I guess this is kind of like a religous debate or coke/pepsi but I'll throw in my .02 I have tried both modern DE and cartridge systems and prefer the DE. I suppose a small cartridge may be easier to deal with than a DE filter but the 4 cartridge large sq/ft hayward is a big pain to clean and takes several hours if you want to clean it well. Sure you can take it out and give it a quick squirt and throw it back in the filter and consider that a cleaning job. But dirt/grime really gets into all those little pleats and it seems to take forever to clean those.

After 1 year with my 4 cartridge hayward I decided to switch to DE because I figured DE couldn't be any harder than the darn cartridge to clean and to replace 4 cartridges costs a small fortune, almost as much as a new filter. I was amazed at the clarity difference it made as well. Perhaps my cartridges were just bad but they were not even 1 year old, but the DE made the water really sparkle. And at night you can definately tell a difference by looking in front of the light.

Because my DE system had a problem I ended up tearing the system down a couple times to find a hole and didn't find it very difficult at all, it was faster than a full clean of 4 cartridges. So I am definately sold on DE over cartridge. I can't say anything about sand as I have never tried it.

-- john