What works to clean a cartridge filter?

[CarlD]

My pool has a mostly opaque electric safety cover so the pool does not get that dirty, though the cartridges certainly are filled with dirt, oils (lotions) and cedar needles after a season.

Richard,
Why do you add cedar needles to your pool???

[waterbear]

Richard,
Why do you add cedar needles to your pool???

So his cartridges will have something to do!
They get lazy if you don't make them work!

[chem geek]

We actually cut down our cedar tree earlier this year because we had had enough of clearing off the needles from the pool cover every time we wanted to open the pool. It was heartbreaking since it was a nice tree otherwise and gave definition to the yard (we have other trees, so it's not like it looks totally barren now) but it was directly in the wind path to dump right onto the pool. So going forward, there should be even less junk in the filter -- at least no cedar needles.

Another bonus is that our solar panels get some more sun late in the day now. The crow that spent time in the cedar has moved to the Sycamore and other birds are now exploring the Jacaranda so everyone is learning to deal with the missing tree. At least we haven't seen any retaliatory droppings to spite us!

[Watermom]

We did some tree-cutting this spring also, just not all the way down. One big maple was about 75 ft. tall and we cut it to about 30 ft. Another big maple was about 60 ft and we cut it also to 30. We too are having the bonus of more sun on the solar panels which will be great. Used to have to wait until around 1 pm for the sun to hit it and now pretty much get sun on it all day. We cut them not to save debris from falling in the pool but to save the tree from falling on the house during some of our big summer thunderstorms!

[craigrpeters]

Just for additional info... I have one of those "4 cart monsters" on a 36000 gallon pool. I have to clean them about once a month early in the season when tree seeds and cotton wood seeds are abundant but after that I can go 2+ months between cleaning. I alwys clean all 4 and it only takes about an hour. Also I get at least 3 years out of my carts which is good because they add to about 500 to replace.

[CarlD]

We took down a bunch of trees when an early spring storm toppled 4 of them. I had the tree guy come back and take out some against the house, too. Trying to save the smallest one that got ripped out, since it wasn't broken.

I don't have any trees over MY pool, yet the birds seem to have no problem targeting it with their little poop bombs!

I really need to replace my safety cover--it now has a tennis-ball sized hole.

[steveinaz]

We don't close our pool for the winter, but just minimize operations and run time on the pump. I clean ours in the fall, and at open. It's never gotten over 1lb over new pressure (12 psi with waterfall running full open). I don't use the floor jets when checking pressure because it varies depending on how many jets are operating at a given time.

I simply use a hose with water, but we've had no scale for 4 seasons running. I have a dual cartridge setup; 1 200sqft filter, and a 100sqft filter. The filters still appear to be in good shape.