Fun with a Mesquite tree

[BadDog]

Doc:

Yeah, I have seen the products of cottonwood trees. Probably worse than my problems, and maybe the others too, and I'm sure there are others to greater or lesser extent. You would think with the obviously common problem there would be a product out there. Something as simple as a hard-line version of my in-pool in-line vacuum filter just seems like an obvious thing to sell for a company like Hayward or others in the market. If it were not so much trouble to cobble up a "sealed for vacuum yet accessible to clean/clear" container I would be enthusiastic to experiment even at some risk to my (cheap old school) pump.

Sean:

Thanks, that's a very interesting suggestions. I had some thoughts along those lines, but as you note, the problem is keeping a seal so that the suction continues to move the water. I've even thought of maybe finding an old sand filter canister to put up stream before the real filter with some sort of separator rigged to eliminate most of the leaves and such. But apparently there is concern about that creating problems and damaging the pump.

For now, I guess I'm stumped. Maybe by the time I've gotten through my latest diversion in priorities something will present itself...

[Sean OBrien]

Yah, it was more the concept which had merrit as opposed to the application itself. If it were me, I would definitely work the issue more completely - but a lot of that goes back to being an engineer who spends most of the day editing technical manuals as opposed to designing things (makes for good mental aerobics).

I know when I was living in Japan in the 90s the apartment's had a community pond in the courtyard area and they used a prefilter that looked a lot like the sand filters used in pools here. I never looked on the inside to see how it was plumbed though - so I am not too sure what would need to be done to put one together here (I also haven't seen one commercially available in the US).

Because of the backyard I have to work with though, it is something that I have been trying to figure out a better solution for as well. The skimmer socks have helped a good bit, but I have to clean them every morning - and ideally I would like to minimize the maintenance without having to hire a pool company. Right now, what I am considering is two or three of the Pentek PBH filter housings in order to minimize pressure drops and maintain the flow rate with the largest filter bag they offer. That should catch the larger items that make it through the skimmer screen and still provide long enough between maintenance to make having a pool fun as opposed to work.

I haven't crunched the numbers yet though - however it looks like it should work at a glance.

[BadDog]

That Pentek PBH looks like it's headed in the right direction. But as you suggested, it appears you would need at least 2 in parallel. Too bad they don't make one about twice that size with 2" fittings (without doubling the cost).