Tortillas in the pool make me laugh

In this episode, Andrea discusses the importance of pool filtration, different types of filters, and best practices for maintenance. She shares insights on how filters impact water clarity, safety tips, and common mistakes to avoid.

Keywords

pool filtration, pool maintenance, DE filters, sand filters, cartridge filters, pool chemistry, water clarity, pool safety

Key Topics

• Pool filter types (sand, DE, cartridge)
• Proper filter maintenance and cleaning
• Water clarity and turbidity measurement
• Safety tips for filter handling and backwashing
• Common mistakes and troubleshooting in pool filtration

Sound Bites

• "Tortillas in the pool make me laugh"
• "Congratulations to the winner, Keith"
• "Do you want to swim in a clean pool?"

Chapters

00:00
Conclusion and Key Takeaways

22:08
The Importance of PSI in Pool Maintenance

23:20
Cleaning Cartridge Filters: Best Practices

27:26
Using Degreasers and Enzymes Effectively

30:41
Acid Washing Cartridges: When and How

32:19
Safety Precautions with DE Powder

33:43
Maintaining DE Filters: Key Steps

41:02
Sand Filters: Backwashing and Maintenance

43:53
Final Thoughts on Filter Maintenance

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:53

I want all you Florida people to listen up because you're doing it wrong. Okay, I've been saying this for a while, and you are doing it wrong. Andrea Unfiltered! Hello, welcome to the Talking Pools Podcast. I'm Andrea. I'm wearing different clothes than normal, but I'll get to that in a second. And you are listening to my show on the Talking Pools podcast, which I don't know, I guess I decided to start calling it Andrea Unfiltered. It seemed like a good name. So whatever. I was looking for a name. Yeah, so I'm Andrea, and I'm here by myself, but that's okay. I'll get to that later in a second. If you are not new here and you have been listening to my episodes for a little while, you know that I have taken a little bit of a break. I'm back. So don't worry about it. Now, nothing really crazy happened except for Paulette left the show, which is why she's not here with me. That's it. She's just not. She decided not that she didn't want to be on the podcast anymore, which is fine. And so I'll just, you know, work it out. Anyway, that's it. Just took a break. Things got crazy. I had uh, you know, a lot of responsibilities and just needed a break. So anyway, before I get to part two of the episode that aired before I took my break about filtration, after I get done, it's gonna go right into part two, and I'll be not dressed like this when it switches over. I highly suggest you go back and listen to part one because you know I work really hard on it, and there's a lot of good information in there. Try to make it so that there's something you learn like legit that you didn't know before, or like I said in the other thing, like maybe you forgot you, you you learned it way in the beginning, and you've been doing this for 45 years and you forgot. So let me get to the fun part. I did a giveaway, a contest a couple of days ago for this book, this book right here. This is the How to Get Rid of and Swimming Pool Algae by our friend Mr. Rudy Stankowitz. And also, turns out Rudy is also giving the winner the course that goes with his book. So you get a certified algae eradication specialist course certification if you pass it, but you'll have the book, so you should be able to pass it. So let me announce the winner, but let me tell you about the contest. So I just went on the social medias and I asked people to tell me what their biggest pool pet peeve was, and there were a lot of good answers. Um, we had I'll give you the had a lot of good answers. We had a lot of people trying to hide leaks or