DE leaks into pool; and filter clamp leaks elsewhere

I am fairly handy, I can't ignore the leak, it let's all the water an debris that is sucked into it flow back into the pool because it doesn't have a good vacuum seal, and there are plenty of pool services here, but few give free estimates and want $110 or more just to look at it. So say $100 for service call plus parts and probably charge me other things as well, and I will be out at least the service fee I'm sure, whether they fix it or not. I had to pay a service charge to this last guy although it wasn't as much as the others, and he didn't fix my problem. Shouldn't there be a "if we don't fix it you don't pay" deal, or is that just wishful thinking?
It now has a new o ring which Waste said is discontinued, so if that's the case and there is a replacement kit how do these places get an o ring for my filter? I mentioned that to this guy and he sounded surprised. I also mentioned to him what you had suggested about cleaning up the channel the o ring sits in of debris, he ignored that idea and did not clean that out.
The clamp is metal, and I was told by my local pool store that there should be a gap between the ends of the clamp, which looking at the clamps on the filters in the store they had about a 3 inch gap, mine is millimeters and very close to touching but are not touching. They said if the ends are touching it may not be getting tight enough to get a good seal which makes sense. Is it possible that I either have the wrong clamp or that the clamp is old, worn and beat up?
Let's hope it's just balky and with some perseverance I can fix the leak without having to buy a new filter.

[I wrote a post on Trouble Free Pool about it here.]

I just had the opportunity to read this write up. My filter is not a stainless steel filter and you posted that this only applies to the stainless steel filters. Not sure what the material my filter is made of, some sort of plastic material I guess

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Originally Posted by Lowdown

Shouldn't there be a "if we don't fix it you don't pay" deal, or is that just wishful thinking?.

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I didn't do that, when I did hourly service work -- it still took my time to get there; my tools and knowledge to check it out, and it wasn't my fault it was broken.

Update: got a pool company to replace clamp through our home warranty and no more leak. So I don't need a new filter

Great! Thanks for coming back with an update for us!

Just to make sure I understand: they replaced the entire clamp on the filter, and that fixed the problem?

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Originally Posted by PoolDoc

Just to make sure I understand: they replaced the entire clamp on the filter, and that fixed the problem?

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Yes the old metal clamp that has 2 bolts to tighten the clamp has been replaced with a new plastic clamp with 1 bolt that tightens the clamp, and no more leak

Thanks for the info!

Thanks for your help