I opened a pool in my new house in May. It is a 24 foot above ground. The filter is a Hayward Perflex DE. The pool and pump are about 20 years old and the previous owner replaced the pump 5 years ago. This is my first time using an earth filter. I’ve had advice from friends and family, everything is great for the most part but I have some questions. When I first opened the pool I added 2 lbs of earth until the pressure gauge stopped at 18 psi. I added a 3rd pound and the gauge did not move. I was told to add until the pressure stops rising. So I backwashes the filter for 1 minute thinking I had too much earth. 2 months later the pool has perfect chemistry and everything’s fine. Yesterday I accidentally ran the vacuum losing prime because of air and lost some DE through the jet for about 30 seconds. The pressure is still at 18, no remnants of de are visible. Everything seems to be fine. I did some research to see if I have lost to much DE only to find that on the filter label it says I should’ve added 5lbs of DE. So I have the following questions. Did I add enough de to begging with? Should I add more? Is my pressure too high? Should I just leave well enough alone? The pressure had risen from 18 to 19 after 2 months of operation. I did bump it to see what happened and it went back to 18. Thanks in advance!
Hayward Perflex DE Filter question
- Thread starter Hawk007
- Start date
- Jun 22, 2014
- 52,005
- Pool Size
- 17888
- Surface
- Fiberglass
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- CircuPool RJ-45 Plus
Welcome to TFP! 
I don't have a DE filter, but I'm going to give you a couple items to look at and I'm sure others will reply:
www.troublefreepool.com
www.troublefreepool.com
As for the pressure gauge, be careful about trusting a specific number each time unless you know for sure the gauge is serviceable and you know your clean (baseline) starting pressure. First, make sure the needle goes to zero when the system is off. If not, it's bad. Even if you don't know the history of the gauge, a new one may be in order if it was exposed to the cold last winter.
Next, once you have cleaned your filter and charged it for the first time with the proper amount of DE, make note of your starting pressure. That's your clean/baseline pressure. You will then backwash when it increases by 25%.
Hope the links help you out. Others will reply I'm sure. Have a good day.
ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
Test Kits Compared
I don't have a DE filter, but I'm going to give you a couple items to look at and I'm sure others will reply:
Maintenance and Cleaning of Pool Filters
Maintaining your swimming pool filter system is important. Learn how to clean and maintain your pool filter at low cost & enjoy a Trouble Free Pool.
www.troublefreepool.com
Use and care for DE filters
Hi all, :wave: I've been meaning to write up my 'pearls of wisdom re. DE filters' for a while, with some of our members already firing up their pools, I figured I better get it posted :oops...
www.troublefreepool.com
As for the pressure gauge, be careful about trusting a specific number each time unless you know for sure the gauge is serviceable and you know your clean (baseline) starting pressure. First, make sure the needle goes to zero when the system is off. If not, it's bad. Even if you don't know the history of the gauge, a new one may be in order if it was exposed to the cold last winter.
Next, once you have cleaned your filter and charged it for the first time with the proper amount of DE, make note of your starting pressure. That's your clean/baseline pressure. You will then backwash when it increases by 25%.
Hope the links help you out. Others will reply I'm sure. Have a good day.
ABCs of Pool Water Chemistry
Test Kits Compared
ZcottD
0
So before you added the 3 lbs total, the filter was cleaned at opening? Keeping things simple, since DE is cheap, once the heat dies down I would just clean the filter fingers, rinse out the filter tub and then add the 5 lbs its suppose to have. And as soon as you get that done and give it a few minutes to sit, then you could mark the current pressure as your good pressure.