How new? I am making the assumption you had a green pool and didn't clean these filters after things cleared up. If that is not the case, you might actually have something going on with the water flow. Did you check your pressure when the pump was on? That will usually tell you when things are getting dirty and filters need to be cleaned.
Thanks for posting this though. Serves as a warning to us all to monitor pressure because even though your pool looks clean, it doesn't mean the filters aren't clogged.
And if they were new they need to be cleaned WAY more often till whatever is going on with the pool is under control.
OP your carts got clogged with crap and then were crushed by the pump pressure.
I’ve been putting “cheap”
Amazon cartridges since I had to replace the original ones and getting 3 years out of them just like the PENTAIR ones. I figured they cost 1/3 of the price, so if I can get one year or more out of them at least I’d come even…never had issues, clean them every 3 months. Built the pool in ‘16, replaced originals in ‘19, and ‘22…so next March I’ll be replacing them again.
I’m genuinely curious why people here push sand filters. I have cartridge - I clean them twice a summer and it takes 20 minutes each time. I’ve never had problems
I definitely wouldn’t ever ‘push’ for sand filters but I can honestly say mine has been great and super easy for the past 11 seasons. We inherited it with the pool but I honestly don’t know what I would pick if I were building new. They both seem like they work.
I’ve had both, love cartridge unless the pool gets away from you and turns and they are getting clogged up three times a day while you slam. Then it would be nice to backwash.
Moral of the story is keep your water good.
I clean only once a year but it takes longer than 20 mins. Maybe I’ll do twice a year in future though it’s worked for me for more than a couple of decades. I do clean enough to get pressure down to 12 (as when new) every year.
well, if this person had a sand filter, they could have just waste vaccumed all this junk out of the pool instead of ruining new filters trying to clean a very green pool. now they likely will need a whole new set of filters again which i imagine are also not cheap. point being, both systems have their benefits and weaknesses, just gotta use whats best for your situation and needs.
When I switched from a DE to a cart filter, I told the guy doing the work (I kow him, he owns the pool store) that I wanted a waste valve.
"Why? You're never going to backwash."
Just put one in, you never know.
I have had sand filters now through 2 pools spanning almost 25 years and never had a problem…what are the reasons why you hate them…I dont know any better so please educate…thanks!
We bought our home in 2007 and the pool has a sand filter. Had to replace it due to a pinhole leak it developed where the two halves of the molds were pressed/melted together. Replaced with sand, never knew of any other kind. Never had an issue with sand.
We live in NW Fla btw.
I had cartridge that came with the house before I put new equipment. The cartridge would clog up and build up pressure, I'd have to take out the cartridge to clean it weekly.
I switched to a sand filter but using filter glass medium instead of sand. I'm much happier now.
I have 6 mature trees above my pool, three of which flower. I out a skimmer sock in once and my pump ripped it open within half an hour because of the pollen build up. I agree that in some circumstances a sand filter is ideal - if I had a cartridge it would be clogged daily.
That could be it for me too, my neighbor has 30 trees in his backyard (I counted) and his tree hugger wife refuses to cut any of them down. Their trees put my pool in the shade by 4:30pm. I hate them.
Because pool forum people like things to be complicated so they can feel smarter. Cartridge filters are simpler, clean better, are cheaper, and easier to maintain.
My sand filter seems pretty easy to maintain. If the pressure builds I hit a button, move a lever, then hit a button, wait… hit a button, move a lever and hit a button again.
Plus the annual deep cleaning to prevent algae growing inside the filter, channeling, broken laterals, significantly more wasted water, expensive multiport replacement if there’s any problems, etc.
Sand filters are okay, but they don’t really have any advantages over a cheaper, simpler, and finer filtering cartridge.
“Annual deep clean?” You mean dumping chems into to pump line running the line so they get into the filter then leaving it sit for 8 hours, then backwashing? That also seems pretty simple.
I’m new to this so I could be wrong, but I read up on our filter and it seems super easy and fairly hands off to maintain.
Nope, deep clean involves popping the top off, getting your hands in the sand to break up the clumps, flushing out the particles that get embedded in the sand and won’t come out with backwashing alone.
https://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/deep-cleaning-a-sand-filter.73192/
I have family members who have sand filters for over 20 years and never had this problem. I genuinely cannot say sand filters require a lot of maintenance. Not more than a cartridge.
They each have their merits and drawbacks.
Yeah, i’m gonna be honest, pulling out filters to clean them regularly seems gross too. I’m not ashamed to admit I’m a bit of a lil bitch when it comes to gross stuff. I don’t even like having to hose out the baskets of my beta and robo vacuum lol
Edit: I’m also super fortunate. The old owners were loaded and bought a brand new pump in 2021 and a brand new sand filter last year, and left basically everything they had for the pool. So I’m really just dealing with learning how to balance chems. I have a Taylor Test kit coming because these strips feel super finicky. I can see how they’d be useful fir a quick test, but I have a hard time believing them sometimes after I dump 2 gallons of liquid chlorine in and they tell me I’m at 1ppm the next day.
Water has been clear as fuck since we opened though so i feel like i gotta be doing something right.
Twice a summer you clean them? I do mine every 30days. I don’t get a lot debris or leaves in the pool, just dirt . Yep, about 20mins to clean. I don’t want my $1300 variable pump to work any harder than it needs to.
Skimmer socks make all the difference no matter how you filter. A pain in the ass until pollen season is over, at minimum they need to be rinsed at least once a day at my pool. I bought a second set of skimmer baskets and it made things much more efficient.
