to accept that advice, or not. It's your pool, you can, and should, run it any way you like. If you feel better about cleaning your filter more often than it needs to be cleaned, and are OK with the increased wear on the cartridges that creates, you certainly should do that.

Regarding pump life, everything an active pool pump does is pushing water against some amount of resistance (expressed as pump head). All the components of your pool system increase that resistance some amount: filter, pipes, elbows, SWG, heater, check valves, return nozzles, skimmer baskets, pump basket, pool water, etc. So you are correct, turning on your pump will shorten its life.