I have an oversized 4-cart filter (a Jandy CL350) for my 16,000 gallon pool and that lets me clean it just once a year, but I have a pool cover that keeps the pool relatively clean. I still clean it the filter the same way as others, hosing them off and then soaking in detergent. I just replaced mine recently after about 6 years, mostly because the straps were coming apart -- something I could have manually fixed but decided to just get new filters.