Cleaning Your Filter

In order for pools to remain clean and clear, they must be both biologically clean and physically clean.

Biologically clean water is water that is free from harmful bacteria.  Biologically clean water is achieved by maintaining proper water chemistry.

Physically clean water is water that is free of particulate matter (particles and contaminants in the water that make it cloudy).  Physically clean water is achieved by good filtration.

Both biologically clean water and physically clean water is very important, but sometimes the importance of physically clean water and how to achieve it is overlooked.  When particles and contaminants get into our pool water, it is important to remove them as quickly as possible.  This is done by the filter.

Therefore, the filter is one of the most important pieces of equipment on a pool, as a good functioning filter is necessary to remove these particles and contaminants.   As these particles and contaminants are trapped by the filter, the filter becomes dirty which increases the pressure, which decreases water flow—thus rendering your filter inefficient and oftentimes incapable of physically cleaning the pool water.   When this occurs, it is necessary to clean the filter.

Filters need cleaning when the filter increases 8-10psi over the clean starting pressure or a minimum of once per month.  Diatomaceous Earth (DE) filters and sand filters are cleaned by backwashing (basically reversing the water flow and flushing out the filter) while cartridge filters are cleaned by disassembling them and manually cleaning them.

In the next few weeks I will go into detail on how to backwash DE and sand filters, and also how to clean a cartridge filter.  In the meantime, if you need advice on this very important task—give us a call at (940) 387-7521.