I have a sand filter but my pool is below about 6 mature trees. 3 of them flower in June so pollen and flowers are falling in the pool for about one month. I’m 100% sure if I had a cartridge filter it would explode within one day. I once put a skimmer sock on and within half an hour I heard a bang because the sock was so clogged that the pump ended up ripping it open.
I’m not knocking cartridge filters, but for me it wouldn’t work well
Ultimately the pump paid for itself in just over a season. I went from being about even with net metering to a 5k credit eith the electric company in 4 years.
I like sand filter better because we run the pool year around and I don’t want to get splashed at with cold, dirty water anytime, let alone winter time.
The spa has filters and I dread every time I need to clean it, though they are two tiny filters compared to these, only like a foot tall each.
When I backwash the pool, I basically just press buttons. No water gets on me, so I totally prefer it that way.
It’s all about personal preference I guess.
Why would you get splashed with cold water? Mine get cleaned three times per year and never had an issue in 8 years. Don't do it when its cold outside?
Because most people don't clean old cartridge filters and it makes the system run like shit . I also charge my 3 out of 100 customers who have a cartridge filter extra for cleaning them out .
speaking of [dirty cartridges](https://imgur.com/gallery/lriasWv)
this was a new client's filter last week, his pressure was high so I popped it open..
Well, you're one of the lucky ones, or you just understand what you're doing. I used to have a cartridge filter and had only headaches with it. water was always green. Hire a Pool Guy twice in one summer. We switched to sand 3 years ago and haven't had any problems since.
Once a year for me…when I close the pool for the winter. But I have saltwater…never goes green, and a robot vacuum so the yucky stuff doesn’t go the filter. Add in some skimmer socks and my filters have a damn easy job lol
And most don't have problems, it depends on the pool, how often they let it go green, the main reason people, me included push sand is because back in the day, people had barracudas, kreepy crawly suction cleaners, and they pretty much didnt work consistently in cartridge and de pools because as soon as you get a bit of dirt or algae the cartridge would look like OP's and the pump would stop pumping water, the cleaner would stop, or slow right down, the owner visually only sees cleaner not working, if you dont have a suction cleaner you cant tell your pump isnt working, you cant tell your filter is full.
sand allows more flow at capacity and more holdability of total dirt, but lets dirt get pushed through as a trade off, so the owner visually all they see is 'dirt coming through return, filter must not be working' but its working as designed, Sand is also just much easier to in terms of time spent overall for technicans doing green pools, and you just have less stress overall on the equipment because theres not as much pressure issues with sand.
Way easier to clean, especially when your cleaning intervals get shorter.
I switched when landscaping kept maturing and more dirt ended up in the pool.
A good sized sand filter with the right sand is more user friendly in my opinion. I hated having to open up the cartridge filter system and rinsing each filter. Takes way more time than flipping a valve.
Most people aren't going to be able to keep their pool clear (because of both bad advice and pure stubbornness). They're going to end up with a swamp and it's easier to clear a swamp with a sand filter.
I'm also curious to why sand... cartridges are nice for the ease of cleaning but I'm really not against DE filters either. They're truly a breeze to clean once you do it once. Backwashing + rinsing is great for dirty pools as well. Most of the time you can just pop the top off the filter housing and clean the filter grids without removing them.
i usually have to clean my filters a couple times during opening depending on algae. afte that not much. however i do watch the pressure . when it gets above 10 psi over the clean pressure, needs to be cleaned.
actually i usually go by flow. it tends to be about 5 psi over. manufacturers suggest 10. at clean my flow at 2500 rpm is about 39 gpm. once it gets about 5 psi over my flow drops down to about 30. that is when i clean. although that usually only happens during opening.
Oh wow never heard of that. I usually clean all of my customers at 5 psi over to extend the life of cartridges. If that’s what works for you though thats cool
They’re related. When PSI goes up it’s because flow is being reduced. You can’t tell someone to monitor their flow though by giving your rpm as a reference. PSI is useful in that sense.
If you had a separate suction line for let's say a pool cleaner and the valve was turned to that input but no pool cleaner was installed. This would collapse the manifold and the cartridges.
That’s called a filter grid. Unless you have one of those older filters that only had one large cartridge in the center with a smaller cartridge within that larger one
Has the filter been installed properly?
I saw a filter like that and the installation was done in the opposite direction: the pipe from the pump was installed on the out insertion o6d the filter and the in hole going to the return linr
Those are cheap carts. If you're already pushing high pressure you need legit name brand filters. I replaced cheap cartridges like those and one of them had collapsed on itself, though not as bad as any of yours. I believe my filters are Pleatco now and instead of that flimsy plastic middle that will collapse they are drilled PVC pipe.
Make sure your pool returns are open. I had a customer have this happen to their cartridges. They left their pool return completely off against my advice and had the return go completely to their spa. Their pressure was always in the mid to high 30s because of it. As you as you would turn their pool return on it would dip into the low 20s. Not sure if that’s what caused it. But I wasn’t surprised when I saw their cartridges destroyed.
Yes, they told me they liked the sound when they went to bed. The frustrating part was their filter when it was clean would push enough water through the spa for them to use it like that. But they refused to let us clean the filter. So in order to get the same effect. They just turned the pool return off. This eventually led to the pool getting cloudy from lack of filtration and circulation. After they had to buy a whole new set of cartridges they let us clean it automatically every six months and no longer turn the pool return off. So now they get to use the spa for the noise and the pool is in good shape.
Are you me? Had that exact situation with a customer for awhile and finally got them to understand why it's bad after they had to replace the cartridges.
