Sand Spewing into pool

[Madged]

Good morning everybody

Took our first swim yesterday. Slight bit chilly although the Salt panel thingy said it was 76, the floating thermometer read at 72-73. After splashing around with the granddaughter for awhile, hubby decided to add DE through the skimmer. He backwashed it and when turning it back on we had all this sand spewing out. He tinkered with it for a while and gave up cause he was tired, frustrated and a tad bit sun burned. This morning there is slightly more sand plus DE all over the floor.

Any ideas what could have gone wrong?

 

[Richard320]

Good morning everybody

Took our first swim yesterday. Slight bit chilly although the Salt panel thingy said it was 76, the floating thermometer read at 72-73. After splashing around with the granddaughter for awhile, hubby decided to add DE through the skimmer. He backwashed it and when turning it back on we had all this sand spewing out. He tinkered with it for a while and gave up cause he was tired, frustrated and a tad bit sun burned. This morning there is slightly more sand plus DE all over the floor.

Any ideas what could have gone wrong?

Simplest answer is that the backwash was incomplete and the rinse cycle was omitted. The next possibility is that there's something wrong with the multiport. When the pump is on and it's filtering, is there any water dribbling out the backwash port? If not, a bad multiport is pretty unlikely.

Vacuum to filter and save that sand. If stuff starts blowing out the returns when you're vacuuming, then something is seriously wrong.

 

[Madged]

I think he did say he forgot to rinse the 2nd time. He did it once, then he did it again to "show" me how it works. He seems to think that if he shows me that I will magically know how to do it IF i ever have to! Ha Ha silly man!

So the fix for the omitted rinse?

 

[Richard320]

I think he did say he forgot to rinse the 2nd time. He did it once, then he did it again to "show" me how it works. He seems to think that if he shows me that I will magically know how to do it IF i ever have to! Ha Ha silly man!

So the fix for the omitted rinse?

Wait for all the sand in the pipes to work its way to the pool and vacuum it up.

There are some good pictures and an explanation of what is happening inside the filter in Deep Cleaning a Sand Filter. Scroll down to Sand Filtration 101.

After a backwash, things are pretty churned up inside and there's a bunch of sand and debris in the normally clean pipe. The rinse is supposed to flatten the sand out and flush all that residual out the waste pipe. I think it just got flushed into the pool.

 

[Madged]

Ok he says that as he tried to vacuum the sand was coming right back into the pool thru the outlet port. He has it on Filter mode.

 

[Richard320]

Are we sure it's on filter and not recirculate? Did anyone check for leakage from the backwash port?

Next step is to open it up the multiport valve and inspect the spider gasket.

After that, empty it to inspect the laterals for damage somehow. I just don't see how backwashing could have triggered that.

 

[JamesW]

If the pump is on when you change from filter to backwash, the laterals can be broken.

I suspect that the laterals are broken.

 

[Madged]

Thank you Richard and JamesW for taking the time to respond. He is getting ready to empty the sand. (It can be reused or does it need replaced?) Is it possible we added to much DE causing to much pressure on the laterals?

 

[JamesW]

Sand can be reused. The de wouldn't cause the problem.

 

[Madged]

FOUND IT! One of the laterals had completely come off the holder. So fingers crossed that is the only issue. Thanks guys!

 

[JamesW]

Thanks for the update.