not wanting to fix leaks. That's a big one. That one drives me insane as well. People who just want stuff for free, like, you know, we don't just come and clean just because just because some leaves fell in on the day that we weren't there, or you know, we don't clean up after pressure washers and things like that for free. Well, at least not everybody does. So there were those comments. So my second and third favorite and no particular order was from Richard Kelly. And Richard says his biggest pee is when a customer asks to turn the salt cell down because they can taste the salt, or when they empty the skimmer basket on the deck, pure laziness. Now, I've never had anybody ask me to turn the cell down because they can taste it, but I have had somebody ask me if I could add a bag of salt because they can't taste the salt in the water. So to them, it needed salt. I was just like, whatever, okay, fine. And you know, it was really hard for me because I legitimately want to just I have very bad thoughts of one of things when I see people emptying the skimmer basket on the deck. Like you can literally take five steps over to a bush or maybe just take it inside the house and throw it in a garbage can or something like that. That one really does drive me nuts. I almost picked that one as the winner. And then my other favorite was from Eric Brill. Thank you. Both Eric and Richard, thank you both. Um Eric says his pet peeve is when you have to strategically slalom, when you have to strategically slalom dog poo with a pool cart, only to round the corner and see the pool full of toys, floating beer cans, cigarettes, and tortillas on the bottom, and other various food items from their weekly fies. The tortillas makes me laugh. I don't I don't know if I've ever had a tortilla. I've had chicken wings and a was it a corn on the cob, I think that I had in one of my pools one time. Yeah, that's crazy. The w that that's the worst is the dog crap-filled yard, and then you have toys, just like Eric said, all that crap all over the place. The worst. Okay, so thanks guys for those comments. And so, who was the winner you're asking? Well, the winner is Sears. Congratulations! So, like I said, you not only won the book, but Rudy has given you the course as well. So now you get to go online and take a test. Isn't that fun for you? Keith's answer, Keith's comment, Keith's comment was that his biggest pool pet peeve is when they have guests and they don't want you to put any chemicals in the pool. Also, when the dog is inside barking his head off and they just won't let the thing out to get some pets. I chose that as the answer as the winner because I literally like that is one that makes me want to quit. That's why I chose it. Like I came all this way. Okay, you want a clean pool to swim in, right? You don't want to do you want to swim in in algae or or whatever. I don't have algae in my pool. No, just kidding. But you know what I mean. Like, do you want to swim in a dirty pool? Do you want to swim in something with no chlorine? Do you want to you guys are gonna be peeing it on it, peeing in it? So that is the one that I feel like drives me the most nuts. And it happens quite frequently because of the Airbnb situation that we all unfortunately have to deal with and are stuck with, and it doesn't seem like there's any like logical solutions to it. So that's it. Keith is the winner. Thank you. Thanks to everybody for commenting and for playing along. I really appreciate it. I might have another, I may have another giveaway coming up. So if you want to try again for something cool, keep listening. And I will have details on that very soon. So watch out for my social media posts on that.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

