cleaning DE filter

[borrott]

Have a 48 gal Pentair DE filter have broken it down and it looks clean with no noticeable material of any kind in the pads ?? So have i backwashed it all out .Is it there but i just cant see it. So do i need to wash out the pads and how is best to do it .

Pool new from oct 06 1 Year use not broken down filter since new.

What now.. ???
:confused:

[Phillbo]

Are you adding DE after each backwash? If there is non on the filters when you pulled them out, you may not be adding enough.

What process do you follow when you backwash?

[Sumo1]

If you have the filter apart, now is the easiest time to give the grids a REAL cleaning with muriatic acid. Other folks do it different ways but I just use a large pan that the grids will lay flat inside (found it at Home Depot) and put about 3-4" of water in it. I add about a qt. of muriatic to it. Use rubber gloves! I soak each grid in the solution and swish it around to loosen the oils and organic materials stuck to it. Three to five minutes works for me. Then I rinse the grids with a strong jet of water from the hose. Caution: Using a pressure washer may tear the fabric on the grids. Reassemble grid assembly and reinstall. I do this at least once a year. Before I did this, my filter pressure stayed in the high 20s to low 30s. This past summer, the pressure stayed at 20 all summer and I only backwashed once. Hope this helps!
Hal

POOLDOC NOTE: Follow the directions, HERE instead:
http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?9189-cleaning-a-DE-filter

[Phillbo]

Wow... my pressure never exceeds 14. thats when I backwash.


try leaving the grids in the tank and fill it with water, then add acid... when done. just let the solution drain out via the backwash valve.

[Sumo1]

A friend gave me a hardly-used 60 sq ft filter that I will soon install, so I hope to get the kind of low pressures you've got, Phillbo. I suspect my 2 hp pump is the reason my pressures aren't lower. I don't see how I could let the acid clean the grids while in the tank, because when I remove the top half of the tank, the top 8-12 inches of the grids would be out of the water. Perhaps your filter is made differently?...
Hal