DE pool filter losing pressure

[herzog82]

I have a question about my Splash Pak De Filter. When I start the pump, the pressure is very good and the water is circulating around the pool like it supposed to. About an hour later, the water is not coming out as fast and after 3 hours, there is very little water returning to the pool. I have cleaned the filter basket, checked for any debris in the inlet leading to the pump, hosed down the grids and siliconed the inlet hoses in case there was air coming in but nothing has worked. Any ideas? Should I clean the grids with the muriatic acid I have read about?....buy new grids..

[PoolDoc]

Read your filter manual before attempting anything like that. But, in general, acid cleaning cartridges and DE septum membranes is more likely to cause irreparable damage, than to help. If you do acid clean you MUST clean with detergent (TSP) first!

Regarding your filter stopping up . . . what is the condition of your pool? If there is ANY algae, you must kill it before you can expect your filter to work well. Live algae plugs DE filters very, very rapidly.

[herzog82]

Thanks for your timely response.

Unfortunately I inherited the pool when I bought the house and don't have a manual. The grids look fine, I'm just looking a solution to the pressure losing problem. Honestly, they look very good when I hose them off.

MY pool was almost blue last week and then we got hit with 4 inches of rain which messed up the chemical balance of the pool. We have had almost 12 inches of rain in CT in the last couple of weeks so getting the pool ready has been a challenge. I'm just trying to figure out why the pressure on the pump in good for about an hour and then just drops down.
The pool is really green right now and I have backwashed at least 7 or 8 times. Could it be the algae that is making the pump lose almost all of its pressure withing a couple of hours? An impellar clog (we did vacuum a lot of leaves when we first opened the pool) What should I do first? The pool store just want me to keep buying more and more chemicals. I need a plan.......thanks for your time.

[PoolDoc]

Unfortunately I inherited the pool when I bought the house and don't have a manual.

Try to find one on the Internet . . . and save it. You'll likely need it eventually, and it may become harder to find as time goes on.

[vinper]

test it by running it with out a few grids , that will tell you if they are plugged , if so your pressure in the tank would be extremly high , Im assuming you dont have a gauge on it.

[vinper]

fyi ,clean out all de , before test

[Watermom]

If there is ANY algae, you must kill it before you can expect your filter to work well. Live algae plugs DE filters very, very rapidly.

To reiterate what Ben wrote above, you need to kill the algae first before your DE filter is going to be able to filter it out. Live algae clogs DE filters extremely fast! Don't let the pool store sell you a bunch of chemicals. Sometimes all that stuff makes the problem worse. If you need help with the chemistry and killing the algae, make a new thread in the algae forum and somebody will assist you with it.

Welcome to the Pool Forum, by the way!