Please help me figure out my DE filter. I think the pool guy gave me bad info.

[Manslick]

We just got this pool put in last year and it was closed immediately and then opened and swam in for the first time last week. I've already had to open it up and clean it manually which took about 2 hours and we've literally only swam in the pool twice. Something isn't right.

It's a 14K gallon pool (san juan mirage)
hayward perflex ec65a filter
pool was filled when it was installed last october
inground pool

You have the same filter I had in the beginning.
My guess is the pool is full of some kind of dirt or organic matter that is clogging the filter.
If you are getting the filter clean and adding the proper amount of DE, 6 lbs weighed, and the pressure ramps up too quickly then it has to be something in the water causing the pressure build up.

I'm not an expert on burning up free floating organic matter but I think there are chemicals that will do that. I added some Ultra Bright that claims “Our new stronger formula clarifer clears cloudy or dull water by removing even the smallest particles.” How it removes the smallest particles is a mystery to me.

I am not a pitch man for Ultra Bright Water Clarifier either, but I believe it did help mine.

Then I'd disassemble the filter and hose it with a vengeance, reassemble and get a food scale and weight out exactly 6 lbs of DE, mix it in a bucket with clean water and pour it into the skimmer.

Try the Ultra Bright.

It may take time to get the water “clean”.

[Manslick]

A few duh questions.

The inlets are not plugged?
Your eyeball fitting is not clogged?
The valve to the inlets is fully open?

[mukherjeeprem]

Well...a quick update.
I got my chemicals balanced out and now my pool is ultra clean and clear and looking perfect.
That being said, I'm still only using about 1/5 to 1/6 the recommended amount of DE.

Just to clarify, I have no problem with the water flow in terms of inlets, eyeballs, valves, etc. Everything is functioning totally fine as long as the filter pressure stays in the good range. Once I add more DE and the pressure rises, then the flow stops to a crawl.

[Manslick]

Feels good to have a nice clean pool. Nice to hear a success story.

I am still curious. Are you weighing the amount you are using?

What's you PH level?

[mukherjeeprem]

I'll have to check the pH level...not sure. we had the pool water checked by a pool place last week and they had me set my salt chlorine generator to shock mode and said that after that we should be good and after doing that, the water cleared right up.

I didn't weigh the amount of DE that's currently in there. There originally were about 6 scoops of DE in there. The scoops are small and each scoop weighs about 0.33lb so I have about 2 lbs in there. When I did that, the pressure was too high, so I bumped it, backwashed it, bumped it, backwashed it and after doing that, the pressure got down to normal. In other words I probably have at most 1 lb of DE in there if that.
When I actually weighed out 6 lbs of DE, it was around 29 scoops. maybe my pool isn't filtering properly since there's not enough DE...i don't know... is there a way to know that?

[Manslick]

I ask about the PH because in the guide for the K-2006 test kit it says high PH level can lead to high pressure in the filter. How this works I don’t know but I glean that the PH level needs to be balanced.

As for proper filtering, the pressure should be around 10psi and the flow from the inlets should be fairly strong. My shallow end inlet blows all the way across my 20 foot wide pool. With the pump running it is impossible to put a fitting on the inlet fitting. Not scientific but you get the idea.

My gut feeling is the filter is clogged. I know you cleaned it already but I’d do it again. I know that filter is a bear to open with all those bolts but that’s all part of the pool game.
I opened mine one year when it was acting up and I will never forget the glorious green algae covering all my tubes.