Replacement sand for your sand filter typically costs around $25 per 50-pound bag, and your filter may require 100 to 600 pounds or more depending on the size and model. More than likely, you'll need about 350 pounds of sand for an average-sized inground pool filter.
On average, sand should be replaced every 3-5 years. This may be longer if the pool stays clear, or shorter, if the filter runs all the time. The jagged edges of the sand wear down and become smooth as the sand ages.
The sand in your pool filter needs replacing every three to five years, sometimes even longer if your pool remains in relatively good condition when it's open. If you run your pool filter often all year and have a heavy bather load, the sand may need replacing sooner than three years.
If you have a sand filter, you may have heard that they never need to be replaced. Sand filters do last quite a long time, around 5 to 7 years assuming it is maintained properly. Nonetheless, a sand filter will inevitably lose its sharp edges, making it ineffective at catching all the dirt it's supposed to filter out.
As pool filter sand is considered a hazardous material, you should not simply throw the sand away in your trash can. To properly dispose of the sand, you need to call a disposal expert or take it to a disposal site.
Changing the pool filter sand is a bit of a pain, especially in the back region, but a bag of pool filter sand costs around R90 at your local Builders Warehouse, and you should only need two bags for most pool filters.
Low flow = poor circulation which will lead to algae in the pool. Bottom line, the filter must be backwashed on a regular basis to ensure that your pool water is clear. "When do we need to backwash?" - It is recommended to backwash your filter once every 4-6 weeks of regular use.
Can You Backwash Too Much? If you backwash your pool too much i.e. time duration and/or close frequency then yes you can cause a lot of problems. Some problems that can arise from backwashing your sand pool filter too much are: Loss of water – 500+ litres of water can be lost in each backwashing cycle.
Broken laterals and snapped seals are the most common reasons your filter is blowing sand into your pool water.
If there is a sand filter in your swimming pool, it is unnecessary to mention the filter should keep the sand in it. But suddenly, if it starts throwing out the sand into the pool, your sand filter needs some fixing. There might be something broken like cracked laterals or a broken standpipe.
When you first install a sand filter or renew the sand, you may indeed get a small amount of sand coming out when backwashing, rinsing or filtering. Often, excess sand gets into the wrong places when refilling and will sand to come out into the pool or out of the backwash hose. But it should go away after a few runs.
The process of eliminating an inground pool generally requires you to break up the bottom of the pool so rainwater can escape over time. This means drilling large holes at either end of the pool bottom at minimum, or using a jackhammer to break the entire pool bottom into large chunks.
Every pool must turn over at least once a day, so most pool pumps should run approximately 8 hours a day. But here's the thing: you don't have to run your pool pump consecutively. You can choose to run it for three hours in the morning before you leave for work and another 5 hours in the evening.
If anything could be considered “normal”, it would be about 10 psi. Most filter systems are designed to operate in the 5-15 or 10-20 psi range. The way to find out your particular correct pool filter pressure is to clean or backwash the filter thoroughly and empty the pump and skimmer baskets.
Why is it Best to Run a Pool Filter Pool During the Day? Running your pool pump and filter during the day is ideal because this is when your pool is most prone to algae bloom, contaminants and chlorine loss. When the sun is out, the UV rays from the sun burn up the chlorine inside your pool.
How Often Should I Shock My Pool? Shocking your pool regularly will help to keep the water clean and free of contaminants. You should aim to shock your pool about once a week, with the additional shock after heavy use. Some tell-tale signs that your pool needs to be shocked are cloudy, foamy, green, or odourous water.
Pool gallonage x 2 (the recommended number of cycles in a day) ÷ daily hourly run time ÷ 60 (minutes in an hour). So, for a 30,000-gallon pool that runs continuously (24-hours), the formula is: 30,000 x 2 ÷ 24 ÷ 60 = 41.6 or rounded up it's a 42 GPM minimum flow rate.
FilterBalls is a lightweight high performance filtration media, engineered to replace sand in your residential pool, industrial, or commercial “sand type” filter systems. No more aggravation and mess, just a one cubic foot bag of FilterBalls media replaces and outperforms 100 pounds of sand.
Pool filter sand should not be reused because the roughness of the particles that is used to catch unwanted bacteria, contaminates, and debris will be too worn down to be effective. Reused pool filter sand can result in severe contamination of your pool and is not worth the risk.
It is not advisable to use play sand in your pool filter. The larger particle size and different chemical compositions of play sand mean that much of the dirt and debris in your pool water will just pass through the filter. It just isn't very effective at cleaning your pool water.
The Bottom Line
Play sand simply won't keep your pool as clean as it should be. Beach sand and play sand may introduce contaminants and insects into your pool, as well, and are much more likely to travel out of the filter and into the pool itself.
Your filter may be clean and normal at 9-10 psi, but your neighbor's filter gauge could run higher, and be clean at 15-16 psi. Some systems with very low resistance can run very low pressures, barely registering, while other filter systems can run quite high, pushing 30 psi when the filter becomes dirty.
The 'Rinse' setting should be used after backwashing and again run just for a minute or two. On this setting the water is flowing through the filter in the normal direction but once again is being sent to the waste pipe rather than being returned to the pool.