DE Filter Problem

We bought a new DE filter system with pump from hayward about 3 month ago. It works great, but we have to keep bumping the handle every other hour and change the DE powder at least once a week. When I called "in the swim" where we bought the pump, they tell me that this is normal. But two pool places told me that this is way too much.

What is right now? I can't imagine that you have to change the DE powder every week.

Somebody mentioned that I would have to open the pump and clean something chemically. But I looked in my instructions and all it said is the following..

While Perflex filters are basically resistant to the difficulties often encountered as a result of chemical build-up in
swimming pools, it is important to keep in mind that the mineral content in a pool increases every day as a result of
the chemicals and the normal water evaporation process. If the concentration of minerals is allowed to get too high,
the minerals will form deposits on the Flex-Tubes inside the filter, and will eventually result in shortened filter cycles.
To guard against this, a yearly chemical cleaning (soaking) of the Flex-Tube assembly is suggested. Use
commercially available 20% muriatic acid added to water in 1 to 1 ratio; OR use other commercial filter element
cleaner mixed in accordance to the package instructions.

but there is nothing about how to do that, what do open ect....anybody have any input to anything I just wrote?

We have a PacFab Star DE-50 filter and we added 4lbs of DE when we filled our pool about 3 weeks ago. In our instructions, it says to "swish and bump" when the PSI reaches 10 over the initial reading (which was 12). I keep checking and it still says it is running at 12 psi. We haven't swished, bumped or changed DE. Heck, we finally just got all the excess DE cleared up after vacuuming every couple days. I think something doesn't sound right with your filter. As for the cleaning, I can't help you there since we haven't done anything like that yet. We are brand new pool owners and have never even known anyone with a pool so I have no experience other than the last 3 weeks. LOL! Good luck! I would not want to change my DE once a week. Why do you have to change it? What is happening that causes you to think it needs changed? Is it just the pressure gauge rising quickly? If so, someone else may have some insight as to why this may be happening. Best of luck to you.

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Originally Posted by denanbob

Why do you have to change it? What is happening that causes you to think it needs changed? Is it just the pressure gauge rising quickly? If so, someone else may have some insight as to why this may be happening. Best of luck to you.

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Yup, that is exactly what is happening...after we fill in the DE powder the pressure shows 10 and by the end of the week or sometimes not even that long, it goes up to twenty. Today is such a day and no matter how many times I bump it, it won't go down...

Thank you for responding by the way, for a second there I thought nobody understood what I meant... lol

It sounds like your DE filter is doing just that....filtering. Something (like algae) may be afoot in your water. A complete set of test results would probably give an indicator.

My thinking is that if the pressure goes up, the flow is being restricted. Since you are adding nothing to the system, that restriction must be coming from catching something in the water and collecting it on your filter.

when you say "bump the handle" are you backwashing the system? If so , every other hour sounds extreme to me .. under normal conditions I have to backwash only about every 6 weeks and only add a couple pounds of DE when doing so.

Have you open the tank to see what he screens look like?

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Originally Posted by booneyhead

We bought a new DE filter system with pump from hayward about 3 month ago. It works great, but we have to keep bumping the handle every other hour and change the DE powder at least once a week. When I called "in the swim" where we bought the pump, they tell me that this is normal. But two pool places told me that this is way too much.

What is right now? I can't imagine that you have to change the DE powder every week.

Somebody mentioned that I would have to open the pump and clean something chemically. But I looked in my instructions and all it said is the following..

While Perflex filters are basically resistant to the difficulties often encountered as a result of chemical build-up in
swimming pools, it is important to keep in mind that the mineral content in a pool increases every day as a result of
the chemicals and the normal water evaporation process. If the concentration of minerals is allowed to get too high,
the minerals will form deposits on the Flex-Tubes inside the filter, and will eventually result in shortened filter cycles.
To guard against this, a yearly chemical cleaning (soaking) of the Flex-Tube assembly is suggested. Use
commercially available 20% muriatic acid added to water in 1 to 1 ratio; OR use other commercial filter element
cleaner mixed in accordance to the package instructions.

but there is nothing about how to do that, what do open ect....anybody have any input to anything I just wrote?

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I have the Perflex EC75 filter and have had no problems whatsoever. My D.E could last all season but I usually change it 2 or 3 times, mainly because I have to do stain treatments on my fiberglass pool. Otherwise, I'd leave it in all year. I rarely have to bump as well. Dave (duraleigh) might be right

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Something (like algae) may be afoot in your water. A complete set of test results would probably give an indicator.

