Repairing Pool Filters

Overwhelmed at the thought of doing your own pool work? There is a machine in your yard, most likely hidden away behind a fence. It hums quietly in the background, working while you sleep, magically keeping your swimming pool clean - when it works.

So you woke up this morning and your pool had more funk floating in it than ever before. Repairing your own pool filter is the last thing on your mind. Besides, your pool looked great yesterday, so what could have gone wrong?

Or perhaps your are the type of person who needs to know everything is running smoothly with the swimming pool (and everything else in life) before something goes wrong. The question is, how do you know when you need pool filter repair?

Don't worry, understanding the situation is easier than you think. Let's take a quick step back to the pool cleaning basics. To keep your swimming pool clean you need three things:

1. Balanced water: done with chemicals such as chlorine
2. Water movement to prevent stagnant water: done with your pool pump and jets
3. Water filtration to remove unwanted particles: done with your pool filter

For starters, you must keep your water balanced. There is just no way around it. You need to have something in your water to kill bacteria and other unwanted particles such as algae.

But balancing your water is an entirely different subject...let's get back to determining if you need pool filter repair...

There are basically three types of pool filters: Sand, DE (Diatomaceous Earth), and Cartridge. A sand filter is filled with special sand, a DE filter is filled with special ground up seashells, and a cartridge filter has man-made nets inside.

All three pool filters work in the same basic fashion. Let's stick with the special sand to keep the example simple.

Your pool pump will bring water from your swimming pool, through your pipes, into the pool filter. As the water flows into the filter that special sand will then capture dirt and other particles. Then the cleaned water then flows back into the pool.

Pretty simple, right?

So let's take it just a step further. Each pool filter has a pressure gauge on top of it. As that special sand picks up more dirt, it gets harder for new water to pass through the filter. This makes the pressure within the filter go up.

The pressure varies widely on pool filters - and it is mainly dependent on the horsepower of your pool pump.

So here's what you need to do. It's possible to "backwash" your filter. Backwashing a pool filter means you reverse the flow of water and push water out of the pool filter into your yard or street. This process removes the dirt and debris from your special sand, pushes the debris into the yard or street, and thus cleans the special sand in the filter.

After you backwash the filter the pressure should normalize. You generally shouldn't need to backwash again for at least a month. So write down the filter pressure just after backwashing. If that pressure goes back up in a short period of time...it may be time for pool filter repair. Or better said, it's time to replace your special sand, your DE, or your cartridge.

Now if you see any leaks in the pool filter, call a repair guy. That's serious business and once a leak appears it will only get bigger and more expensive to fix as time passes on.

Of course these are just guidelines. Taking care of your swimming pool is serious business. Always call a pool specialist if in doubt.

Good luck - we hope you are enjoying a very clean pool...

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