How, Why, and When to Clean your Pool Filter

Your filter system is the heart and soul of your pool.  When it’s working well, it’s much easier to have the beautiful clean, clear, and safe pool water that we all desire.  When your filter is dirty, you may find yourself constantly battling to keep the water balanced, adding many extra chemicals, and fighting cloudy water.  So, how do you know when to clean your filter?  Why do you need to clean it?  And just how should you clean it, anyway?

First things first.  Hopefully, you’re keeping an eye on the pressure gauge of your filter and backwashing when it goes 10-20 psi above where it sets when it’s clean.  If not, you’re at least backwashing weekly…right?  (Oh, golly….if you’re not, PLEASE DO!)  Backwashing your filter takes all the layers of dust, bugs, algae, oils, who-knows-what off the top layers of your sand and washes it OUT of your filter.  This needs to be done on a regular basis so that your filter can run efficiently.  If it’s too dirty, the water flow will be slowed greatly.  Circulation is the #1 key to keeping you pool water healthy!

Even if you are backwashing regularly, I recommend you do a chemical cleaning of your filter at least once a year.  WHEN?  This can be done in the fall when you close you pool, or in the spring when you open it.

WHY?!  The chemical clean is going to strip any oils off your sand and pull out anything that might be stuck in those oils.  I’ve seen the backwash water, afterwards, run nearly black before.  Ew.  Get that stuff out of your filter!  If you know, logically, that you may get quite a bit of oils and the like in your filter, (for instance, if you use tanning oils, body oils, etc, or your family members do) feel free to clean it again mid-season.

{HOW to Chemically Clean Your Filter:  Purchase your cleaner–we recommend Quik Strip by BioGuard.  With your filter system running normally, pour the bottle down the skimmer closest to your sand filter.  Give it a moment for the water with the cleaner in it to reach your filter, then shut your system off.  Let it sit for about an hour, then switch to backwash and let it run until you’ve got clear water showing in your site glass.  This may take a few minutes–let it run!  After that, make sure you rinse your filter before putting it back on its normal setting.}

I hope all of these helps! Feel free, PLEASE, to ask any questions or voice any thoughts that come to mind!

Here are a few other articles you may be interested in:
100 Reasons for Cloudy Pool Water
Cleaning with Enzymes:  Natural Result
How Do I get Balanced, Safe Pool Water?

Thanks, as always!

Jen Allen
Central Iowa Pool & Spa
515-263-6900
jen@soakandswim.com