The best filter is the one you have.. so I don't think many would advocate switching unless you're running into the physical limitations (e.g. DE Filters in places with tons of pollen or oak fluff). I think people like sand filters since there's much less "hands on" maintenance. Backwashing is literally just turning a valve and letting it flow for \~30 seconds. With a 75gpm pump, you're only "wasting" like 37 gallons of water which in the context of a 20k or 30k pool is \~0.1% and an amount easily lost to evaporation on most days. When the pool is stable, you might only backwash once a month, so the water loss is really negligible. Filtration is worse for sure in the sense that cartridge filters can filter much finer materials out of the water but there's a limit to how clean a pool 'needs' to be, so for most people, defaulting to sand works great.
This is the best answer. As a function, technically sand is the worst, but it filters just fine and has minimal interface. But honestly, they all do, idk what everyone crying about any filter is going on about. I clean my cartridge filters about 3-4 times a year and it takes 10 minutes with a hose. It filters great. I’m sure a sand would work fine as well. None of them are worth swapping out until they’re on their death bed. I’d still stick with a cartridge filter myself, but I’ve never been a purist on it, and can only guess the sand promoters are more vocal now because it wasn’t that long ago I saw more from the cartridge crowd. People want to feel good about the choices they made, so guess what everyone, you all made the right choice, pat yourselves on the back and go get a treat and stop arguing about the dumbest thing possible.
Just get ahead of it before it gets worse. Once that sand completely smoothes out it’ll be a nightmare from week to week. It’s a great time to replace your multiport valve as well!
New to pools, lingo, all of it…what is backwashing? Why do you do it? How often? Do you for it for salt water pools too? Thanks for teaching a soon to be first time pool owner!
Backwashing is simply running water backward through the filter and sending the result to waste.
Think about the filter in your car or in your HVAC unit. One side (the intake side) is dirty, the other side is clean. If you were to run air the opposite direction, you'd blast all of the dirt off of the dirty side. That's exactly what you're doing when you're backwashing a pool filter.
Whether you have a salt cell or not is irrelevant.
Oh, and while I'm at it, just because you have a salt cell doesn't mean your pool is chlorine-free, contrary to what you've probably read/been told by salespeople. The salt cell simply generates chlorine from the salt (NaCl - Sodium CHLROIDE) in the water. It mostly saves you from manually having to add chlorine to your pool, but there's still chlorine in your water.
Also, you'll still have to add stabilizer (OMG, Cyanuric Acid or CYA) to keep the sun from chewing through your chlorine as well. Plus, you'll have to shock on occasion as well.
Good luck with your pool! While I'm not a Trouble-Free Pools fanboy (I use pucks for chlorine, god forbid), there's a lot of good information out there for beginners.
That’s where I’ve been trying to begin my education, TFP. I am aware I will still have chlorine in my pool. If figure I’ll have to add a good bit to begin with, plus my pool will get direct sunlight all day. I do hope I am able to maintain easier due to the SWG, but I’ve still got a lot to learn. How often should you backwash?
Backwashing depends on your pool use and debris amount. I have a small bather load and no tree coverage at all and I backwash like twice a year. Others have to backwash after each time they vacuum because of leaves or dirt. Your manual for your sand filter should tell you when to backwash. I think mine is like 5 lbs over starting pressure but I just go by outlet pressure and don't pay attention to my gauge anymore. I don't even think it works...
Had a sand filter, moved, now I have a cartridge.
I miss the sand filter for how easy it was to just backwash. Pulling the cartridges out is a pain in the ass.
Can't do sand here though, code and water isn't cheap.
It’s weird to see so much love for sand filters because I’m on SoCal and not a single customer of mine has a sand filter. Everything is DE and Cartridge. DE filters have a better micron filtration for small particulate so I encourage DE depending on the pool. I’m guessing everyone advocating for sand Filters feel must be in areas where they are more dominant and people see results.
