Change my sand??

I'm sure this has been discussed before.......but I have a 5 year old 30' AG pool with a 150 lb sand filter.
The local pool guy says that you should change the sand every 3-5 years.
Another pool guy say you never have to change it, in fact, he says it filters better as the sand gets ground up into smaller pieces.

The first guy says that sand can get clogged with oils and gunk, and will get clumpy and "bad" and less efficient, and that you make your filtering better and more efficient by changing it. He says he has had pools "go bad" and nothing chemically has been wrong, and that the only fix was to change the sand.

My sand does have a thin layer of crusty gunk, but if I take that off, the sand looks brand new. I do not think I need to change it. The first guy says it could be "bad" down on the bottom.

Any thoughts?

No need to change the sand unless you have gone through something like a conversion from Baquacil. I am on the 6th season with my sand - still filtering well. There are some other people on this forum who have had the same sand for even longer - 7, 8, 9 years.

Thanks for these posts...

I'm starting my 4th season with a sand filter, and I was wondering the same thing. I noticed that this year it seemed to take longer to get the water clear, but it's crystal now - and everything seems to be working fine.

When I was backwashing while trying to clear the water, there was plenty of dirt that came out of the filter, and things seemed fine, but I also wondered about when to change the sand.

I have another question however: When it comes time to change the sand, what is the 'recommended' method. My plumbing is all glued to the valve head (on top of the filter - not the side) so it would seem to be very difficult to change the sand on mine.

Any pointers for future reference with regards to the plumbing being glued on.

Thank you. I thnk i'll just skim off the crusty layer and keep using my sand. it looks brand new.
To Andy......your rigid plumbing should have bushings that come apart. My pump head has flexable hoses, so it is no problem to take my filter head off.
You may want to install some bushings if you ever need to remove your filter head.

Frank d.

Good idea on the bushings.

I'll do that when I have to take the head off. I'm not 100% sure, but I'm pretty sure that he (the builder) didn't put bushings in - everything looks to be glued straight on. Worst case, I'll cut a few inches back, and add bushings whenever I have to get in there to look around.

Thanks!

A lot of times pool installers do just glue everything together. Cheap way to go. Same happend to me and this is my solution.

Check out my post #5 in this thread.
http://www.poolforum.com/pf2/showthread.php?t=294

Al

FYI: I have had the same sand in my filter for 15 seasons without a problem or a sand change. I'm getting a new filter due to the age of my current filter and some broken laterals that have been putting sand on my pool floor.