Happy Spring…almost.
On August 7 of this past Summer I encountered a disaster in the form of a flash flood and mud entering the pool. (Photo attached.) This was caused by construction of a new garage which caused a change in rain water flow and has since been resolved, but I digress.
The recovery method that I chose was to filter as opposed to drain, I might reconsider if this were to happen again. For two months I ran the the filter 24/7 backwashing numerous times per day and recharging with less DE each time. Eventually I stopped adding DE at all and even after the water cleared up pressure would rise at an uncomfortable rate after each backwash. I usually clean my filter annually in May after the pollen season but felt this needed to be addressed now.
Into the filter I go. The grids were coated with the larger sand particles as a more experienced user might would have predicted, hindsight! I removed the grids and hosed them down still attached as an assembly as I intend to repeat in May as usual.
The water now “looks” clear and all components appear to have survived. I do notice, not surprisingly, with the lights on at night that there are still particles suspended in the water. It doesn’t have that normal sparkle. I’m considering letting the filter run without a DE charge until my usual May post pollen cleaning. I don’t think that this will harm anything, I just don’t want to continue the frequency of backwashing and DE charging when we can’t enjoy the pool yet anyway.

Is this yet another bad idea?
On August 7 of this past Summer I encountered a disaster in the form of a flash flood and mud entering the pool. (Photo attached.) This was caused by construction of a new garage which caused a change in rain water flow and has since been resolved, but I digress.
The recovery method that I chose was to filter as opposed to drain, I might reconsider if this were to happen again. For two months I ran the the filter 24/7 backwashing numerous times per day and recharging with less DE each time. Eventually I stopped adding DE at all and even after the water cleared up pressure would rise at an uncomfortable rate after each backwash. I usually clean my filter annually in May after the pollen season but felt this needed to be addressed now.
Into the filter I go. The grids were coated with the larger sand particles as a more experienced user might would have predicted, hindsight! I removed the grids and hosed them down still attached as an assembly as I intend to repeat in May as usual.
The water now “looks” clear and all components appear to have survived. I do notice, not surprisingly, with the lights on at night that there are still particles suspended in the water. It doesn’t have that normal sparkle. I’m considering letting the filter run without a DE charge until my usual May post pollen cleaning. I don’t think that this will harm anything, I just don’t want to continue the frequency of backwashing and DE charging when we can’t enjoy the pool yet anyway.

Is this yet another bad idea?