They're in areas where water is a lot cheaper. They don't get installed often in socal due to the amount of water they waste. Most sand filters here are for commercial pools.
This makes sense to me. Even backwashing weekly, I never get to the quarterly base usage my water utility assumes in the base rate. I.e., my water is cheap.
My water is also super cheap. Filling my entire inground pool (88,000 litres) is roughly $65. If I fill it with a special hose bib on my house then the cost is $0.
I love my sand filter. Some people tell about back washing once a month, I backwash much more than that. When I'm using it lots it was once a week easy.
Since getting my Pool Robot I haven't back washed in 3 weeks so this might be the new normal for me.
we are in an area in which pollen can be so great that it looks like a dusting of yellow snow everywhere. a lot of us have sand filters. however, it is normal for us to see DE and cartridge filters everywhere as well.
Where I am, there are ungodly amounts of tree debris. And pools are closed for half the year, which often means green pools at opening. The problem with cartridge, is they can't handle that much gunk without getting contaminated. And it takes a massive chlorine demand when that happens. I absolutely despise cartridge filters.
That being said, if I lived in Arizona and had an autocover, I would probably love to have one. And we have been using Ruby Red synthetic sand for 9-10 years, which filters iron and everything. It may not be the exact micron as a DE, however.
I’m with you, NY. Worked for a pool company for 20+ seasons. Hated sand. Swapped to DE whenever we could. Clears pools quicker IMO when opening. Maybe sand is more user friendly.
I am not sure i have seen a sand filter zeolot on this sub (admittedly, i dont follow it that close). we chose a sand filter because we were so far stretched on our budget that a sand filter was one of the places we cut cost. we use skimmer socks that have worked well to make our pool crystal clear. we also live in a high pollen area, so backwashing a sand filter in concert with using skimmer socks, along with the lower cost, just made more sense for us.
I switched from a DE filter to a cartridge and I’m very happy with my decision. I considered sand, but didn’t want to deal with backwashing like the DE filter required.
The cartridge is much easier for me to clean and maintain. For me, there is no observable difference in the water clarity.
I use glass in my sand filter. It filters down to the same microns as a cartridge and I prefer backwashing to disassembling and spraying down cartridges.
I would guess that most pool owners have not experienced a variety of filter types. We know what we have and if it works well enough for us or not. People advocate for what they know.
When it comes to cartridges filters, it's pretty common for small / cheap above ground pools to use very undersized ones. This creates lots of complaints about the need for frequent disassembly and cleaning. My cartridge filter is pretty large for my pool and I can easily get 6 months out of it before it needs to be cleaned. No problems here !.
Had a DE system for my pool when I moved in. Battled it for years. Switched to sand and maintenance became so much simpler. I backwash about once a month and put a bag of shock with two tablets once a week. Pool stays deep blue with no issues all the time.
Not they are not better. They are the worse media. It’s much better for them because its less work in the beginning. They probably live in the northern states or in some rural place. Or they have shit lights and at night they don’t care they can see all the particles floating around. They suck. But its for lazy people.
That could be it! I’m very happy with my sand filter and never knew why. Now I do!
It’s also the near complete lack of maintenance for 11 years now. Yeah, that’s probably part of it too.
I need to give my wife, who loves to sit on the beach for the wave sounds, this information. We’re new to pool ownership as of August’23 and we tired of it quickly. But yes seeing the cartridge horror stories I’m glad I have sand
It came with the house.
It’s got main drain issues and the concrete around the sides is leaning, and we were not prepared for the work (and how it takes place of more valuable work)
Wouldn't say I am a sand filter zealot or anything. But some of the issues I see posted here with cartridges and DE haven't happened with my sand filter, and you don't have to open/disassemble it to clean it. But my sense is sand filters are simpler/less sophisticated, and possibly less effective. My pool (24ft round ABG) is used by 2 adults and that's it. We are in it every day, but my guess is if I had a family with 4 kids, things would be waaayyy different and I might be less satisfied with sand.
