DE filter letting bugs through

[willdozen]

Just installed a salt system. However, the filter screen gets clogged frequently. I've taken my DE filter apart twice and looked for tears in the screen, holes in the plastic, but everything seems intact. Where can these bits of efluent (mostly small bugs) be coming from?

[Poconos]

Welcome to the forum.

If the filter looks intact then I would suspect the valve. Don't know what kind of valve you have but multiports are notorious for having spider gaskets unseat and letting some flow bypass the filter. Someone more familiar with DE's should chime in.

Al

[waste]

Welcome to the forum!

If I'm supposed to chime in, I guess I will

I gotta agree with Al, it's probably a multiport issue! Turn off the pump, close the valves to the pool and take a look inside it.

I'm willing to wager that the spider gasket/ A/K/A wagon wheel is in need of replacing

Just to cover my bet, which model of DE filter do you have?

[fog80]

What does a spider gasket look like?

[Poconos]

It depends on the type of valve you have. We're assuming what is called a Multi-Port. The thing looks like a wagon wheel with oddly spaced spokes. If you have a different type of valve this does not necessarily apply.

Here's a link:

http://www.google.com/products?hl=en...ed=0CDgQrQQwAg

Al

[willdozen]

Good suggestion. However, I took apart the Hayward Vari-flow and the spider gasket looked ok. It was a little worn, but no major flaws. I replaced it just to be sure. Is there anyway that the valve and attached openings can be off kilter? I did not see anything visibly wrong.
I am beginning to suspect that I'm losing pressure from the DE somewhere. The internal pressure is not climbing above 12 (ten is normal after I backflush and clean), and usually by now, I've needed to backflush the filter a couple of times.

[waste]

Please let me know your filter model.

We all,sincerely, want to help you with this!

[Poconos]

Glad your valve was OK. If there was a problem it would be obvious when you opened it up. As for being off kilter, that's probably possible. I know the Haywards top and bottom pieces can be aligned in any of 6 positions because of the symmetrical bolt pattern. But....you would usually know it quickly. Function labels would be all wrong. People have accidentally hooked the plumbing up wrong, flipping the in and out pipes, but in all the years on this forum I don't recall anyone assembling the valve wrong. We'll figure this out.
Al

[willdozen]

Thanks. It's a Hayward DE 2420.

[willdozen]

As for assembly, the problem started well before I dissassembled it. And I made sure to align things back exactly. Can the top plate attached to the valve handle rotate out of alignment?