The How to Get Rid of and Prevent Swimming Pool Algae Handbook is available on Amazon.com. Get your copy today. You can find the Algae Prevention and Eradication Specialist Certification course at www.onlinepoolclasses.com. Again, that is www.onlinepoolclasses.com.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

The next thing before I get to this recap that I'm gonna do is I'm putting out a call. Like I said, Plet's not a part of the show anymore. I don't really enjoy doing these episodes by myself. I feel like really awkward, you know. I don't know what to do with my hands. So if you are interested in a guest spot in guest hosting, let me know. Email me. My email is Andrea.talkingpools at gmail.com. I know I've had some people reach out one because I did I I did put this call out there before, and then you know, just it was right before the holidays, and then it just everything got all crazy, and so I never uh followed through. I'm so sorry. But you know, I I'm sorry. I'll be reaching out if you're still interested or just email me again. You can always hit me up on the social medias too if you are interested in doing that. So let me know. You know, I don't really I'm I'm not looking for I'm not looking for like product manufacturers. I mean, if you want to come on and talk about pool chemistry with me, I'm not I I don't want to have it be like, you know, just one giant ad. So if you want to contribute like actual pool knowledge, because I know almost everyone has started off cleaning pools or repairing pumps or doing something, and then you invented something or you moved on or whatever it is. So I'm interested in that. And if you are interested in that as well, like I said, hit me up. And so I think that's it. So let me just recap the filtration episode part one for you, just in case you don't want to go back. So let me scroll. The role of the filter, all right, it's not the heart of the system. I'm sorry, it's just not, it's the kidneys, not the lungs. The lungs have air, we breathe air, we don't want air in our pool system. So I'm going with kidneys. It's my show. So yeah, a pool filter is essential for maintaining clear, clear, clear, clean water. And pool care relies on three main components filtration, circulate filtration, circulation, and sanitization. Chemicals like chlorine sanitize the water, but the filter physically removes particles and debris. So the internal material that traps debris is called the filter media, and its effectiveness is measured by the size of the particles that it can capture. The particle size is measured in microns. We can see the human eye can see particles up to or down to 20 microns. Smaller particles removed from the water result in greater clarity. Water clarity and turbidity. Water clarity improves as suspended particles are removed. The amount of suspended material in the water is called turbidity, which is essentially the opposite of clarity. Turbidity can be measured with instruments, but simple visual checks such as clearly seeing the screws on a drain cover can also indicate acceptable clarity. Three main types of pool filters. All three of these types of filter can operate in either pressure side or suction side. I didn't know that there were suction side sand filters before writing this episode, so I learned something. Pressure side filters are installed after the pump in a closed tank where the pump pressure forces water through the filter media. You have DE filters, which used fossilized diatoms, DE powder. This powder coats the fabric grids called septums, which sounds weird to me, but I didn't pick the name. DE powder provides extremely fine filtration capturing particles around two to six microns. This is what we use in most of our commercial pools in Florida. I would say like maybe 85 to 90 percent. I know a lot of them, a lot of the newer ones did were starting to put sand filters on there. So cartridge filters, which is the newest the newest design of filter. This uses pleated polyester or treated paper cartridges. The filtration range is between 10 and 5 microns, depending on I guess the quality of the cartridge. They use less water than the other two, and they require less space on the equipment pad, so they have like a smaller prime. So sand filters, the water flows through the sand, the debris is trapped in the sand, and then as the sand collects, the filtration improves because the gaps in between the little sand particles, grains, the grains of sand get the gaps get smaller, and so the filtration improves. The typical filtration is around 25 microns. Alternative media can be used for sand. So there's glass media, which I literally was just having a conversation with somebody on Facebook today, and glass media, which I learned again, can filter down to uh 10, I'm sorry, three to ten microns. So actually gets you a little bit better than cartridge filtration, although you do have the drawbacks of having a gigantic, robust, rotund tank and gallons and gallons and gallons of water to backwash. Then we have our vacuum or suction side filters, and these are positioned before the pump, usually in gravity-fed systems, so water will flow from the drain to from the drain or the skimmers or whatever into a collection tank or a surge tank, and then the filter media is inside this tank. As I said, all three filter types, sand, cartridge, and DE, can all be on the suction side. I, as I said, have never dealt with a sand, a suction, sand filter. Suction cartridge systems are really difficult to deal with because you have to reach down into the pit and you have to pull the cartridges off of their fittings, little things that they sit on to filter the water properly. And they use usually have to screw, there's like a cap on them, and you have to screw them off, and then you have to let and it's heavy and you have to lift them all out. So it's a challenge. The DE systems, I am I could do it one-handed back backwards. You can do it backwards. You can't do it backwards. I could do it blindfolded with my hands tied behind my back, but I would have to be telling somebody what to do because you kind of do need your hands to backwash a DE filter. You literally can't, it's impossible to do it with your hands tied. You'd probably hurt yourself very badly or someone else. So DE systems, as I said, the grids are coated with powder and they must maintain a certain flow rate in order for the DE powder to stay on the grids. You have your vacuum cartridge systems, which I said, which I had just described as being fairly difficult to deal with, but you know, whatever. And then you have your sand systems, which they're rare and again they're often located inside of a large open steel tank, which is installed at ground level. I believe it said the tanks could be about eight to ten feet deep, which is consistent with uh DE tanks. Seems like the sand filter tanks are a lot bigger though. So that's it. Part two is gonna focus on the filter cycle and what that actually means, because I didn't know what that meant either. See, we're all learning things together. So yeah, part two focuses on the filter cycle and how to properly operate the filter, a little bit of how they are cleaned. I don't go into a whole lot of detail, but good enough. Anyway, that's it. Thank you guys so much for joining me on this special return episode. And I hope everybody has a great week. Keith, message me and I'll get you your stuff. Or I guess I'll just message you when I'm done recording this. But yeah, so thanks for listening again. Like I said, email me, share the show for me, please. That would be fantastic. Like and subscribe and follow if you don't already. And if you got something to contribute, let me know. And that's it. Bye.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