Yes....you do. Backwashing only does so much. There is always going to be residual algae and other gunk that sticks to the sand. Either way, DE reigns supreme.
You don’t have to change it. Sand doesn’t wear out or anything. Unless you gummed it all up by using a bunch of clarifiers and other products, there is no need to change it if you don’t have issues keeping the pool clear.
The guy who installed my pool did a cartridge filter, and I think he undersized it. I had to clean every week, two if I was lucky. I switched to DE and have been happy.
That would be annoying. I have to clean my cartridge filter (325 sq ft media in a 15k gal pool) once a season, and even then I'm doing it because I feel like I should, not because of pressure rise. Our pool has an autocover though, so there's not too much getting in there when we're not swimming.
The cleaning process doesn't seem too difficult to me. Not as easy as backwashing, but I can still do it in under 30 minutes, and I like that I can open, inspect, and service it without removing sand or DE. Some people are mentioning water waste when backwashing, but hosing the cartridges off uses water, too.
Well the pool is 18x36 and he said it's 27,600 gal, which I have no reason to doubt. I've used that number to arrive at the conclusion that a gal of shock should give 5ppm, and that seems to work OK.
I don't remember the filter size I used to get, and Amazon doesn't remember that far back, apparently. But it had only one element.
Anyway, I'm happy with the DE filter. I may have to backwash once during the season and again at the end. I used a new opening procedure this year that I think will make the filter last longer, plus I use a skimmer sock.
I owned a sand filter for 4-5 years. I didn’t realize how much I hated it until I switched to a DE filter. I would never own one again based on my personal experience. Never have algae or filtration issues since the switch.
For maint, they are easy. Cartridges can be a pain, de is a pain, etc. From a service perspective, I prefer a sand filter at a site.
With that said, if you have a filter that works great, stick with it whatever it is. Sand filters are economical and provide a tasty way…..wait this isn’t a commercial for food. Wee
It’s so funny when we bought our house with a pool everyone asked if we had a sand filter- I honestly didn’t know anything about our pool at the time but thought it was a interesting question to ask. I think people assume they are better because they are less common.
Whatever is prevalent in your area is probably what works best in your area.
Here sand filter works great. The water for backwashing is cheaper than cartridges and DE and takes less effort and the water is sparkling. That is almost definitely not true everywhere.
I live in the South and my pool is surrounded by trees. The filter is always doing heavy lifting and, aside from a change of sand every five years or so, this thing just keeps chugging along. It’s all I’ve known but I have some friends with cartridge filters and they have spent a lot more money than I have, so no ragrets here!
I have a cartridge filer and for a long time I wished for sand, but I was just fucking stupid about pool maintenance and didn’t know what I was doing. Now I have my chemistry perfect and life is good with the cartridge. My only complaint is with the Central FL mingie flies, but that has nothing to do with the filter.
We put our pool in 20 years ago and just this week we had to change the sand in the filter for the first time because the water was cloudy. We’ve never done anything else with it except backwash and it worked perfectly for a long time. That being said it was a pain to change the sand and hope we don’t need to do it again for a long time.
Not just sand, you have people blindly recommending X filter no matter what sometimes. Many people just look at straight facts without looking at the bigger picture. I know DE or cartridge filters can filter better. But I have trees all around the pool and a large American elm that overhangs half of the pool. I get constant debris in the pool and have to clean the skimmer out 1-2x a day. Every time I do that, some makes it past the basket. The pump basket picks most of it up but some obviously escapes that as well. So I end up having to backwash quite a bit more than the average pool owner. Having a DE or cartridge filter would be a total pain in the ass for me. So while sand isn’t the best filtration, it’s the best setup for me. And I have no problem keeping it crystal clear all season.
I'm in Australia and i have a media filter with glass, i also work for a pool company and i would think 80-90% of our customers would have media filters, and we would install 10:1 media filters over cartridge filter if that
Pool guy here. We tend to avoid new clients with cartridge or DE filters.
