Quote Originally Posted by Lowdown View Post
Any thoughts?
Are you handy with tools? If not, you probably will need to EITHER ignore the leak if it's small OR get a new filter, unless you have access to another pool guy with better skills.

Giant O-ring seals are a pain. You have to make sure the O-ring is OK, the top channel is OK, the bottom channel is OK, there isn't ANY debris, that the O-ring isn't 'bunched up', that the clamp is compressing evenly, and so on.

I read through the manual, and reading between the lines on the instructions, Hayward has had some problems with that filter. Among other things, they explicitly warn AGAINST doing exactly what I suggested doing -- tapping the clamp with a hammer. That tells me 2 things:
1. Other people have had problems with the clamp compressing the O-ring evenly enough to get a good seal, and
2. The clamp is plastic, and can be broken if you tap on it (especially, if you don't know the difference between "tapping" and "hammering").
It's possible that your filter is un-repairable. But more likely, it's just balky. Those fiber type clamps will slip when new, and compress things evenly. But, when they are old and somewhat oxidized, they have a LOT more friction, and often have to be lightly tapped to get them to slide and compress evenly. Unfortunately, this is very much a "you have to know how hard to tap; I can't tell you how hard" sort of thing.

Most very experienced service guys could do that. Most young and in-experienced service guys could not. And some old service guys never get good.

So, you're kinda stuck. You could try a new clamp, if they are available. It might work. But, the friction MIGHT be from the filter body rather than the clamp, and then a new clamp wouldn't help much. And, of course it could STILL be a bad O-ring, or a damaged groove. The fact that the leak moves with clamp argues against that, however.

What you NEED is a service guy good enough to either fix, or recognize (and explain) exactly why it can't be fixed. But, you haven't got that.

Sorry.