New Hayward EC-75 DE Filter, broken fingers? with pics

[bobjersey]

I purchased a new Hayward Perflex EC-75 filter this season. I just opened it to give it a good cleaning and I saw that a number of the fingers were very loose. Upon closer inspection it appears that they are not connected at the base, they are just held in by the mesh that goes around the fingers.

I had an old EC-65 and I do not remember the fingers ever being like this. Is it normal or will this cause a problem filtering? I am worried it will lead to DE getting back in the pool. The pool is such a swamp right now that I can't tell if it has been putting a lot of DE back in the water or not.

Thanks for any help!
-Bob

[PoolDoc]

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PoolDoc

[albertgarrido]

I'm no expert on the mechanics of a filter.....
HOWEVER, I am mechanically inclined and have pretty good logic skills when it comes to mechanics.

Aside from being anal and not liking that when I buy something new it is broken, I don't see why this would cause ANY problem at all.

The key to the filtering is that the DE sticks to those fingers. When the DE sticks to the fingers the dirt then sticks to the DE and NOT the finger. As long as the material around the finger is not torn or have any crevices that would otherwise not be meant to be there (otherwise the DE would get through the tear and out into the pool, along with the dirt), you should be completely fine. The inside of those fingers I beleive are stainless steel springs just to give the fingers some form.

When you backwash the filter, what happens is that the DE with the dirt attached goes out the filter, and then you re-coat the fingers with new DE.

This is why it is important to NOT run your filter without DE. If you do, the dirt sticks to the fingers and it WILL NOT back wash out because the dirt gets caught in the tiny microscopic crevices where the DE is supposed to go. Hence your filter will not "filter" and is damaged.

If I'm wrong on this, someone please say so, but I'm 99% positive of this.

[waste]

You're not wrong at all!! You expressed what I would have, if I'd gotten here earlier - and probably better than I could (however, the internals are plastic )

I hope that Bob has a wonderful summer!

[waterbear]

this is a bump type filter so it would not surprise me if the fingers broke while the filter was being bumped. I have to agree with Waste and albertgarrido that as long as the mesh stays intact and the DE coats properly it should not have any effect on filter operation.

[bobjersey]

this is a bump type filter so it would not surprise me if the fingers broke while the filter was being bumped. I have to agree with Waste and albertgarrido that as long as the mesh stays intact and the DE coats properly it should not have any effect on filter operation.

Thanks for your input everyone!

The fingers are not working properly. When I opened it up there was no DE in the tank, normally there would be a thick cake of DE around the base of the fingers. I believe the loose fingers may cause a high pressure point capable of pulling the DE through the mesh and putting the DE back into the pool. Currently my pool is so green and cloudy that I cannot tell if the DE went back in or not.

Further investigation into the nature of the finger problem is coming, hopefully I can just reseat or replace the affected fingers.

For the time being I am using the finger assembly from my old EC-65. The fingers are a little shorter than on the EC-75 but otherwise the assembly is identical.

Thanks again =-).

[waste]

Thanks for the update! The tanks for the EC 65 and EC 75 are the same, so using the 65 nest is cool (Just remember that the 65 take 1 lb less DE than the 75.