Fiber Clear question: believe the literature or package?

[Mormegil]

Hi,

I'm new to the forum and pools in general (recently bought a house with a pool).

I'm having my Pentair 48 sq ft filter professionally cleaned after using DE, and want to switch to Fiber Clear / cellulose filter media.

Fiber Clear's website states a 9 oz bag replaces 5 lbs of DE. My filter is suppose to take 4.8 lbs according to the Filter instructions (close enough to 5 lbs), so I figure 1 package should suffice.

Yet the Fiber Clear packaging states 2 packages for a 48 sq ft filter area. So which is it, 1 or 2 packages? Or somewhere in between.

I read somewhere after some Googling that I should add Fiber Clear until my filter's pressure goes up 1 psi.

Thanks for any help

[PoolDoc]

I can't say I know for certain.

But, this is a great opportunity for me to get in my standard salesman joke.
Q: How to you know when a pool product salesman is lying?
A: Watch his mouth; whenever his lips move, he's lying.

Actually, it's usually not a joke, which is sad.

But, there is a point amongst my meandering. Instructions tend to be written by the people who will get your call when things don't work: engineering and customer service types. Literature and website hype is usually written by marketing types, who learned in school how to sell pool products to a whole lot of people at once, instead of one at a time. (See joke above.)

So . . . while I don't know, if I had to pick one, I'd go with the instructions.

Ben

PS. Descriptions of a new pool products "benefits" are written -- 99% of the time -- by sales and marketing types.
(See joke above, again.)
(See "it's not a joke" comment, again.)

Caveat emptor!

[Mormegil]

I followed the instructions, and put in two packages. PSI didn't go up substantially. Guess I'll figure out if it's working if the pool stays clear.

[Mormegil]

Two seems to be doing the trick. I vacuumed up some dirt that was going through before I loaded the Fiber Clear, and it seems to have stayed in the filter. Most have mentioned a need to do a lot of backwashing immediately after switching to Fiber Clear. I haven't had that issue, and my PSI is pretty low, and hasn't moved much over the last 2 days.

My guess is because I added clarifier and ran the filter 24 hours before cleaning the filter and switching to Fiber Clear.

After my next backwash, I'll see if I can get away with one package.

[PoolDoc]

Good luck!

Ben