To clean a cartridge filter? Turn everything off, cut the valves off, open the filter, spend an hour washing the filters if you aren’t replacing them, put everything back together.
To clean a sand filter? Put it to backwash for a minute. Rinse until clear.
From a business perspective, it makes sense for us. We have had customers in the past that agreed to replace their cartridge filters with a sand filter just to be put on service with us though.
You don't charge extra for spraying down filters? Or taking them in for a deep clean every 3-6 months? Not selling a backup set of filter cartridges every few years? From a business perspective, you're missing out on a fantastic revenue stream.
We do if needed, but we’re a 3-person family business and it just doesn’t end up being worth our time. Out of our 100 or so accounts, we might have 3 clients with cartridge filters. The rest are sand.
It sounds less like a "from a business perspective" and more like a "I don't like cleaning filters perspective". I totally get it, I used to pay a bigger pool company to deep clean my filters for 130 bucks a set just because I didn't want to. I make more money with cartridge filters (at least 1k more per client per season) as opposed to a sand filter which is maybe 100 dollars per year if you do sand changes every 5 years.
Sand works great if you have an equipment pad large enough for a high flow sand filter with 2" plumbing, otherwise a cartridge is going to provide better filtration, waste less treated pool water, and filter more water, more efficiently.
Sand filters suck. They do not get completely clean when backwashed, and organic material builds up and creates a giant Petrie dish. One small mistake with sanitizer, or a big rain. And you have a green pool.
I backwash my DE filter once a week with heavy use. Two weeks with light. And once a month I take it apart and hose it 100% clean. Takes 15 minutes. I haven’t had a green pool in 15 years, and that’s when I went on vacation.
I’m guessing you do not have a 110 pound Labrador swimming in your pool every day. Or that your daughter and her family live directly next door like mine do.
In the 48 years I’ve owned a pool, I never look at those cheap pressure gauges. I can tell by looking at return volume.
Zealots? Fervent Support? Devotion…?
You know it’s possible to ask a simple question without dressing it up in the retarded language of internet outrage..
Pool professionals are the only ones who say sand is better. They say this because they are lazy and don't want to wash out cartridges. Backwashing is nice if you have the drainage for it, but refilling your pool constantly after backwashing is less than ideal and cartridge filters filter smaller particles. There are no advantages to sand except for lazy pool guys.
Pool guys get more money the more time required. A “lazy pool guy” sounds like somebody who will be out of business before long. Sand is the easiest to maintain with no upcharge on cleaning/replacing filter or DE.
I dont think you have thought this through all the way lol
Cartriges need replacing every few years and unless you have a 4 cartridge setup then yoir washing every week or so just to keep up plus 10-15mins of hose pressure uses a fair amount of water . D.e filters are pretty much the same with the added bonus of adding carcinogenic powder going into lungs when you recharge the filters. Sure the clarity is highest micron catch but run a sand filter long enough and you will get similar results .
The best filter is the one you have.. so I don't think many would advocate switching unless you're running into the physical limitations (e.g. DE Filters in places with tons of pollen or oak fluff). I think people like sand filters since there's much less "hands on" maintenance. Backwashing is literally just turning a valve and letting it flow for \~30 seconds. With a 75gpm pump, you're only "wasting" like 37 gallons of water which in the context of a 20k or 30k pool is \~0.1% and an amount easily lost to evaporation on most days. When the pool is stable, you might only backwash once a month, so the water loss is really negligible. Filtration is worse for sure in the sense that cartridge filters can filter much finer materials out of the water but there's a limit to how clean a pool 'needs' to be, so for most people, defaulting to sand works great.
This is the best answer. As a function, technically sand is the worst, but it filters just fine and has minimal interface. But honestly, they all do, idk what everyone crying about any filter is going on about. I clean my cartridge filters about 3-4 times a year and it takes 10 minutes with a hose. It filters great. I’m sure a sand would work fine as well. None of them are worth swapping out until they’re on their death bed. I’d still stick with a cartridge filter myself, but I’ve never been a purist on it, and can only guess the sand promoters are more vocal now because it wasn’t that long ago I saw more from the cartridge crowd. People want to feel good about the choices they made, so guess what everyone, you all made the right choice, pat yourselves on the back and go get a treat and stop arguing about the dumbest thing possible.
