New pool -- DE filter needing backwashing every 5-6 hours?

12 years ago

Our plaster and water (bulk delivered, potable) went in yesterday and today the company started up the filtration and initial chemicals. We have a DE filter. They showed us how to keep an eye on the pressure rise and backwash it (and replace half a bag of DE) any time the PSI rose from the default 18 to 30. They initially started it up at 1pm and by 6pm it was already at 30, 5 hours later. I've monitored since and it only took an hour to rise to 20 again.

This seems excessive. They told us to expect to need to do it after 24 hours the first day, then a couple days after that then likely another week before the third time, then eventually settling into every 2-3, maybe even 4 weeks. We'll be on our third charge of DE by tomorrow morning, less than 24 hours later.

Is this normal? There is a lot of plaster dust, or we assume that's why it is cloudy, to the point that you can't see the bottom. But every 5-6 hours?

Of course the pool company is closed until Monday so no way to ask them.

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Comments (4)

muddy_water
12 years ago
What DE fiter do you have? Did they give you a scoop 1lb for the DE? You may have to backwash alot at first but after that I backwash my filter maybe twice a season..
poolguynj
12 years ago
When you backwash, close the drain. This will help prevent schmutz from getting in the grids. Afterward, remember to turn the drain back on.

This sounds pretty normal.

While it sounds strange, it make take up to 4 turns of a pool's volume to have filtered all the actual water. Since you are brushing, this adds extra stuff to be filtered. The clarity will improve soon. Be patient.

Scott
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citivas
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks.

I am happy to be patient if I know itÃ¯Â¿Â½s all normal. I was just thrown off since itÃ¯Â¿Â½s not what they said to expect and certainly not consistent with the amount of DE they left me that was supposed to last the full two weeks until they return Ã¯Â¿Â½ I already had to buy more after 3 days since I an burring through 10 lbs. a day still.

In fact after what is really 2.5 days (it was first setup Friday mid-day) and itÃ¯Â¿Â½s Sunday night now, it is getting progressively worse. I backwashed it just 90 minutes ago and got it back to the default 18 psi. Now it is already to 26. On the first day it raised about 1 psi an hour, now it just raised 8 psi in 90 minutes. And the time before it was in-between, so it is rising faster every time now. At this rate I will need to start getting up in the middle of the night to backwash it since it wonÃ¯Â¿Â½t be able to survive the night (they have it running 24 hours for two weeks).

Can you explain the drain part Ã¯Â¿Â½ they didnÃ¯Â¿Â½t show me that when they walked through how to do it or even point out the part. They only showed me how to turn the filter on/off, adjust the backwash values and put in the DE (though they did that wrong and I had to figure it out from the instructions on the DE bag).

The filter is a Jandy with 48 effective sq. ft. of filtration area. They have me putting in 5 lbs of DE every time I backwash. The Backwash slide value is also Jandy.
citivas
Original Author
12 years ago
This is finally under control. It has been stable without a backwash for 5 days and counting now. The pool company had to send someone out to open up the filter and spray down the elements. Their theory was that I was doing 'too good a job" of brushing down the loose plaster off the pool. We were doing it religiously 2-3 times a day, thoroughly. They said most people don't bother to do more than once a day if that. So I kicked up too much plaster too fast and it overwhelmed the filter.

Interesting the PSI on the filter corrected itself downward from 25 to 18-19 without a backwash and it has hovered there ever since.

New pool -- DE filter needing backwashing every 5-6 hours?

Comments (4)

muddy_water

poolguynj

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New pool -- DE filter needing backwashing every 5-6 hours?

Comments (4)

muddy_water

poolguynj

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