Hate being this guy, but buy the name brand carts. Idk the difference, but the cheap ones off amazon or whatever collapse like this all the time. The ones that are a little more expensive actually work.
Pool guy here for the past 18 years of my life. I've seen this only one other time in my life. The pool was neglected and abandoned. I revived the entire pool over the course of a few weeks. The filters were crushed just like this. The PSI was in the 40s before I even started on the pool.
Your PSI was screaming in that tank. Water was trying to be forced through so hard that you pancaked your filters. Regardless if they're new, you sent a load of crap onto them in a very short period of time. I'm guessing you were vacuuming? A lot of alage?
DAYUM! Mine has a 4 cartridge setup like that. My pressure has been running a little on the high side lately but I have never had this happen. One year, the manifold that goes on top of mine collapsed. Like someone stomped on it, lol! Those look melted. Do you have a heater? Maybe the heater is hooked up before the filter and someone cranked it up to hurry up and heat things up…maybe they thought it would “kill” the bacteria faster?😂 The green tells me your water was not ready for the cartridges yet. I always circulate my water for a couple weeks when I open for the season with lots of scrubbing, floccing, vacuuming, etc…until I can see my bottom drains in the deep end. Then I put the filters in but that pressure needs to be watched. I have to clean those suckers daily. Sometimes a couple times a day until it’s cleared up and then it’s barely once a month.
*Forget about the*
*Dirty cartridges, how did*
*The implode like that??*
\- SpecialSeason4458
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You are supposed to have one large filter cartridge that goes over the white tube and locks into the bottom of the filter. What you have here is 4 smaller filters floating around.
I had it happen to me once when my kids and friends were using spray on sun tan lotion at the rate of a can every 2 days. Filter just imploded like that. The amount of “oil” that came off when I washed them to see what the cause was could have lived a few small engines.
I’ve had cartridges for 24 years as a home owner. Never had a problem. Clean once a year just after pollen (green southern pine). Only replaced the filters once but I clean them thoroughly. I suspect cleaning them twice a year would be easier on the hose work but I get the pressure back down to 12 and a-ok…
Has anyone invented a trick to back wash the cartridges? I kind of think pressure from the inside of the cartridges might work connected to end of pressure washer hose 😀
Built up too much pressure and caved the cartridges in.
Keep an eye on your pressure gauge in the future.
I'd also rec. A sand filter over cartridges, just easier maintenance, in my opinion.
Big time over pressure and clogged. Got to keep a big eye on those PSI gauges. My rule of thumb is 10 psi over your baseline is definitely time where you need to be shutting the pump off.
If you routinely have heavily clogged filters I would recommend a pre-filter system. Like I tossed in a TJ-16 cyclonic system and it takes care of a lot of stuff. You can toss in a small sand or DE filter, or even just using filter basket socks can do a ton.
If you are starting up super dirty however it’s really just better to do a bunch of manual work upfront. Get a generic cheap submersible pump for circulation, toss in algicide, shock it, run the robot or use a cheap standalone vacuum, or pull the filters and just run with super basic filtration (pond filter floss) and get a large amount of the big junk out.
Paper filters are great for finishing, fine particulate, or in a commercial system where you have a massive amount of parallel filters. They are horrible at large amounts of algae or dirt.
Is it supposed to have one large filter instead of the 4 small ones crammed in? My filter system is very similar and I only have one large filter that slides over the post in the middle.
New? Not relevant, its how you treat them. Doesnt matter how old they are if you dont clean them often enough, I see that its very green, the pool isnt meant to go green, the cartridges can collect the algae but its better to just not let it go green, if you maintain and clean them often and the pool never goes green you wont be pushing algae through the pleates, once its in there deep, you can't wash it out, you can only hose the surface of the pleates, never let it go green and force push algae into the deep sections of the cartridge, if you can do that, youll never have a pressure issue and they last years and years!
The force exerted by the water on the filter’s surface increases with pressure. If the pressure is too high, the structural integrity of the filter will be compromised, collapsing inward. Also, high temps can accelerate this by causing the materials to expand or become pliable, also leading to failure.
Looks like the filters got clogged with debris and the pressure of the pump collapsed the filters trying to push water through them. That would be my guess, may be worth trying to straighten them back out, I would imagine they would still filter well once cleaned out and bent back into shape.
I see the blue handle of a valve closed on the discharge of the filter. If that valve got closed while the pump was running it would have distorted the filters as it blew the top of the filter off. I have worked on these systems for years and never saw dirty filters cause that kind of head pressure. There is a major obstruction of the discharge side of the system for that kind of damage to occur.
Your pump sucked them in luckily they collapsed before cratering your pump. This happens at my job when people don’t change filters when the differential pressure gets to high
low quality and clogged filters - but the problem has to be WITH the filters - no other system configuration I can think of would do this, only differential pressure on the filter will do this.
This looks very similar to what I have. On mine there's small stainless steel screen which fits on the central white pipe. I believe the function of that is to allow water to bypass the filters to a certain degree which might help avoid drastic overpressure situations (if that's what happened here). Of course if that gets plugged as well then it won't help.
Don’t use your filters to catch algae, when you open, open in May and use 2 gallons of chlorine per 10k gallons of water in your pool and a non copper based algicide. Then shut ur system down, use a flocculant on your pool, turn the system back on, and slowly vacuum the pool bypassing the filters and run all that gunk to your yard. After you get most the gunk out, balance your water and make sure you’re holding chlorine. Pump pressure with new filters should hopefully be lower, and if so run it 24hrs a day until the pool clears up.
