Pool filter crack repair -- help

[AJScott]

I've got a Hayward Perflex DE filter that's developed two cracks in the lower section of the plastic filter housing. The filter's almost years old, and I'm guessing winter's subzero temps took its toll over the years while being stored in the unheated garage. At any rate, one of the cracks is fairly long (about 6"), the rest are only about 1". There's no leakage at all when full while the water inside is static, but once you kick on the pump, as expected you get geyser city from the cracks.

I'll have to eat the $179 to replace the part this season, but has anybody found something for sure that's waterproof and will hold up under the pump pressure as a band-aid until then? Epoxy? Tar? Something?

Thanks for the help.

Scott

[SQLit]

You might try plastic welding. I have seen it work on PVC before. Better find out what exactly the case is made of before you go very far. Me thinks it is time for a new one.

[Don Phillipson]

Sounds as if you did not drain the filter when storing it (which makes us wonder how you were able to move it full of water.) Every filter I have seen has a drain plug on the bottom for this purpose.

-- Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada)

[JMagerl]

Thinking out loud, without knowing the type of plastic: maybe a fiberglass repair kit? COmes with mesh tape to reinforce any cracks. might work if done from the inside.

[Richard J Kinch]

Tremendous tangential tension forces in tank walls can't be patched in this manner.

If you can find that infinitely-long hose clamp kit, use it as a band to keep the edges drawn together. Think of an old-fashioned wood barrel with iron staves. This will handle the force instead of the sealing material. Sealant will depend on the species of plastic; you must ID that before knowing what to use.

[RB]

Probably ABS.

RB

[Scout Lady]

We had the same filter and it cracked two years in a row. Epoxy doesn't work, hubby tried that.

[Bill]

Scott, I'm afraid you have learned an expensive lesson. Unless you run your pool pump year round, you must evacuate all the water from your pumps, filter, pool heater or any other components of your pool that are exposed to the weather because when they freeze in winter, the water inside expands and creates that crack you now have in your pump. My Dad forgot to winterize his camping trailer piping by blowing all the water out of the plumbing piping and the following spring he had several cracks in the cheapo plastic water pipe of his camping trailer.

Alternatively, you can just run your pool pump year round and that circulating water won't freeze unless it gets down to 40 below zero where you live.

Regards, Bill

[do_not_spam_me]

What's it made of? PVC (dissolves with lacquer thinner or carburetor spray) can be glued with PVC pipe cement (solvent), but I'd try to make a large patch and clamp it with some stainless band clamps. Polypropylene can be melted back together with a soldering iron (use a brand new, clean tip), using more polypropylene as filler, but polyethyelene doesn't weld well because it crystalizes. In any case I'd want to wrap the body in rigid plastic and use pipe clamps. Epoxy and super glue don't work well on plastics, but you may want to see if NBond has something.