Quick question: I know multiport valves are nearly a necessity for sand filters, but do DE filters benefit much from them?
I can see how vital it’d be to run the system both backward (Backwash) and forward (Rinse) in a sand filter (where one has to unsettle and then resettle the sand), but I can’t seem to justify anything that advantageous with a DE filter that isn’t accomplished by just letting it drain out passively (especially in my case, where the filter is below the water line).
In fact, in a DE filter, the most that true multiport backwashing (where the water runs from the return TO the filter inlet to waste) would accomplish is maybe dislodge some more DE from the fingers, but that seems to be something that bumping — followed by draining with the return valve open (vs the skimmer valve) — probably does just as well.
Conversely, it seems to me that multiport rinsing (water running from filter inlet to return to waste) doesn’t accomplish squat, save recoating the filter some with the remaining DE, while basically sending filtered water to waste; one could just run the filter normally and not even waste any water.
Videos of multiport valves on DE filters specifically seem to agree that after backwashing and rinsing, you still need to manually drain the filter to get the larger chunks of used DE out anyway.
Anyway, I was just curious as to everyone’s thoughts. Thanks in advance.
I can see how vital it’d be to run the system both backward (Backwash) and forward (Rinse) in a sand filter (where one has to unsettle and then resettle the sand), but I can’t seem to justify anything that advantageous with a DE filter that isn’t accomplished by just letting it drain out passively (especially in my case, where the filter is below the water line).
In fact, in a DE filter, the most that true multiport backwashing (where the water runs from the return TO the filter inlet to waste) would accomplish is maybe dislodge some more DE from the fingers, but that seems to be something that bumping — followed by draining with the return valve open (vs the skimmer valve) — probably does just as well.
Conversely, it seems to me that multiport rinsing (water running from filter inlet to return to waste) doesn’t accomplish squat, save recoating the filter some with the remaining DE, while basically sending filtered water to waste; one could just run the filter normally and not even waste any water.
Videos of multiport valves on DE filters specifically seem to agree that after backwashing and rinsing, you still need to manually drain the filter to get the larger chunks of used DE out anyway.
Anyway, I was just curious as to everyone’s thoughts. Thanks in advance.