DE Filter Cleaning

[jimgregory]

Looking for tips and insturctions on breaking down and cleaning DE filter.

Anybody use a pressure washer, or soak the "fingers" in anything.

Thanks for all posts.

[ChuckD]

Hey Jim,
Just did this last weekend to my Hayward. I inherited this setup (BROKEN LINK REMOVED) when we bought the house last year and don't really know the age or past maintenance record.

The base of the 'fingers' was pretty caked up with old DE in spite of my thorough backwashing last fall and the fingers themselves were stained a reddish color, probably due to my well water. All it seemed to take to completely clean it was the garden hose. They're now a light gray 'canvas' color which suits me.

I'm keeping my ears open here to see if anyone recommends a detergent (maybe some Dawn to break down built up oils?) before I reassemble it.

ChuckD

[waterbear]

Hey Jim,


I'm keeping my ears open here to see if anyone recommends a detergent (maybe some Dawn to break down built up oils?) before I reassemble it.

ChuckD
I wouldn't recommend using Dawn unless you want a pool full of suds!:eek:

[jimgregory]

Chuck,

Thanks for reply. I think I heard soaking fingers in garbage can with some TSP in it.

Can anybody verify this tip, or add others.

Thanks

[RocKKer]

"Fingers" sound like a sand filter???

Your right, you can clean the oil's off with TSP or even dishwasher detergent. This is the powder, the kind you use in a dishwasher machine! Where I live dishwasher detergent (Costco) is a little less expensive than TSP (Home Depot, Lowes). After degreasing you will want to acid wash too.

Follow the dissassembly instructions in the filter's manual. If you don't have it sometimes the manufacturer has a manual you can download. There may be cleaning instructions in there also. If so follow them, if not I have done the following:

1. Degrease:
In big plastic garbage can soak the parts (degreasing is most important for the grids) for at least one hour, over night is most effective, in one cup trisodium phosphate (TSP) to five gallons water; or one cup dishwasher detergent to five gallons of water. A plastic garbage can that is tall enough to completely submerge the grids is good. Rinse before proceeding to the next step. WARNING: Failure to remove all oils and cleaning solution before acid soaking will result in a permanent restriction of water flow and cause premature failure. This is meant for filter cartridges but the same applies to DE grids.

2. Acid wash:
If the parts have a coating of algae, calcium carbonate (residue from calcium hypochlorite), iron, or other minerals, soak the cartridge in a solution of one part muriatic acid to twenty parts water until all bubbling stops. I usually just let em soak overnight. You can use the same garbage can as above, just empty the degreasing solution first in an appropriate place (sink, toilet, etc.) and rinse it out. When your done with the acid wash, do the same thing.

[DavidD]

The owners manual for my perflex filter says to soak the "fingers" in muratic acid and water in a 1 to 1 ratio OR use other commercial filter element cleaner mixed in accordance to the package instruction (I use muratic since it is on hand). It says to do this yearly. I always do this at closing since I'm breaking down the filter anyway and have had great success. The fingers go in gray and come out white. My neighbor and I have the same filter and we discovered the top of the filter (with the fingers/tubes hanging below) fits perfectly into a 5 gallon bucket so I follow the directions and let it soak for a half hour or so. I then rinse with a hose using a high pressure nozzle. You should definitely check your manual for cleaning instructions. If it is a Hayward, you can find manuals here:
http://www.haywardnet.com/products/Manuals/manuals_all.cfm#FiltersD_E_

[HenryJ45]

I made a mistake last year. I used a high pressure machine (used for deck and sidewalk cleaning) on my fingers. I used it at too close a range and did damage to some of the fingers. The very high pressure spraying machines at very close range can take fresh paint off wood and can therefore put holes in your fingers.

I had success the year before using a regular hose with sharp spray nozzle in cleaning the fingers and I just figured the super higher spray would be better. So just be careful out there with the wand and how you use it.

[CarlD]

I KNEW the electric dishwasher powder was used! I knew about it for carts, but not for DE, but it makes sense. Not Dawn or Palmolive liquid!

The muriatic acid wash is a standard for DE units. Some pool stores will do it for you (for a fee of course).

None of this is appropriate for sand, of course.

[coryinsocal]

has anyone come up with a clever/inexpensive rig for separating out the water from DE/dirt in the soaking bucket? I really have no lawn, garden or otherwise to dump the mixture. i'm sure i could just let the bucket stand until it kind of separates on it's own and try to dump off the top, but i though with all the experience, some one here may have devised a simple, quick/clever way....

[ChuckD]

I KNEW the electric dishwasher powder was used! I knew about it for carts, but not for DE, but it makes sense. Not Dawn or Palmolive liquid!

The muriatic acid wash is a standard for DE units. Some pool stores will do it for you (for a fee of course).

None of this is appropriate for sand, of course.

(Forgot about this thread)
I ended up soaking the filter element overnight in a 5 gallon bucket of hot water with four scoops of OxyClean. Worked great!

And for the record, I certainly would've thoroughly rinsed the filter had I chosen to try Dawn!

C.

PS, sorry no ideas about separating the used DE. You'll use a lot of water to flush it out so collecting it would be a bit of a problem, I think. But if you could strain it out somehow, it's a naturally occuring substance so disposing of it wouldn't be hard.

[waste]

Hi all, just a couple of thoughts:
re separating the de from the acid wash - why bother, you haven't used all the acid, put a lid on it, put it outside and use it again when you need to wash again - why waste a perfectly good acid wash?
re 1:1 solution, :eek: ! That sounds about 4x too strong. The 'e' clips and plastic parts (the 'ribs etc) can start to deteriorate from too much acid.

BTW, it seems that chemically cleaning them every year or two helps preserve them, be it an acid wash or a TSP/ oxyclean dip. I'll be interested to see what else gets posted here.