Intex Sand Filter - Just pooped in my pool!

[KeggerTx]

So I'm cleaning my pool and my wife and I are talking about how great our new Intex Sand / Saltwater filter is.

I'm FINALLY going to get the poo out of the water tonight, and tomorrow will have crystal clear water....right?


Then, just as I am making the comment "I love how this new filter lets me vacuum this stuff up without pumping it right back in to the pool, like the cartridge filters did...."


BOOM! The sand filter pumps all of the poo back in to the pool at one time!

It was really quite funny, now that I'm not mad about it any more..... It was as if diarrhea was coming out of the jet! LMAO!



I am wondering if anyone knows what I may have done wrong.

My thought is that I vacuumed up so much 'poo' (some kind of sediment / slime from our water supply) That the pressure in the pump spiked before I was able to backwash, and it popped a release valve or something, causing it to 'backwash' back in to the pool?

Is this a possibility? It looked just like it was backwashing through the jet.


Any ideas?

Pump is less than a week old, and has been working great. I've been able to get the pool cleaner than ever with it....but now this.

[PoolDoc]

AG pool filters -- and Intex pool filters in particular -- often are undersized for the application. You can try adding some DE powder (ask for it at a pool store, but Home Depot sometimes has it) and seeing if it blows through the filter. If it does NOT, you can add it in small quantities (2 cups or so) BEFORE you vacuum up fine stuff.

Of course, you'll lose what you added each time you backwash, and it will cause your filter to stop up quickly. But, it can help in a situation like yours, and it's not very expensive.

[BigDave]

Did the pressure on the guage (is there a guage?) exceed the recommended level?

[KeggerTx]

I don't know if the pressure spiked or not. I checked it before I started vacuuming and it was at my 'start' point.

It's strange. The filter has never pumped the stuff back in to the pool as I am vacuuming like the cartridge filters did. It 'grabs' all the 'stuff' I'm trying to get out of the pool.


This instance was like someone just opened up a floodgate and for about 20 seconds, the filter pumped brown, murky 'poo' in to the pool.

I let the pump run all night, and backwashed a few minutes ago. Plenty of the 'poo' came out in the backwash.


So filter appears to be working fine. Except for yesterdays 20 seconds of doom.....


???

I will see if I can find some of the DE and try adding a bit at a time.

==================

With these sand filters, if they get too 'full' of crud from filtering, do they have a tendency to release a mass amount of it back in to the pool at one time?


It was as if the backwash handle was moved, but it backwashed back in to the pool.

Thank you both for the input so far! I appreciate it.

Kraig

[BigDave]

I can only imagine that it found/dug a path/tunnnel around the sand and washed all the crud from the top of the sand out to the pool. Maybe there is some type of overpressure relief.?
Can you open the filter and visually inspect the sand bed? are there channels through it or is it even?
Since it's working now, keep a close eye on it when vacuuming. Can you vacuum to waste? You'd waste the water but keep the crud out of your filter.

[KeggerTx]

Well, I took the lid off of the filter and the sand looked all even. Checked everything out, nothing looks broken etc.

Put it all back together and back flushed real well, then rinsed and it's working good.


My neighbor had a thought.


Maybe it sharted.

Maybe it had air in the tank that needed to be passed out and it bubbled and stirred up all the crud.

I dunno. It's working great. Almost has the water clear again after yesterdays catastrophe.

We will see!

Thank you all for the input. I'll keep you all posted if I figure anything out.


Kraig

[AndyD]

I had the same thing happen to me with my sand filter about a month ago. The problem was that I tried to start vacuuming but had too much air in the line. Now I know to put the hose in front of the return line to fill it up with water, so that doesnt happen anymore.

[moriskod]

I was going to comment like one other that maybe it had to do with some air getting in there and causing a small "explosion" in the filter. I have had my sand filter for 12 years and have never seen anything like that although I'm not so careful at times to bleed air out of the lines and such like I should. Does your vac just connect into the skimmer with the skimmer basket then the pump strainer in line with the filter? You mentioned a new pump, is it a higher horsepower/volume pump than you had before?