sta rite system 3 cardtidge as good as de?

[coryinsocal]

thanks alot for helpfull (on topic) replies. i think i'd also prefer the de, so i may just do the teardown instead of backwashing when needed. it shouldn't be too often as the 36 sq ft is pretty oversized for my pool. as a side note, i've since found out that long beach,ca doesn't even allow backwashing of DE to the sewers without a separator anyway. only sand can be backwashed to the sewer without treatment.i figure i can get by with the breakdown method till i'm forced to buy a separator.... does anyone forsee any major problems with a plan like this?

on this note, since the separator is just a second trap, is there any reason to spend alot on one? should i just try to go cheap? also, i heard that adding a separator can decrease the backwash effectiveness due to gpm limiting characteristics...