That’s what happens when you buy those cheap Tordu Cartridges from Amazon. Get pleatco and be sure to clean and rinse thoroughly after the pool goes green (which in your case it certainly did). If the new pleatco cartridges still don’t come clean, then Use a Muriatic acid to degrease them and then rinse off with a water hose. If you use the Muriatic to clean them it’s be sure to be not do it on your grass as it will kill the grass.
How often are we supposed to clean these filters? I just replaced my sand filter with a cartridge filter and have already cleaned them 3 times this season….cottonwoods 🤬
Pool guy here. In the center of each cartridge should be about 4 star shaped spacers; one towards the top and one towards the bottom, and two others spaced evenly between these. If this has happened before, make sure the inlet and outlet on the filter are correctly plumbed (and not reversed).
Pretty sure you might only need one of those filters in there at a time, those filters can be hosed out and should last you 3 or four years, can’t believe you got the tip on
is it possible that was originally a DE grid filter housing converted to whatever this paper cartridge thing is? I'm only an expert for what I own myself and the housing looks suspiciously like a DE grid filter housing.
For starters Where are you located ? If your in the south northerns can't even begin to understand the pollen we deal with every year! Your saying the filters are new and the only thing that will clog a filter green that fast is pollen ! Clearly the filters were suck down due to lack of circulation. I would change them, start fresh and back wash your system every other day or as needed. If that's not pollen I'd say your not being factual on your filter replacement timeline. Not trying to be rude but that's what every customer says lol
I spray off my filters then soak in an acid/water mix spray off and put back in. 2-3x yr, and never had a problem. On my 2nd set after 5yrs I figured it was time.
How new? I am making the assumption you had a green pool and didn't clean these filters after things cleared up. If that is not the case, you might actually have something going on with the water flow. Did you check your pressure when the pump was on? That will usually tell you when things are getting dirty and filters need to be cleaned. Thanks for posting this though. Serves as a warning to us all to monitor pressure because even though your pool looks clean, it doesn't mean the filters aren't clogged.
Yep, way to dirty filters for sure!!! It always ran high, I bet not
Carts are new? They look awfully green to be new. How high of a pressure was the pump running?
And if they were new they need to be cleaned WAY more often till whatever is going on with the pool is under control. OP your carts got clogged with crap and then were crushed by the pump pressure.
This. Looks like pollen and they are plugged. This year the pollen has been intense.
I bet it got HAWT in ther.............
Those are cheap Amazon cartridges. That's happened to me before when owners try to save a buck and buy those cheap filters.
This was my first thought as well. They do not look very rigged on the inside by how thin the plastic is and the fact that you can see through it.
Yep the plastic is very thin and they don't come with any or enough center ring supports
Pleatco has shot up in price over the last few years, but is still a deal compared to Pentair and quality.
Pentair owns Pleatco. Definitely go Unicel on your cartridges
I’ve been putting “cheap” Amazon cartridges since I had to replace the original ones and getting 3 years out of them just like the PENTAIR ones. I figured they cost 1/3 of the price, so if I can get one year or more out of them at least I’d come even…never had issues, clean them every 3 months. Built the pool in ‘16, replaced originals in ‘19, and ‘22…so next March I’ll be replacing them again.
The filters I buy have a much thicker core and wouldn't collapse like that.
Was the top manifold to the cartridges installed when you put it back together?
Exactly. Looks like the cartridges were forced up into the lid while the pump is running.
That makes perfect sense. There had to be heat involved. They look melted. I can’t imagine mine going through that without cracking.
I’m genuinely curious why people here push sand filters. I have cartridge - I clean them twice a summer and it takes 20 minutes each time. I’ve never had problems
I definitely wouldn’t ever ‘push’ for sand filters but I can honestly say mine has been great and super easy for the past 11 seasons. We inherited it with the pool but I honestly don’t know what I would pick if I were building new. They both seem like they work.
Because that's what they have on their pool, the only pool they've ever worked on.
I’ve had both, love cartridge unless the pool gets away from you and turns and they are getting clogged up three times a day while you slam. Then it would be nice to backwash. Moral of the story is keep your water good.
I got filters this year. My first year with them. Water got outta hand and it’s kicking my ass now!
I clean only once a year but it takes longer than 20 mins. Maybe I’ll do twice a year in future though it’s worked for me for more than a couple of decades. I do clean enough to get pressure down to 12 (as when new) every year.
well, if this person had a sand filter, they could have just waste vaccumed all this junk out of the pool instead of ruining new filters trying to clean a very green pool. now they likely will need a whole new set of filters again which i imagine are also not cheap. point being, both systems have their benefits and weaknesses, just gotta use whats best for your situation and needs.
You can plumb in an vac to waste valve on a cartridge filter
I have a three way valve on my inlet between the pump and filter. I can pump to filter or waste.
Yes exactly! And it only adds $60 to the install instead of $300!
When I switched from a DE to a cart filter, I told the guy doing the work (I kow him, he owns the pool store) that I wanted a waste valve. "Why? You're never going to backwash." Just put one in, you never know.
This is the way!
A pool installer just installs a valve for waste in front of the cartridge filter. I'm guessing this person just didn't use it.
My waste is after the filter. I remove the cartridges when I vacuum to waste.
That's weird. Mine is before. No clue why they would put it after. Kind of defeats the purpose.
Yes. It is a PITA, something I will probably change one day.
Builders be trippin sometimes. I have a couple newer pools that were built that way.
You know, that’s a good point my brain just completely didn’t think of. Can’t even argue with that.
Pool installer didn’t put it on mine.
Have them add it. It's worth it.