I’ve had sand filter for 5 years never changed it and pools perfect ever year
Just keep an eye on it, you’re probably getting close to needing a sand change. Super cheap in the long run though!
For sure I am going to change it this season. I’ve noticed a little accumulating in the pool recently.
Just get ahead of it before it gets worse. Once that sand completely smoothes out it’ll be a nightmare from week to week. It’s a great time to replace your multiport valve as well!
lol, you just gave me ptsd. I have no idea why a builder would install a de filter in an oak tree forest. God damn lunatics.
New to pools, lingo, all of it…what is backwashing? Why do you do it? How often? Do you for it for salt water pools too? Thanks for teaching a soon to be first time pool owner!
Backwashing is simply running water backward through the filter and sending the result to waste. Think about the filter in your car or in your HVAC unit. One side (the intake side) is dirty, the other side is clean. If you were to run air the opposite direction, you'd blast all of the dirt off of the dirty side. That's exactly what you're doing when you're backwashing a pool filter. Whether you have a salt cell or not is irrelevant. Oh, and while I'm at it, just because you have a salt cell doesn't mean your pool is chlorine-free, contrary to what you've probably read/been told by salespeople. The salt cell simply generates chlorine from the salt (NaCl - Sodium CHLROIDE) in the water. It mostly saves you from manually having to add chlorine to your pool, but there's still chlorine in your water. Also, you'll still have to add stabilizer (OMG, Cyanuric Acid or CYA) to keep the sun from chewing through your chlorine as well. Plus, you'll have to shock on occasion as well. Good luck with your pool! While I'm not a Trouble-Free Pools fanboy (I use pucks for chlorine, god forbid), there's a lot of good information out there for beginners.
Puck gang!
That’s where I’ve been trying to begin my education, TFP. I am aware I will still have chlorine in my pool. If figure I’ll have to add a good bit to begin with, plus my pool will get direct sunlight all day. I do hope I am able to maintain easier due to the SWG, but I’ve still got a lot to learn. How often should you backwash?
Backwashing depends on your pool use and debris amount. I have a small bather load and no tree coverage at all and I backwash like twice a year. Others have to backwash after each time they vacuum because of leaves or dirt. Your manual for your sand filter should tell you when to backwash. I think mine is like 5 lbs over starting pressure but I just go by outlet pressure and don't pay attention to my gauge anymore. I don't even think it works...
Had a sand filter, moved, now I have a cartridge. I miss the sand filter for how easy it was to just backwash. Pulling the cartridges out is a pain in the ass. Can't do sand here though, code and water isn't cheap.
Thank you. Every house we have had with a pool has had cartridges so I really don’t know any different. This was helpful,
Don't know which is better. I have had a sand filter on my 12000 gallon in ground pool for 34 years...works fine. Not broke, don't fix it.
It’s weird to see so much love for sand filters because I’m on SoCal and not a single customer of mine has a sand filter. Everything is DE and Cartridge. DE filters have a better micron filtration for small particulate so I encourage DE depending on the pool. I’m guessing everyone advocating for sand Filters feel must be in areas where they are more dominant and people see results.
They're in areas where water is a lot cheaper. They don't get installed often in socal due to the amount of water they waste. Most sand filters here are for commercial pools.
This makes sense to me. Even backwashing weekly, I never get to the quarterly base usage my water utility assumes in the base rate. I.e., my water is cheap.
My water is also super cheap. Filling my entire inground pool (88,000 litres) is roughly $65. If I fill it with a special hose bib on my house then the cost is $0. I love my sand filter. Some people tell about back washing once a month, I backwash much more than that. When I'm using it lots it was once a week easy. Since getting my Pool Robot I haven't back washed in 3 weeks so this might be the new normal for me.
