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

[mukherjeeprem]

Hi Ted,
Thanks, that's actually the post that I had quoted in my original post that I had read which lead me to believe something is wrong. That post has mostly the same info as my instruction manual except you wrote a lot more detail which I appreciate. However, I still don't know what to do because if I add the right amount of DE, the pressure goes way too high even after cleaning. I've had my pool for just over a week and I've already had to take apart the filter to hose off all the caked on DE.
I would call Hayward directly but they don't provide a phone number on their website. I tried to fill out their webform but so far nobody has called me back.
I've talked to 4 different pool companies and all of them are telling me that I'm doing everything right yet that doesn't make sense since I'm only using 1/5 of the correct amount of DE...also my pool isn't crystal clean. It's only 5 ft. deep and I can't see the bottom but that also could be a chemical issue and not a filtration issue.

[SalemCastles]

Have you tried running the filter at the "higher" pressure levels for any length of time? I'm wondering if the gauge could be faulty since your not getting the filtration performance at the lower DE levels. Have you checked the flow rate when the pressure is reading high? If your water circulation is good I'd leave it for a day and see what happens. Then I'd be looking for a new unit as it shouldn't be your problem to deal with since it's new. Just random thoughts from an old auto mechanic

[mukherjeeprem]

Have you tried running the filter at the "higher" pressure levels for any length of time? I'm wondering if the gauge could be faulty since your not getting the filtration performance at the lower DE levels. Have you checked the flow rate when the pressure is reading high? If your water circulation is good I'd leave it for a day and see what happens. Then I'd be looking for a new unit as it shouldn't be your problem to deal with since it's new. Just random thoughts from an old auto mechanic

yes, once the filter gets passed the red line, i lose circulation. it got past the red line when using about 1/3 of the recommended DE

[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?