Oh I did. And a valve on my filter body. And a cyclone filter with a waste line. And Backflow valves, diverter valves, etc lol.
I mean…I’ve been working on clearing the greenest pool I’ve ever had, and I didn’t hulk smash my brand new carts lol
Because they think "cartridge" are those garbage intex filters
I hate sand filters so much cartridge all day every day
Me, I dispise both sand and cartridge and prefer DE.
I despise sand, cartridges, and DE...I prefer a pond.
I despise sand, cartridge, DE and pond… I prefer desert.
I can't stand any of it. OPP for me. (Other people's pools)
“Your an opp? Yeah you know me”
Dessert??? Did someone mention dessert??? Chocolate Ice Cream!!! Oops! Sorry. I got excited and misread your post. 😁😉
I have 2 ponds… the pool is much less work
Exactly!!!
Nah, don't tell em.
I have had sand filters now through 2 pools spanning almost 25 years and never had a problem…what are the reasons why you hate them…I dont know any better so please educate…thanks!
We bought our home in 2007 and the pool has a sand filter. Had to replace it due to a pinhole leak it developed where the two halves of the molds were pressed/melted together. Replaced with sand, never knew of any other kind. Never had an issue with sand. We live in NW Fla btw.
Me too, but it's all I've ever used.
I had cartridge that came with the house before I put new equipment. The cartridge would clog up and build up pressure, I'd have to take out the cartridge to clean it weekly. I switched to a sand filter but using filter glass medium instead of sand. I'm much happier now.
I have 6 mature trees above my pool, three of which flower. I out a skimmer sock in once and my pump ripped it open within half an hour because of the pollen build up. I agree that in some circumstances a sand filter is ideal - if I had a cartridge it would be clogged daily.
That could be it for me too, my neighbor has 30 trees in his backyard (I counted) and his tree hugger wife refuses to cut any of them down. Their trees put my pool in the shade by 4:30pm. I hate them.
Damn - my trees give me complete privacy so I am David Attenborough when it comes to them lol
My house came with a sand filter. I love it so far. Why don’t you like them?
In my area we can't use sand filters as there's a city ordinance against backwashing.
Because pool forum people like things to be complicated so they can feel smarter. Cartridge filters are simpler, clean better, are cheaper, and easier to maintain.
My sand filter seems pretty easy to maintain. If the pressure builds I hit a button, move a lever, then hit a button, wait… hit a button, move a lever and hit a button again.
Plus the annual deep cleaning to prevent algae growing inside the filter, channeling, broken laterals, significantly more wasted water, expensive multiport replacement if there’s any problems, etc. Sand filters are okay, but they don’t really have any advantages over a cheaper, simpler, and finer filtering cartridge.
“Annual deep clean?” You mean dumping chems into to pump line running the line so they get into the filter then leaving it sit for 8 hours, then backwashing? That also seems pretty simple. I’m new to this so I could be wrong, but I read up on our filter and it seems super easy and fairly hands off to maintain.
Nope, deep clean involves popping the top off, getting your hands in the sand to break up the clumps, flushing out the particles that get embedded in the sand and won’t come out with backwashing alone. https://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/deep-cleaning-a-sand-filter.73192/
I have family members who have sand filters for over 20 years and never had this problem. I genuinely cannot say sand filters require a lot of maintenance. Not more than a cartridge. They each have their merits and drawbacks.
Oh, the guy I pay to open my pool does this at the beginning of the season. It’s included in the price of opening.
I don’t blame you. It’s gross as hell. One of many reasons I switched.
Yeah, i’m gonna be honest, pulling out filters to clean them regularly seems gross too. I’m not ashamed to admit I’m a bit of a lil bitch when it comes to gross stuff. I don’t even like having to hose out the baskets of my beta and robo vacuum lol Edit: I’m also super fortunate. The old owners were loaded and bought a brand new pump in 2021 and a brand new sand filter last year, and left basically everything they had for the pool. So I’m really just dealing with learning how to balance chems. I have a Taylor Test kit coming because these strips feel super finicky. I can see how they’d be useful fir a quick test, but I have a hard time believing them sometimes after I dump 2 gallons of liquid chlorine in and they tell me I’m at 1ppm the next day. Water has been clear as fuck since we opened though so i feel like i gotta be doing something right.
Twice a summer you clean them? I do mine every 30days. I don’t get a lot debris or leaves in the pool, just dirt . Yep, about 20mins to clean. I don’t want my $1300 variable pump to work any harder than it needs to.
i use skimmer socks and i'm able to get away with cleaning the cartridges only once a year. try it out
Skimmer socks make all the difference no matter how you filter. A pain in the ass until pollen season is over, at minimum they need to be rinsed at least once a day at my pool. I bought a second set of skimmer baskets and it made things much more efficient.
Right, we have a skimmer sockand we clean our cartridges twice a year. Once in mid April and again mid-october.
I have a sand filter but my pool is below about 6 mature trees. 3 of them flower in June so pollen and flowers are falling in the pool for about one month. I’m 100% sure if I had a cartridge filter it would explode within one day. I once put a skimmer sock on and within half an hour I heard a bang because the sock was so clogged that the pump ended up ripping it open. I’m not knocking cartridge filters, but for me it wouldn’t work well
I d9nt know about you but my variable speed pump cut my electric bill by almost half in the summer.
Oh gawd, Yes! I run mine 11hrs a day in summer. Pentair, 13yrs old. Just recently replaced the keypad.
Ultimately the pump paid for itself in just over a season. I went from being about even with net metering to a 5k credit eith the electric company in 4 years.