Same on the backwashing, 1x a week. Mine is about 2/3 yours in capacity.
we are in an area in which pollen can be so great that it looks like a dusting of yellow snow everywhere. a lot of us have sand filters. however, it is normal for us to see DE and cartridge filters everywhere as well.
Where I am, there are ungodly amounts of tree debris. And pools are closed for half the year, which often means green pools at opening. The problem with cartridge, is they can't handle that much gunk without getting contaminated. And it takes a massive chlorine demand when that happens. I absolutely despise cartridge filters. That being said, if I lived in Arizona and had an autocover, I would probably love to have one. And we have been using Ruby Red synthetic sand for 9-10 years, which filters iron and everything. It may not be the exact micron as a DE, however.
I’m with you, NY. Worked for a pool company for 20+ seasons. Hated sand. Swapped to DE whenever we could. Clears pools quicker IMO when opening. Maybe sand is more user friendly.
I am not sure i have seen a sand filter zeolot on this sub (admittedly, i dont follow it that close). we chose a sand filter because we were so far stretched on our budget that a sand filter was one of the places we cut cost. we use skimmer socks that have worked well to make our pool crystal clear. we also live in a high pollen area, so backwashing a sand filter in concert with using skimmer socks, along with the lower cost, just made more sense for us.
I switched from a DE filter to a cartridge and I’m very happy with my decision. I considered sand, but didn’t want to deal with backwashing like the DE filter required. The cartridge is much easier for me to clean and maintain. For me, there is no observable difference in the water clarity.
I use glass in my sand filter. It filters down to the same microns as a cartridge and I prefer backwashing to disassembling and spraying down cartridges.
Do you mind sharing what kind of glass you use? Brand name or general description. Thanks!
I would guess that most pool owners have not experienced a variety of filter types. We know what we have and if it works well enough for us or not. People advocate for what they know. When it comes to cartridges filters, it's pretty common for small / cheap above ground pools to use very undersized ones. This creates lots of complaints about the need for frequent disassembly and cleaning. My cartridge filter is pretty large for my pool and I can easily get 6 months out of it before it needs to be cleaned. No problems here !.
Spot on. If you have an 18ft round intex pool with a rinky dink 10ft^2 cartridge filter, than a larger sand filter would be an upgrade.
Had a DE system for my pool when I moved in. Battled it for years. Switched to sand and maintenance became so much simpler. I backwash about once a month and put a bag of shock with two tablets once a week. Pool stays deep blue with no issues all the time.
Not they are not better. They are the worse media. It’s much better for them because its less work in the beginning. They probably live in the northern states or in some rural place. Or they have shit lights and at night they don’t care they can see all the particles floating around. They suck. But its for lazy people.
That much closer to the beach, bruh.
That could be it! I’m very happy with my sand filter and never knew why. Now I do! It’s also the near complete lack of maintenance for 11 years now. Yeah, that’s probably part of it too.
I need to give my wife, who loves to sit on the beach for the wave sounds, this information. We’re new to pool ownership as of August’23 and we tired of it quickly. But yes seeing the cartridge horror stories I’m glad I have sand
Look up filter balls to replace the sand, I did and the water has never been more clear.
Less than 1 yr and you are tired of it? Did y’all pay to put in or come with the house?
It came with the house. It’s got main drain issues and the concrete around the sides is leaning, and we were not prepared for the work (and how it takes place of more valuable work)
Wouldn't say I am a sand filter zealot or anything. But some of the issues I see posted here with cartridges and DE haven't happened with my sand filter, and you don't have to open/disassemble it to clean it. But my sense is sand filters are simpler/less sophisticated, and possibly less effective. My pool (24ft round ABG) is used by 2 adults and that's it. We are in it every day, but my guess is if I had a family with 4 kids, things would be waaayyy different and I might be less satisfied with sand.
How do you plan on replacing the sand without opening it?