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Also, tell us what type and horse power pump you have and how you are measuring the D.E. My thinking is if it is not as Dave S. suspects, the problem could be a: you could be overpowered and/or b: you could have too much D.E. in there. If it had not been for a neighbor who had the EC65, I, following the directions, would have used a Large Coffee can to measure the D.E. rather than a smaller one which would have been twice the D.E. that I needed. :eek:
Now, to clean the filter, you have to remove the 15 bolts on top. Then lift the top out. Spray the fingers off with your hose using a nozzle to up the pressure. If the fingers aren't white, they probably need cleaning. I do this every year when closing but I have heard of people having to do this after clearing up a serious algae problem. To clean, Dilute some muratic acid and water (add acid to water, not water to acid) in a 5 gallon bucket. I usually add 1 gallon of acid to 3 gallons of water. Place the top of the unit in the acid/water and let soak for 45 minutes or so. It usually takes me an hour and a half or so to disassemble soak and re-assemble, soaking taking most of the time and again, should only have tobe done when closing the pool every year.

Dave

Booney, welcome to the forum. I've posted a few times on DE filter problems, please do an advanced search which includeds DE and my name in the fields. - Waste

Sorry I don't have the time to go into detail, my dog died today and I have to go console my wife who will be home in a few minutes :( I'll keep my eye on this thread if you need any help from me.

Sorry to hijack here.
Waste, I am truly sorry to hear about your dog, I've been there, one of the hardest things is losing a pet. My condolences.

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Originally Posted by DavidD

Also, tell us what type and horse power pump you have and how you are measuring the D.E. My thinking is if it is not as Dave S. suspects, the problem could be a: you could be overpowered and/or b: you could have too much D.E. in there.
Dave

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It should be the right pump for the filter since we bought the filter and the pump in a set from Hayward
Perflex Extended Cycle Filteration System EC40C90 Series + Power-Flo Matrix Pump Series
The pump sticker reads
HP 1.0
SF 1.00
RPM 3450

We put 3 little Lipton ice tea cans 1.3 pounds (not all the way full) of the powder in the pump. Is that too much?

I am just surprised that we would have to open the pump and clean it with the acid since we just had it since May. We did have a bad algea problem after we were gone for a week and we had nobody to run the pump for us, but the pump needed to be bumped before that all the time already....

Waste, I am sorry about your dog!


Thanks for your help everybody!

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Originally Posted by booneyhead

It should be the right pump for the filter since we bought the filter and the pump in a set from Hayward
Perflex Extended Cycle Filtration System EC40C90 Series + Power-Flo Matrix Pump Series
The pump sticker reads
HP 1.0
SF 1.00
RPM 3450

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Yes, it seems as if it is sized ok, so one possibility down. By the way, maybe I'm jus pessimistic, but an oversized pump/undersized filter sounds exactly like something that an unsuspecting soul we be sold. Ignore my directions on disassembly as I had forgotten there were two different types of Perflex filters.

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We put 3 little Lipton ice tea cans 1.3 pounds (not all the way full) of the powder in the pump. Is that too much?

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My earlier point exactly! I have no idea but I can tell you that the weight of coffee is different than the weight of D.E. I actually bought a D.E. scoop for $5. Here is a link http://www.cheappoolproducts.com/Mea...0~product.html

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I am just surprised that we would have to open the pump and clean it with the acid since we just had it since May.

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Me too. This doesn't sound right unless you had a heavy metal problem, allot of minerals or

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We did have a bad algae problem after we were gone for a week and we had nobody to run the pump for us, but the pump needed to be bumped before that all the time already....

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Bingo! As Dave S. surmised. I'll bet you had an algae problem before you really knew it. D.E. filters are the best, in my opinion, however since they filter such fine particles, they do get clogged up easier and it seams as if algae is the worst. As Dave S. stated earlier, post a full range of numbers and we'll take a look. I'll bet you can easily solve the problem by killing the algae, then vacuuming to waste the dead stuff. Once you get it cleared up, you shouldn't have any more probles as long as you "Stay Ahead" as CarlD says.

Dave

Another possible cause-

By any chance are you using calcium hypochlorite in your pool?

When I used it in the past with my DE filter, my pressure would quickly rise and I'd have to breakdown the filter to manually clean the grids, as the DE was caked on too hard to backwash.

No longer use it and have been running on the start up charge of DE all season, pressure is only up 4 psi and that's from cotton wood.