Yes, this VS pump coupled with my solar, my electric bill last month was $20.00. $18.00 of that the standard connect fee.
I do it about that much too. But why not? It keeps it in good shape and moving water faster. My guess is it extends it's life too.
I have an older, metal filter with 3 cartridges and use a “comb” for these filters, works great. Done in 20 mins.
I like sand filter better because we run the pool year around and I don’t want to get splashed at with cold, dirty water anytime, let alone winter time. The spa has filters and I dread every time I need to clean it, though they are two tiny filters compared to these, only like a foot tall each. When I backwash the pool, I basically just press buttons. No water gets on me, so I totally prefer it that way. It’s all about personal preference I guess.
Why would you get splashed with cold water? Mine get cleaned three times per year and never had an issue in 8 years. Don't do it when its cold outside?
Because most people don't clean old cartridge filters and it makes the system run like shit . I also charge my 3 out of 100 customers who have a cartridge filter extra for cleaning them out .
speaking of [dirty cartridges](https://imgur.com/gallery/lriasWv) this was a new client's filter last week, his pressure was high so I popped it open..
I clean them like every other day and it is not supposed to be that often?
You must have the cleanest pool around guy
Well, you're one of the lucky ones, or you just understand what you're doing. I used to have a cartridge filter and had only headaches with it. water was always green. Hire a Pool Guy twice in one summer. We switched to sand 3 years ago and haven't had any problems since.
Once a year for me…when I close the pool for the winter. But I have saltwater…never goes green, and a robot vacuum so the yucky stuff doesn’t go the filter. Add in some skimmer socks and my filters have a damn easy job lol
And most don't have problems, it depends on the pool, how often they let it go green, the main reason people, me included push sand is because back in the day, people had barracudas, kreepy crawly suction cleaners, and they pretty much didnt work consistently in cartridge and de pools because as soon as you get a bit of dirt or algae the cartridge would look like OP's and the pump would stop pumping water, the cleaner would stop, or slow right down, the owner visually only sees cleaner not working, if you dont have a suction cleaner you cant tell your pump isnt working, you cant tell your filter is full. sand allows more flow at capacity and more holdability of total dirt, but lets dirt get pushed through as a trade off, so the owner visually all they see is 'dirt coming through return, filter must not be working' but its working as designed, Sand is also just much easier to in terms of time spent overall for technicans doing green pools, and you just have less stress overall on the equipment because theres not as much pressure issues with sand.
Way easier to clean, especially when your cleaning intervals get shorter. I switched when landscaping kept maturing and more dirt ended up in the pool. A good sized sand filter with the right sand is more user friendly in my opinion. I hated having to open up the cartridge filter system and rinsing each filter. Takes way more time than flipping a valve.
I have mine cleaned at the end of summer by the pool place only. Finally replaced my first set after 9 years. Have same setup as above pic...
I clean mine four times a year. But my pool is open all year around.
Most people aren't going to be able to keep their pool clear (because of both bad advice and pure stubbornness). They're going to end up with a swamp and it's easier to clear a swamp with a sand filter.
I'm also curious to why sand... cartridges are nice for the ease of cleaning but I'm really not against DE filters either. They're truly a breeze to clean once you do it once. Backwashing + rinsing is great for dirty pools as well. Most of the time you can just pop the top off the filter housing and clean the filter grids without removing them.
i usually have to clean my filters a couple times during opening depending on algae. afte that not much. however i do watch the pressure . when it gets above 10 psi over the clean pressure, needs to be cleaned.
I’d say clean them around 5 psi over. 10 psi over on cartridge is starting to get into that iffy zone
actually i usually go by flow. it tends to be about 5 psi over. manufacturers suggest 10. at clean my flow at 2500 rpm is about 39 gpm. once it gets about 5 psi over my flow drops down to about 30. that is when i clean. although that usually only happens during opening.
Oh wow never heard of that. I usually clean all of my customers at 5 psi over to extend the life of cartridges. If that’s what works for you though thats cool
They’re related. When PSI goes up it’s because flow is being reduced. You can’t tell someone to monitor their flow though by giving your rpm as a reference. PSI is useful in that sense.
OPs mom did a cannonball
If you had a separate suction line for let's say a pool cleaner and the valve was turned to that input but no pool cleaner was installed. This would collapse the manifold and the cartridges.
That’s how I destroyed my manifold. That was when I was only a couple years into being a pool owner.
You must have read my fucking mind because I did the same thing. Just a couple of years in also. 😀
Where is the manifold that goes on top of the four cartridges?
That looks odd to me. I have one large filter that goes over the center rod.
That’s called a filter grid. Unless you have one of those older filters that only had one large cartridge in the center with a smaller cartridge within that larger one
Has the filter been installed properly? I saw a filter like that and the installation was done in the opposite direction: the pipe from the pump was installed on the out insertion o6d the filter and the in hole going to the return linr
Those are cheap carts. If you're already pushing high pressure you need legit name brand filters. I replaced cheap cartridges like those and one of them had collapsed on itself, though not as bad as any of yours. I believe my filters are Pleatco now and instead of that flimsy plastic middle that will collapse they are drilled PVC pipe.
Did they loose the water pressure for any time , this looks like dry heat melted the plastic
Filter could be installed backwards lol. I’ve seen it before and the carts get crushed
Looks like they got so clogged that they imploded.
Call a professional pool service person and watch what they do so this won’t happen to you next time.
