Quote Originally Posted by ThePoolGuy
I'm not arguing this but more trying to understand this. You say the sand gets better with age? I thought the sand would get beat down into small particals over time and get spat into the pool?

This is another neverending debate....whether sand needs to be replaced or not....I will refrain from my feelings on this since they do not agree with Ben's or several of the sand filter users on the forum!

Dirty filters do filter smaller size particles than clean filters but then the backpressure created becomes a limitng factor....Once again DE is the most limited by dirt, sand the least, and carts fall in between! However, when sand gets too dirty it can channel and that reduces it's ability to filter by a great amount!

If you oversize your sand filter and are happy with the performance, this isn't necessary. I would disagree here and say do NOT do this unless you have a problem. Even more, the dirtier the sand is over the years, the finer it will filter--it gets BETTER with age!
Well, I guess this has opened another Pandora's Box!