Fiber Clear question: believe the literature or package?

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

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!

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.

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.

Good luck!

Ben