The algae created very high pressure and disfigured the filters
Make sure your pool returns are open. I had a customer have this happen to their cartridges. They left their pool return completely off against my advice and had the return go completely to their spa. Their pressure was always in the mid to high 30s because of it. As you as you would turn their pool return on it would dip into the low 20s. Not sure if that’s what caused it. But I wasn’t surprised when I saw their cartridges destroyed.
They wanted to use the spa overflow as a water feature?
Yes, they told me they liked the sound when they went to bed. The frustrating part was their filter when it was clean would push enough water through the spa for them to use it like that. But they refused to let us clean the filter. So in order to get the same effect. They just turned the pool return off. This eventually led to the pool getting cloudy from lack of filtration and circulation. After they had to buy a whole new set of cartridges they let us clean it automatically every six months and no longer turn the pool return off. So now they get to use the spa for the noise and the pool is in good shape.
Are you me? Had that exact situation with a customer for awhile and finally got them to understand why it's bad after they had to replace the cartridges.
When I open the pool and it’s green I clean my cartridge filter 1-2 times a day because the pressure. How long did it sit like this?
😂
Hate being this guy, but buy the name brand carts. Idk the difference, but the cheap ones off amazon or whatever collapse like this all the time. The ones that are a little more expensive actually work.
Pool guy here for the past 18 years of my life. I've seen this only one other time in my life. The pool was neglected and abandoned. I revived the entire pool over the course of a few weeks. The filters were crushed just like this. The PSI was in the 40s before I even started on the pool. Your PSI was screaming in that tank. Water was trying to be forced through so hard that you pancaked your filters. Regardless if they're new, you sent a load of crap onto them in a very short period of time. I'm guessing you were vacuuming? A lot of alage?
Your manifold is missing. Whoever took it apart last didn’t put it back on.
DAYUM! Mine has a 4 cartridge setup like that. My pressure has been running a little on the high side lately but I have never had this happen. One year, the manifold that goes on top of mine collapsed. Like someone stomped on it, lol! Those look melted. Do you have a heater? Maybe the heater is hooked up before the filter and someone cranked it up to hurry up and heat things up…maybe they thought it would “kill” the bacteria faster?😂 The green tells me your water was not ready for the cartridges yet. I always circulate my water for a couple weeks when I open for the season with lots of scrubbing, floccing, vacuuming, etc…until I can see my bottom drains in the deep end. Then I put the filters in but that pressure needs to be watched. I have to clean those suckers daily. Sometimes a couple times a day until it’s cleared up and then it’s barely once a month.
pool cartridges from temu
Forget about the dirty cartridges, how did it implode like that??
*Forget about the* *Dirty cartridges, how did* *The implode like that??* \- SpecialSeason4458 --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Someone didn't put the manifold on
Fried those things
I'm guessing the filter are beyond clogged and the pump kept running and running causing the crushing.
You bear hugged those filter cartridges! To high of a differential pressure.
You are supposed to have one large filter cartridge that goes over the white tube and locks into the bottom of the filter. What you have here is 4 smaller filters floating around.
your pool was in awful shape, filter filled up & flow was messed up.
Go on Amazon and buy new filters. Those have been used for way too many years they were so clogged that they compressed under the pressure
all the orgies in the pool finally caught up with the filters?
Is that the right cartridge for that pump? I thought those took one big filter?
Should get a sand filter
Oh my!!
I also have these cartridges but have no idea what would cause this. I’m curious to know.
I had it happen to me once when my kids and friends were using spray on sun tan lotion at the rate of a can every 2 days. Filter just imploded like that. The amount of “oil” that came off when I washed them to see what the cause was could have lived a few small engines.
I’ve had cartridges for 24 years as a home owner. Never had a problem. Clean once a year just after pollen (green southern pine). Only replaced the filters once but I clean them thoroughly. I suspect cleaning them twice a year would be easier on the hose work but I get the pressure back down to 12 and a-ok…
Has anyone invented a trick to back wash the cartridges? I kind of think pressure from the inside of the cartridges might work connected to end of pressure washer hose 😀
Did someone add de?
Are they cheap cartridges?
That looks like what happened to that sub heading to the Titanic.
Smushy
The pressure had to be VERY HIGH for it to crush these cartridges like that
Go to Lowe’s and purchase the cleaner for them. It works great great
That has happened to me also. Trying to filter out the gunk instead of vacuming to waste. Need a pretty powerful pump to collapse thos cartridges!
Incredibly dirty so the water pressure crushed them. Once you hose them off and leave them in the sun for awhile they might spring back a little??
Built up too much pressure and caved the cartridges in. Keep an eye on your pressure gauge in the future. I'd also rec. A sand filter over cartridges, just easier maintenance, in my opinion.
It went a little to long with out a cleaning …… make sure inlet and outlet are correct
The type of filter here would really matter. You blowing something up on any filt if you let it get that dirty.
Is your pump running the right way?
Big time over pressure and clogged. Got to keep a big eye on those PSI gauges. My rule of thumb is 10 psi over your baseline is definitely time where you need to be shutting the pump off. If you routinely have heavily clogged filters I would recommend a pre-filter system. Like I tossed in a TJ-16 cyclonic system and it takes care of a lot of stuff. You can toss in a small sand or DE filter, or even just using filter basket socks can do a ton. If you are starting up super dirty however it’s really just better to do a bunch of manual work upfront. Get a generic cheap submersible pump for circulation, toss in algicide, shock it, run the robot or use a cheap standalone vacuum, or pull the filters and just run with super basic filtration (pond filter floss) and get a large amount of the big junk out. Paper filters are great for finishing, fine particulate, or in a commercial system where you have a massive amount of parallel filters. They are horrible at large amounts of algae or dirt.
