Behind our house is a utility corridor. They are running an 8 foot diameter water line in the corridor. With the extremely dry weather and our clay soil, there is a cloud of dust anytime a piece of equipment goes by. The pool robot has the pleated filters and gets quite dirty each week. I'm suspecting the pool filter is dirty as well. Anyway....
Did a filter swap today. I put in my Excel filters that do not fit exactly right. I think I'm going to toss them eventually and buy another set. If you buy 4 single filters, the Haywards are cheaper than the Pleatco! The Excel were cheaper and again, they don't fit right. The opening at the end is just slightly too big. They don't seal that well.
So today I rinsed off my 4 filters with an Aquacomb and then put them in my 32-gallon trashcan with a few cups of cheapo dishwasher detergent. There was one guy on the thread who used laundry soap. Don't do that! Powdered Dishwasher detergent. BTW, I bought some filter cleaner many years ago. Yep, it is dish washer detergent in a 1 lb plastic jar for $15! Poolstored! I smelled it afterwards and it has the same lemon scent as cheapo dishwasher detergent.
I soaked them for about 8 hours and washed them again. The bottom of the trashcan had a bunch more dirt and junk. I'm drying them now so I can fix the bands with hot-melt glue. I've done this before, and it works well. I think this is about the last time for this batch of filters. I bought the Pleatcos about 11 years ago.
I started using hairnets last year. These are great. I've prevented a lot of bugs from getting past the skimmers. At 10 cents each, I toss them about every other week. I have filter socks but the hair nets don't restrict the flow.