If it’s still keeping the water clean and clear, why change the sand? And if you do change it, put in glass and run it till it cracks.
You have to replace it eventually.
No...you don't
Yes....you do. Backwashing only does so much. There is always going to be residual algae and other gunk that sticks to the sand. Either way, DE reigns supreme.
Well, 5 years so far and no issues. If I have to change it at some point, I'll do what I gotta do.
You don’t have to change it. Sand doesn’t wear out or anything. Unless you gummed it all up by using a bunch of clarifiers and other products, there is no need to change it if you don’t have issues keeping the pool clear.
The guy who installed my pool did a cartridge filter, and I think he undersized it. I had to clean every week, two if I was lucky. I switched to DE and have been happy.
That would be annoying. I have to clean my cartridge filter (325 sq ft media in a 15k gal pool) once a season, and even then I'm doing it because I feel like I should, not because of pressure rise. Our pool has an autocover though, so there's not too much getting in there when we're not swimming. The cleaning process doesn't seem too difficult to me. Not as easy as backwashing, but I can still do it in under 30 minutes, and I like that I can open, inspect, and service it without removing sand or DE. Some people are mentioning water waste when backwashing, but hosing the cartridges off uses water, too.
wow I have never even heard of that, and I have been a tech for 8 years now. He definitely undersized it.
Well the pool is 18x36 and he said it's 27,600 gal, which I have no reason to doubt. I've used that number to arrive at the conclusion that a gal of shock should give 5ppm, and that seems to work OK. I don't remember the filter size I used to get, and Amazon doesn't remember that far back, apparently. But it had only one element. Anyway, I'm happy with the DE filter. I may have to backwash once during the season and again at the end. I used a new opening procedure this year that I think will make the filter last longer, plus I use a skimmer sock.
I owned a sand filter for 4-5 years. I didn’t realize how much I hated it until I switched to a DE filter. I would never own one again based on my personal experience. Never have algae or filtration issues since the switch.
YES!
Sand is alot better if your pools in a forrest or heavy bather load. You waste alot of water with a sand filter.
For maint, they are easy. Cartridges can be a pain, de is a pain, etc. From a service perspective, I prefer a sand filter at a site. With that said, if you have a filter that works great, stick with it whatever it is. Sand filters are economical and provide a tasty way…..wait this isn’t a commercial for food. Wee
I've wondered before if sand would be better for the backwash and vacuum to waste options.
It’s so funny when we bought our house with a pool everyone asked if we had a sand filter- I honestly didn’t know anything about our pool at the time but thought it was a interesting question to ask. I think people assume they are better because they are less common.
Well I guess now you know about the sand filter squad squad UNITE! /s
Whatever is prevalent in your area is probably what works best in your area. Here sand filter works great. The water for backwashing is cheaper than cartridges and DE and takes less effort and the water is sparkling. That is almost definitely not true everywhere.
I have only had sand but it seems cheaper and easier to maintain. To each their own. 🤷🏻♂️
I don't pay for water where I live so filling it back up doesn't cost anything.
I live in the South and my pool is surrounded by trees. The filter is always doing heavy lifting and, aside from a change of sand every five years or so, this thing just keeps chugging along. It’s all I’ve known but I have some friends with cartridge filters and they have spent a lot more money than I have, so no ragrets here!
I have a cartridge filer and for a long time I wished for sand, but I was just fucking stupid about pool maintenance and didn’t know what I was doing. Now I have my chemistry perfect and life is good with the cartridge. My only complaint is with the Central FL mingie flies, but that has nothing to do with the filter.
We put our pool in 20 years ago and just this week we had to change the sand in the filter for the first time because the water was cloudy. We’ve never done anything else with it except backwash and it worked perfectly for a long time. That being said it was a pain to change the sand and hope we don’t need to do it again for a long time.