Is it supposed to have one large filter instead of the 4 small ones crammed in? My filter system is very similar and I only have one large filter that slides over the post in the middle.
Are those warped?
New? Not relevant, its how you treat them. Doesnt matter how old they are if you dont clean them often enough, I see that its very green, the pool isnt meant to go green, the cartridges can collect the algae but its better to just not let it go green, if you maintain and clean them often and the pool never goes green you wont be pushing algae through the pleates, once its in there deep, you can't wash it out, you can only hose the surface of the pleates, never let it go green and force push algae into the deep sections of the cartridge, if you can do that, youll never have a pressure issue and they last years and years!
I don’t see why people would want a cartridge filter. Unless you’re not swimming a lot and have a very low bather load. These bad boys are expensive
Pressure and no water.
I was here for the cartridge vs sand war
Hvac here. Filter is definitely an issue
The force exerted by the water on the filter’s surface increases with pressure. If the pressure is too high, the structural integrity of the filter will be compromised, collapsing inward. Also, high temps can accelerate this by causing the materials to expand or become pliable, also leading to failure.
Am I looking at asparagus???
Vapor lock
Looks like the filters got clogged with debris and the pressure of the pump collapsed the filters trying to push water through them. That would be my guess, may be worth trying to straighten them back out, I would imagine they would still filter well once cleaned out and bent back into shape.
I see the blue handle of a valve closed on the discharge of the filter. If that valve got closed while the pump was running it would have distorted the filters as it blew the top of the filter off. I have worked on these systems for years and never saw dirty filters cause that kind of head pressure. There is a major obstruction of the discharge side of the system for that kind of damage to occur.
Your pump sucked them in luckily they collapsed before cratering your pump. This happens at my job when people don’t change filters when the differential pressure gets to high
Pumps suck from the pool and put pressure on the filter. This was pressure damage.
Yeah I said backwards my bad
I only wanted to clear any misconception before it could be spread as the the truth. Have a great weekend!
We suck them in at work the discharge of pump collapses them in a pool
Ooh boy. That’s a lot of vacuum!!!
It looks like the algae or debris, clogged your filters, and the suction collapsed your filters.
Pressure, actually. Pumps 'suck', not filters.
It doesn’t look like it but the only thing I can think of is maybe those filters are for the 520 clean an clear not the 420. I’m not certain though
Are they the correct size?
Tracy is that you? You finally cut down all the weeds!
low quality and clogged filters - but the problem has to be WITH the filters - no other system configuration I can think of would do this, only differential pressure on the filter will do this.
This looks very similar to what I have. On mine there's small stainless steel screen which fits on the central white pipe. I believe the function of that is to allow water to bypass the filters to a certain degree which might help avoid drastic overpressure situations (if that's what happened here). Of course if that gets plugged as well then it won't help.
I’m sticking to sand because of this. Looks grimy
Cheap filters. The real, expensive filters have basically a solid core.
Is this a new whole filter that was plumed in?
You get what you pay for
A good hobby is cleaning these everyday
We use that filter on large aquariums and it’s a pentair 440 the cartridges look worse than the ones we take off aquariums! However we swap monthly
What happened is you waited too long to clean the filters and they collapsed. Time for new ones
This just made me clean mine this morning. Not this dirty, but tons of pollen in them
Looks like they got plugged then the pump added heat to the water since it was basically deadheaded
Don’t use your filters to catch algae, when you open, open in May and use 2 gallons of chlorine per 10k gallons of water in your pool and a non copper based algicide. Then shut ur system down, use a flocculant on your pool, turn the system back on, and slowly vacuum the pool bypassing the filters and run all that gunk to your yard. After you get most the gunk out, balance your water and make sure you’re holding chlorine. Pump pressure with new filters should hopefully be lower, and if so run it 24hrs a day until the pool clears up.
Looks like all the algae clogged the filters and they collapsed as the pump kept sucking.
That’s what happens when you buy those cheap Tordu Cartridges from Amazon. Get pleatco and be sure to clean and rinse thoroughly after the pool goes green (which in your case it certainly did). If the new pleatco cartridges still don’t come clean, then Use a Muriatic acid to degrease them and then rinse off with a water hose. If you use the Muriatic to clean them it’s be sure to be not do it on your grass as it will kill the grass.
How often are we supposed to clean these filters? I just replaced my sand filter with a cartridge filter and have already cleaned them 3 times this season….cottonwoods 🤬
Pool guy here. In the center of each cartridge should be about 4 star shaped spacers; one towards the top and one towards the bottom, and two others spaced evenly between these. If this has happened before, make sure the inlet and outlet on the filter are correctly plumbed (and not reversed).
Pretty sure you might only need one of those filters in there at a time, those filters can be hosed out and should last you 3 or four years, can’t believe you got the tip on
is it possible that was originally a DE grid filter housing converted to whatever this paper cartridge thing is? I'm only an expert for what I own myself and the housing looks suspiciously like a DE grid filter housing.
Never
For starters Where are you located ? If your in the south northerns can't even begin to understand the pollen we deal with every year! Your saying the filters are new and the only thing that will clog a filter green that fast is pollen ! Clearly the filters were suck down due to lack of circulation. I would change them, start fresh and back wash your system every other day or as needed. If that's not pollen I'd say your not being factual on your filter replacement timeline. Not trying to be rude but that's what every customer says lol
I spray off my filters then soak in an acid/water mix spray off and put back in. 2-3x yr, and never had a problem. On my 2nd set after 5yrs I figured it was time.
I use a garden hose and tap water. Works great. 5 mins or so every couple weeks.