Sand filter drain plug

[TonyN]

Hi

I've changed the sand in my sand filter, everything running fine except.......the drain plug for the sand filter is now leaking. Its not leaking badly, but it is pooling in the pool hut, which is annoying. I've only tightened it by hand, and have since wrapped some teflon tape around the thread (obviously not all the way because I can't now take the drain plug off without losing a load of sand, and the water pressure will stop me getting the thread back on)but that isn't working!

Does anybody know of a product I can use, spray, silicone etc....? I've more or less decided to replace the sand filter in the closed season, its letting a small amount of sand back in to the pool.....

Thanks

 

[JVTrain]

Sand should not be coming out of the drain plug even if the filter is full of sand. There should be a screen over the drain opening on the inside to prevent sand from coming out. Is there an o-ring missing from the plug?

 

[TonyN]

Oh, right! Well I had a nightmare when I took off the drain plug to remove the water from the filter..........as well as the water, all of the sand poured out with it, covering my whole pool hut and flooding the Polaris pump up to half way, what a mess! I couldn't get the plug back on to stop it!

So maybe I've made a mistake with the plug......I wondered why there was a two part plug. A smaller piece, that I removed and nothing happened, and a larger piece that I unscrewed, and then couldn't get back on because of the water and sand flow! So it would make sense to have a screen to allow the water out but keep the sand in, although it did save probably a lot of time trying to scoop out the sand with a cup, 150kg!