Pentair air bleed screen always clogged

[aydin23]

I keep seeing low flow error warnings on my app. Even sometimes max air pressure warning when the heater is on. It’s driving me crazy.
My pool company hasn’t been very helpful so I cleaned the filter myself two times in the past month. I noticed the air bleeder screen cap is always clogged and crushed. The second time I cleaned the filters it was much cleaner to start off with compared to the first go around.
Is replacing the air bleeder cap the fix for this or something more involved?

 

[Texas Splash]

Welcome to TFP! Could you tell us exactly which model filter you have and/or post some pics for us to see?

Since you use a pool service, I'm assuming you don't test your own water correct? Do you have a TF-Series test kit (or Taylor K-2006C) so that you could post your own water test results for us?

 

[aydin23]

Unfortunately no test kit
It’s a pentair FNS PLUS NSF 50

 

[Texas Splash]

Understood. My initial concern is that your water chemistry is off. You may have excessive organics in the water, a precursor to algae, which is overloading the filter resulting in high pressure and frequent backwashes. Perhaps this is also effecting the bleeder cap/screen? I will tag @1poolman1 for his opinion as well, but I would highly encourage you to test your own water if at all possible. I suspect you pay a healthy fee for the pool service, unfortunately their testing, chemical processes, and quality standards often times fall short of what we at TFP believe you should have for your pool.

If you are interested and capable of testing your own water, let us know and we'll show you what to do. Also see -----------> Pool Care Basics for lots of great info.

 

[1poolman1]

I keep seeing low flow error warnings on my app. Even sometimes max air pressure warning when the heater is on. It’s driving me crazy.
My pool company hasn’t been very helpful so I cleaned the filter myself two times in the past month. I noticed the air bleeder screen cap is always clogged and crushed. The second time I cleaned the filters it was much cleaner to start off with compared to the first go around.
Is replacing the air bleeder cap the fix for this or something more involved?

The air screen is just showing a glimpse of how much debris is getting into the water and then pumped into the filter. Essentially, it is a small filter sitting high in the tank to allow any air that may be in the filter, or that gets into the system from a suction leak, to escape. Being dirty is normal. There should never be "air pressure" in a pool system.
How are you cleaning the filter? A backwash? How much DE is being put in afterward? When was the last time the tank was opened and all the DE was removed from the filter?

 

[aydin23]

Well the pool maintenance guys do all this work. But they backwash. I haven’t seen them clean the filter so I did it myself just a couple days ago. I add 6 pads of DE
@1poolman1