DE filters, how we love to hate them

[cleancloths]

Don't know if you can do this with your valve (mine can) but try placing the valve in the recirculate mode when you first start up and then after a few minutes valve it back to the pool -- this should solve your problem if it is only happening in the first few minutes of operation.

[mshumack]

You may have a torn membrane allowing some DE to pass. I also read that adding too much DE can result in some getting into the pool - but in your case I would suspect a tear.

[CarlD]

I remember my dad would "backwash" by opening the drain valve on the bottom of the filter, and plugging the return line.

[gitchesum]

If you are getting DE in the pool, you have eihter a improperly installed set of grids or there is a small hole in one or more of them.

I went through the same thing late last year.

Since I'm a true believer in "If you want it done right, do it yourself", I pulled the filter apart and cleaned each grid. Then I went over each and every one of them spending almost 15-20 minutes on each one. I found one small hole near the manifold attachment on one of the grids, and I mean less than 1/2" stiching was coming apart and was causing a major issue for me.

If you don't want to mess with it, I would at least look into getting a new pool service. Sounds like the last guy wasn't very thorough