I work at a waterpark where we have sand filters and at home I have
cartridge filters, I will say that sand filters are much more easier
to use and clean. With the cartridge filter I end up having to put
it through filter cleaning solutions and using high pressure water to
try and clean the media and end up replacing the filter medias after
a month or so just because of all the oil/grime build up. With the
sand filter at the waterpark, we have not replaced the sand yet in
the 7 years in service (of course the system is only used three
months out of the year and is drained and aired out otherwise). As
for chlorine, after working at the waterpark, I only will use liquid
chlorine (sodium hypochlorite). We used to use granular chlorine and
it always made the water cloudy especially late in the day. I have
never had a problem with water clarity with liquid chlorine, the only
problem with it is it has a shelf life. Unfortunately I our tap
water is Lake Michigan water, so we really do not have a lot of
problems with dissolved metals.
Sand vs. Cartridge
March 15th, 2004 · 5 Comments
Tags: pumps
5 responses so far ↓
1 Earlene Haydee // Mar 15, 2004 at 2:17 pm
I agree with you that sand filters are the easiest to maintain but I
also want to add that all three type of filter systems work great
and usually it’s just a matter of preference.
2 janis_40 // Mar 16, 2004 at 8:45 pm
You get only one month out of a filter element? Something is wrong with your
system and you should never use high pressure on a cartridge. Yes sand
filters are much more user friendly but they do not do as good of a job
filtering. You do not see this at the water park because the water is always
moving but in a home pool there would be a definite difference in water
quality. As far as the liquid chlorine goes yes it will not cause cloudy
water and it is cheap but you dump in a pound of salt with every gallon.
Sodium Diclor is a much better alternative. You said granular but did not
specify what type. At the water park you dump the water every season so the
TDS does not build as it would in your home pool.
Ken
3 Lina Hettie // Mar 24, 2004 at 5:20 am
Forgive me we used Tri-Chlor at our pools and got very cloudy water
as a result. I switched from granular to Tri-Chlor with my home pool
and I still had issues with the cloudiness (as my pool gets heavy
use). The sodium hypochlorite has worked beautifully and I have not
had many issues with high TA or TDS since due to the heavy usage I am
constantly adding water. I also made my own vaccumm by just
siphoning wtaer. It tends to work a little better plus it keeps
fresh water flowing. As for a dirty media, I find that replacing
them every month of two with dirt and grime I attribute to living
within a mile of a runway. At one of our older community pools, when
the water is low and is not running into the gutter, a filmy
substance collects in the corners when the pool water is sitting. I
have observed the same thing. I think just living in an area that I
do put a ton of pollutants into the water. I guess it’s what we get
and I guess it shows the filter is actually working. As for high
pressure filter, definately not the case. I only have a 1/8 HP pump
for 7500 gallons which I think it getting a little undersized as my
turnover rate I have figured to be about 7 hours. Which leads me to
another question, what would you recommend a good turn over rate to
be. I’m reluctant to shut down the filtratoin system of my home pool
sometimes because they turnover rate is so high and when I do leave
it off, problems occur (again due to high usage)
4 janis_40 // Mar 24, 2004 at 11:30 pm
You are at the minimum right now at seven hours. Much of the filtration
system efficiency has to do with pipe size, filter media type, pump hp,
filter size, type of inlet from the pool (meaning do you have a skimmer or
skimmer and floor drain) and the number of returns to the pool from the pump.
Is this an above ground pool? Have you had your TDS checked? How big is
the filter?
5 Earlene Haydee // Mar 25, 2004 at 7:59 am
An ideal turnover rate would be six hours, you are just under
that, it would be ideal to turn over your water twice a day, this
will help with the cloudiness. If you don’t want to run your pump 12
hours a day, I would suggest a 1/2 HP pump, you would boost the
turnover rate and still keep running time down to a minimum. I
mainly service commercial pools that have heavy use and I run the
pumps 12 hours a day, every day. I use 3″ trichlor tablets and do
not have a problem with cloudiness. It would also be ideal to shock
your pool every two week whether cloudy or not, for your pool, one
lb would be sufficient, this helps oxidizes the chloramines
(chloramines are particles of chlorine that stick to the bacteria
and need to be burned out). When you do shock your pool, make sure
not to cover it for eight hours or the chloramines will just
resettle in your pool, this is for people who use a solar blanket or
have an automatic cover.
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