Tonight I decided to pump a small amount of water to waste in anticipation of heavy rains predicted for the next 36 hours. I will be away from home during the storm so wanted to make a minor adjustment.
Pump off. Set my multiport valve to "waste". Routed discharge line to a good spot. Started pump.
Pumped for about 5 or 6 mins to reduce water level about 1 inch or so.
Pump off. Move multiport valve back to "filter". Pump on.
Looking at the pool, I saw a brief "puff" of what could only be DE come out of one of my return jets. It stopped quickly. I let the pump run for another 10 mins or so, watching the returns, but that was the only DE I saw.
So what gives? None of the water should enter the filter when pumping to waste, right? I'm confused as to how I got some DE in the return line - it suggests that there is some (unintended) connection between the waste line and the internals of the filter - problem with the multiport valve?
This could explain a strange observation I made a week or so ago - I pumped a substantial amount of water to waste during a drain/refill to reduce CYA. I refilled the pool and restarted the pump/filter. A few days later I dismantled the filter to clean the grids, but I found there was very little DE inside the filter when I opened it. I was confused by this since only a month prior I went through a complete dismantle/clean/recharge DE and I was VERY careful to measure out the factory recommended amount of DE. Maybe there's some kind of problem with the multiport and running it in "WASTE" mode sucked a bunch of DE out of the filter and down the drain. Anyone experienced this before?
I'm leaving tomorrow and trying to decide now if I should add some more DE to my Pentair FNS 36, just to be sure there's some DE left in there!
Pump off. Set my multiport valve to "waste". Routed discharge line to a good spot. Started pump.
Pumped for about 5 or 6 mins to reduce water level about 1 inch or so.
Pump off. Move multiport valve back to "filter". Pump on.
Looking at the pool, I saw a brief "puff" of what could only be DE come out of one of my return jets. It stopped quickly. I let the pump run for another 10 mins or so, watching the returns, but that was the only DE I saw.
So what gives? None of the water should enter the filter when pumping to waste, right? I'm confused as to how I got some DE in the return line - it suggests that there is some (unintended) connection between the waste line and the internals of the filter - problem with the multiport valve?
This could explain a strange observation I made a week or so ago - I pumped a substantial amount of water to waste during a drain/refill to reduce CYA. I refilled the pool and restarted the pump/filter. A few days later I dismantled the filter to clean the grids, but I found there was very little DE inside the filter when I opened it. I was confused by this since only a month prior I went through a complete dismantle/clean/recharge DE and I was VERY careful to measure out the factory recommended amount of DE. Maybe there's some kind of problem with the multiport and running it in "WASTE" mode sucked a bunch of DE out of the filter and down the drain. Anyone experienced this before?
I'm leaving tomorrow and trying to decide now if I should add some more DE to my Pentair FNS 36, just to be sure there's some DE left in there!
