I bought a house with a pool equipped with a American Products Titan Vertical Grid pressurized DE filter (Model 5662310) and no owners manual.
I have been able to figure out most things, but would like to find an online manual somewhere to walk me through the backwash process (I am new to swimming pools).
I did the normal Google search, but have not been able to find a manual.
If someone out there knows the url for a manual, or has a similar filter and would be kind enough to give me a step-by-step on how to do this, I would be very grateful. Thank you very much.
Don't know if your filter is similar to mine, but I will share my experiences with my DE filter, as your filter is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING on your pool.
Mine is the big two piece stainless steel kind. Has a top and a bottom. When you pop the big ring off, you then take the top off, and you can see the grid assembly.
Most DE setups are something like this configuration, and have access to the inner parts for service or replacement.
Switching/opening/closing valves is usually a pretty simple thing. And there is one very common valve that has a brass handle and a slider assembly that is on a lot of pools. Yours may be different. Usually, just throwing this valve will backwash the filter. BUT, you have to turn off the pump, or it is difficult, and you get water slam that can hurt your pipe joints.
That being said, I will get to what I consider the important part.
I clean my DE filter about every four months depending on the amount of trash that blows into the pool. When I first started, I would just throw the backwash valve and let it run for a while. It sucks a lot of water out of the pool which has to be replaced, affecting the stabilizer, ph, and chlorine levels, necessitating addition of chemicals. One time, I just had to see how good a job this backwashing was doing, so I took off the top of the filter after backwashing. I had used about a foot deep of water in a
36,000 gallon pool, so I had run a lot of water through it. There was a tremendous amount of DE and crud left.
So, now, I totally disassemble the filter and use a sprayer to clean off all the DE. It still takes a lot of time, and there are a lot of nooks and crannies to get into to get all the old DE and crud off. But when I fire it up again, I know that the filter is TOTALLY CLEAN.
So, even if you do learn how to backwash your filter, you may want to dive into it at a deeper level and see if what you are doing is working well or not. I just told you about MINE. YOURS may do different, and yours might work perfectly and flush out all the crud when you backwash it. You just have to be sure.
Sorry I couldn't help you with the valves and such. You will figure that out, and it's pretty simple after that. But it is important to understand how this works, and keep tabs on how well it is working inside where you can't see. Otherwise, you are wasting your time, wasting DE, and your filter is not working at peak efficiency.
Thank you for your informed response. I did figure out how to get the backflush to work -- it dropped the water pressure by about 8 psi, so it must have removed some of the grit. I do like your idea about taking it apart and cleaning it properly,though. I think I will try that in a month or so. It is a newish filter, but I am curious what condition it might be in internally.
If I hadn't taken mine apart after I flushed it, and just assumed it was working properly, I would have been wasting money and not having clean water.
If you do disassemble after flushing, and find it cleans itself out good, that is the last time you have to do it. Well, I would take it apart at least once a year to make double sure all is right.
Wish mine worked like it is supposed to. Throwing a valve would be lots easier than taking it apart every time.
I use a 500lb Hayward Sand filter and add a bit of DE through the skimmer as an added clarifier. Remember with a DE filter you NEED to replenish The DE after you backwash/clean the filter or it becomes inefficient Check with your local pool supply for details.
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