An Introduction to 3 Swimming Pool Filter Systems

November 14, 2008 by admin 

Maintaining your swimming pool filter is an important step in keeping your pool clean and looking great. Bacteria, algae, and plain old dirt can easily wind up there. Installing the right kind of pool filter system and keeping it in good working order will help reduce those to near invisibility. Let’s take a look at 3 common used pool filter systems…

♦ Cartridge Pool Filters

Most swimming pools have a simple cartridge filter, and have for decades. Pool water is pumped through them a little bit at a time and gradually material is picked up as it flows through the ‘fans’ of the filter.

Though the idea (and the device) is simple, it’s one of those “can’t fail” methods that works forever. Made of special paper and plastic, the very fine mesh of cartridges filters out large particles of grit and dirt, some algae, and even some bacteria.

Cartridge pool filters are easy to maintain, too. Simply remove the cylinder from its holder and rinse thoroughly. Try to rinse ‘down’ rather than ‘in’. That is, let the water flow down the surface rather than in toward the center. That maximizes the removal of trapped material and minimizes the amount that gets even more embedded in the filter.

♦ Sand Pool Filters

Sand pool filters, which can easily work in conjunction with a cartridge, use a large tank in which the bottom section is filled with sand. But that sand has been specially prepared to maximize its filtering ability.

Small silica particles about half a millimeter in diameter with sharp edges help remove dirt and grit. Over time, the space between the sand particles gets smaller and ever smaller things are filtered out of the water. Be sure to use only pool grade sand (#20 silica) in your filter system.

Eventually the filter system will get clogged, but maintenance is simple and inexpensive. Such systems are equipped with a reversible valve that allows owners to ‘backwash’ the system. That runs the water in the opposite direction, but doesn’t dump the material back into the pool. A removable section makes for easy cleaning and replacement of the sand.

Sand filter systems need to be backwashed about once every month to three months, depending on the level of pool use. Fortunately, the sand needs to be replaced only about every 3-4 years.

♦ D.E. (Diatomaceous Earth) Pool Filters

Diatomaceous Earth filters use a very fine powder ground from the tiny dried skeletons of aquatic creatures called diatoms. The result is a material that can filter out objects as small as a few microns wide.

D.E. pool filters provide the finest possible filtering, but do require slightly more maintenance. They can work in conjunction with a sand filter system, but most pools have one or the other, if either.

Cleaning them is similar to sand filter systems. The filter is backwashed and sprayed off gently to remove the caked on D.E. and the material that has been collected. Depending on the size of the pool (and system) and the amount of use, that could be once per month.

About once per year new D.E. will need to be added, since it collects material faster than sand. It also washes away quicker, since (by design) it gets caked on the filter components.

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