Recommend Good Economical Cartridge Filter?

[Mark Shvitz]

My pool is around 18000 gallons, and I want a flow rate of 40 GPM. It has 2" pipes. Can anyone recommend a good cartridge filter that isn't too expensive?

Absolutely has to be a cartridge filter.

Thanks.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Can anyone recommend a good cartridge filter that isn't too expensive?

Mark,

There is no such thing...

The bigger the filter the less you have to clean it.. Pool size does not really matter.

Check out these guys..

Filters

Crystal Water Cartridge

Is your pool inside a screen room or not???

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Mark Shvitz]

Thanks for the reply. The pool is screened. Extremely low use.

 

[Mark Shvitz]

I see a pool site saying a bigger pool can work with a Pentair EC-160316, which seems very reasonable at about $550.

It has 100 square feet of media, 2" ports, and the papers say it can do 100 GPM.

 

[dfwnoob]

100 sq ft is a tiny filter for a nearly 20k gallon pool. Screened in or not, it's still going to do it's job and filter out particulates from the water.

It is highly advisable to go with the biggest filter you can reasonably afford, unless you're okay with much more frequent cleanings.

 

[Mark Shvitz]

Thanks.

 

[Mark Shvitz]

Decided to go with 200.

 

[Mark Shvitz]

This filter seems adequate. The pool was truly disgusting, and the cartridge took a while to fill up. The pressure gauge didn't really get to the "CLEAN" mark, but the flow was dropping, so I cleaned the cartridge.

If it can filter a disaster pool without clogging right away, my best guess is that it will take a long time to fill up once the pool is clean.

I reinstalled the cartridge upside down, and since then, the filtration has not been great, but now that it's in there correctly I feel sure better things will happen. If not, guess I'll be cleaning the cartridge a lot.

 

[proavia]

The recommendation here is clean the filter when pressure rises 25% above clean pressure - not when pressure gets to "clean" mark on pressure gauge.
So if you start with a clean pressure of 10 psi, clean the filter when pressure gets to 12-13 psi.

The larger the filter, the less frequent the cleaning. I have a 12k pool with a 420 sq ft cartridge filter - outdoors, no cage, open 24/7/365 - that I clean once per year. The filter pressure at high rpm (3000 rpm) never increases 25% above clean pressure, I just feel guilty not cleaning it yearly.

 

[Mark Shvitz]

I thought I was missing out by not getting a large filter, but then I found out they take a lot longer to clean, so I'm not sure a bigger filter would be a good idea. Easy job twice a year, or miserable job once a year?

My pool is recovering from a period of problems, algae, and all-around crud, but ordinarily, it's slow to get dirty. It's screened, and it is used mostly by occasional guests.

 

[proavia]

I thought I was missing out by not getting a large filter, but then I found out they take a lot longer to clean, so I'm not sure a bigger filter would be a good idea. Easy job twice a year, or miserable job once a year?

My pool is recovering from a period of problems, algae, and all-around crud, but ordinarily, it's slow to get dirty. It's screened, and it is used mostly by occasional guests. I'd much rather have to clean once yearly rather than 2+ times yearly.

From walking out to the pool equipment to restarting the pump and checking for any possible leaks takes me about 1 to 1.5 hours once a year. And I only need to disassemble/reassemble the filter once a year.

Keeping your FC in line with your CYA according to the FC/CYA Levels charts and bumping up the FC before and after a larger swimming event will help prevent algae. Best to dose FC for the high side of target range for normal use and bump FC 3-5 ppm above top of target before/after heavier usage.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Mark,

Because your pool is inside a screen-room, I would 'think' that you should only need to clean your filter about once a year.

Obviously, after you get your pool back up and running...

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[Mark Shvitz]

Today I am paying the price for failing to find a competent pool repair company last year. I thought the filter would take a while to clog, but it has filled up twice already in one day. I put a robot in the pool, and it blasts the silt into suspension, so the filter is getting a real test. On the up side, the water is a lot clearer than it was just this morning, and the filter is taking a lot longer to clog this time. I can see the bottom step now, and the robot is no longer picking up much white grit.

Not putting the cartridge in upside down appears to make a real difference. Apparently, it's best to have the water go through the filter and not around it. Who would have thought?

I plan to keep running the robot and cleaning the pool filter simultaneously until things look good. The robot really helps get the crud into the filter.

Last year, I called people and got lackluster responses, so I just let things go and tried to keep the algae from completely taking over.

 

[wireform]

Filters don't usually clog fast but if it happened twice in one day it can be bad algae even if water is still clear.

 

[Mark Shvitz]

Right now I'm picking up very fine grey silt which appears to be nonorganic. It's going away fast, so I'm okay with it. I really think the old filter shot DE everywhere, and I'm seeing the finer particles. Best guess.