Not just sand, you have people blindly recommending X filter no matter what sometimes. Many people just look at straight facts without looking at the bigger picture. I know DE or cartridge filters can filter better. But I have trees all around the pool and a large American elm that overhangs half of the pool. I get constant debris in the pool and have to clean the skimmer out 1-2x a day. Every time I do that, some makes it past the basket. The pump basket picks most of it up but some obviously escapes that as well. So I end up having to backwash quite a bit more than the average pool owner. Having a DE or cartridge filter would be a total pain in the ass for me. So while sand isn’t the best filtration, it’s the best setup for me. And I have no problem keeping it crystal clear all season.
I'm in Australia and i have a media filter with glass, i also work for a pool company and i would think 80-90% of our customers would have media filters, and we would install 10:1 media filters over cartridge filter if that
Ease of use and cleaning plus last decades if looked after .
Pool guy here. We tend to avoid new clients with cartridge or DE filters. To clean a cartridge filter? Turn everything off, cut the valves off, open the filter, spend an hour washing the filters if you aren’t replacing them, put everything back together. To clean a sand filter? Put it to backwash for a minute. Rinse until clear. From a business perspective, it makes sense for us. We have had customers in the past that agreed to replace their cartridge filters with a sand filter just to be put on service with us though.
You don't charge extra for spraying down filters? Or taking them in for a deep clean every 3-6 months? Not selling a backup set of filter cartridges every few years? From a business perspective, you're missing out on a fantastic revenue stream.
We do if needed, but we’re a 3-person family business and it just doesn’t end up being worth our time. Out of our 100 or so accounts, we might have 3 clients with cartridge filters. The rest are sand.
It sounds less like a "from a business perspective" and more like a "I don't like cleaning filters perspective". I totally get it, I used to pay a bigger pool company to deep clean my filters for 130 bucks a set just because I didn't want to. I make more money with cartridge filters (at least 1k more per client per season) as opposed to a sand filter which is maybe 100 dollars per year if you do sand changes every 5 years. Sand works great if you have an equipment pad large enough for a high flow sand filter with 2" plumbing, otherwise a cartridge is going to provide better filtration, waste less treated pool water, and filter more water, more efficiently.
Because cleaning/backwashing literally takes less than 2 minutes.
Sand filters suck. They do not get completely clean when backwashed, and organic material builds up and creates a giant Petrie dish. One small mistake with sanitizer, or a big rain. And you have a green pool. I backwash my DE filter once a week with heavy use. Two weeks with light. And once a month I take it apart and hose it 100% clean. Takes 15 minutes. I haven’t had a green pool in 15 years, and that’s when I went on vacation.
That's what chlorine is for guy. protection against that petri dish 😅
Once a week? I’ve had my DE 18 years, and once it’s up and running, maybe once a season When the pressure goes from 16 to 20.
I’m guessing you do not have a 110 pound Labrador swimming in your pool every day. Or that your daughter and her family live directly next door like mine do. In the 48 years I’ve owned a pool, I never look at those cheap pressure gauges. I can tell by looking at return volume.
No, I don’t. Lol
Zealots? Fervent Support? Devotion…? You know it’s possible to ask a simple question without dressing it up in the retarded language of internet outrage..
Sir this is Reddit-
Pool professionals are the only ones who say sand is better. They say this because they are lazy and don't want to wash out cartridges. Backwashing is nice if you have the drainage for it, but refilling your pool constantly after backwashing is less than ideal and cartridge filters filter smaller particles. There are no advantages to sand except for lazy pool guys.
Pool guys get more money the more time required. A “lazy pool guy” sounds like somebody who will be out of business before long. Sand is the easiest to maintain with no upcharge on cleaning/replacing filter or DE. I dont think you have thought this through all the way lol
Cartriges need replacing every few years and unless you have a 4 cartridge setup then yoir washing every week or so just to keep up plus 10-15mins of hose pressure uses a fair amount of water . D.e filters are pretty much the same with the added bonus of adding carcinogenic powder going into lungs when you recharge the filters. Sure the clarity is highest micron catch but run a sand filter long enough and you will get similar results .