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As a pool owner, knowing when to maintain your pool is essential to the operations of your pool. If your pool is not appropriately managed, it may develop specific issues that will make the pool inhabitable. One of such problems is a malfunctioning sand filter.
To ensure that your sand filter is functional, you need to look out for signs that indicate that it’s operational or not. If you’re not sure of the signs to look out for, you’ll need to keep reading as we’ve created a list of signs to tell if your sand filter is bad and the process of changing sand in pool filter.
Signs that Your Sand Filter is Bad
1. Slow sand filter
The first sign to know that your filter is bad is it has a slow filter which is evident when your pool becomes cloudy. Your filter can become sluggish and still function properly. The only way to know that there’s a problem with the filter is that it will not be filtering debris.
If you notice this happening in your pool, you need to test the water chemistry of your pool and ensure that it is balanced. After checking the water chemistry, check the backwash valve. Ensure that this valve functions correctly. If you haven’t found any problem with both, then consider changing sand in the pool filter.
2. Leaking multiport valve
Even though a leaking multiport valve doesn’t affect the sand filter directly, it’s still a part of the sand filter and needs to be checked. The sand filter has a spider gasket located inside that makes the constant flow of water possible to its right ports. However, when the spider gasket slacks, water passes through other ports, causing an issue for the multiport valve. When this happens, your sand filter will not function properly, so this should be one of the places to look at if your sand filter becomes bad.
3. Broken Laterals
Another sign that your filter is bad is when the laterals get broken. This would cause sand to return to your pool when you turn on the filter valve. If this is the case, you need to check the lateral to see if it’s broken. To check the lateral, you need to remove the sand media from the pool filter. Asides checking if the lateral is broken, you need to check the air bleeding tube.
4. Filthy sand filter
A dirty sand filter can also make your sand pool filter malfunction. To know if the filter is dirty, your backwashing cycle would become shorter. When you notice this, you have to check if your filter is not clean enough. If you don’t know how to check for this, you can go through a Hayward sand filters manual to know the right steps.
The filter is dirty, the pool water won’t flow through the sand filter media; instead, it would create a way for itself around the side of the filter and return to the pool. You should change a black pool filter sand to enable water to pass through the sand media.
5. Valve Failure
Any of the valves on the filter system can fail at any time, which can lead to a bad sand filter. These valves are the multiports that are located on the top or side of the filter system. However, the most common cause of valve failure is when the gaskets inside the sand tank fail. When the valve fails, you need to call a professional to look at it and recommend a solution.
6. Tank Failure
The tanks on the filter system can fail when the valves are shut off from the backwash lines. However, this may not be the only cause of tank failure as when tanks of cheaper versions are used to design your filter system, it can lead to tank failure and pool filter leaking from bottom. Either way, you need to check which of this is the cause and find how to rectify them.
Conclusion
These are the few signs that can show if the sand filter is bad, and as a pool owner, you need to know how you can tell if your filter is becoming faulty. Knowing these signs at the back of your mind would help you keep your sand filter operational.
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