In an industry built as much on shared knowledge as it is on technical skill, mentorship remains a vital force shaping our collective future. Recognizing that influence, and the fact that none of us just magically woke up one morning knowing how to clear a swamp, rebuild a pump, or explain cyanuric acid to a homeowner who thinks chlorine is a conspiracy, the Talking Pools Podcast has officially opened nominations for the second annual Talking Pools Podcast Mentor of the Year Award. It's our way of honoring the men and women in this trade who take the time to teach the next generation how to figure it out. The ones who answer the phone when a rookie's staring at a green pool that looks like the Everglades and whisper the ancient industry wisdom. Relax, kid. Let's do this together. What are your water test results telling you? The award, created by Rudy Stankowitz, founder of Aquatic Facility Training and Consultants and host of the Talking Pools Podcast Network, was established to recognize the individuals who quietly guide the next generation of pool professionals, often without recognition, publicity, or formal titles. The pool industry has always been built on apprenticeship, said Stankowitz. Most of us can point to someone who took the time not just to answer our questions, but to give us the tools to develop real industry acumen, someone who showed us what to look for when water chemistry didn't make sense yet, or how to approach a problem the right way, or even how to start up our own pool service company. Unlike many traditional awards programs, the Talking Pools Mentor of the Year Award is designed to recognize mentorship as it actually happens in the field. Nominees are not evaluated by votes or titles. We need those awards in the industry as well. But this one can only be done justice by gauging real-world influence in developing technicians, improving professionalism, and helping others grow within the industry, emphasizing genuine impact. Eligible nominees may come from any area of the pool industry trades, including pool service professionals, builders and contractors, retail professionals, manufacturer representatives, trainers and educators, consultants and industry leaders. What unites the nominees is their commitment to helping others succeed. Mentors often serve as the first line of professional development in an industry where much of the training happens informally, through ride-along training, troubleshooting calls, or simply being available when someone is facing a difficult situation in the field. Building on the success of the inaugural award. The inaugural 2025 Talking Pools Podcast Mentor of the Year Award recognized Rich Gallo of Pure Swim, whose dedication to mentoring pool professionals earned nominations from across the industry. The award caught on fast inside the pool industry, probably because everybody in this business knows the same ugly truth. If we don't start teaching the next generation how to do this job properly, we're going to end up with a whole army of people dumping chlorine into pools like they're seasoning a pot of sauce. The Talking Pools crew decided to do something different. They show up at the winner's workplace, a surprise visit and the presentation of the Talking Pools Podcast Mentor of the Year Championship Belt. A big, unapologetic, over-the-top symbol that says, This person right here actually took the time to help other people figure this crazy industry out. Because mentorship in the pool world happens on pool decks, in service trucks, and usually while somebody's explaining how to troubleshoot why the water just turned the color of Lime Gatorade, the unconventional presentation reflects the spirit of the award, celebrating mentorship where it actually happens. Nominations for the 2026 Talking Pools Podcast, Mentor of the Year Award, open March 15th and will remain open through May 15, 2026. Industry professionals are invited to nominate a mentor who has played a significant role in helping them develop their skills, build their business, or navigate the challenges of the pool industry, especially those demonstrating practical mentorship, such as teaching, troubleshooting, or on-site training. Nominees will be reviewed by the Talking Pools podcast hosts, and a group of top ten finalists will be selected before the final winner is announced later in the year. The recipient will receive the Talking Pools Podcast Mentor of the Year Championship belt, along with recognition across the Talking Pools Podcast Network and affiliated industry media, highlighting the award's value and encouraging nominations. A growing focus on mentorship in the pool industry programs like the Talking Pools Mentor of the Year Award help highlight the importance of those efforts and encourage more professionals to take on mentoring roles within their organizations and communities. Mentorship is the bridge between experience and the future, Stankowitz said. If we want this industry to continue growing and improving, we have to recognize and support the people who are teaching the next generation. Pool professionals wishing to nominate a mentor may submit the nominee's name along with a description of how that individual has influenced their career or the industry. Self-nominations and nominations by immediate family members are not eligible. Nominations can be submitted at cpoclass.com and click on the Talking Pools Podcast. Mentor Award tab. Visit CPOClass.com and click on the Talking Pools Podcast. Mentor Award tab. The Talking Pools Podcast is a global podcast network serving swimming pool professionals with discussions on water chemistry, pool service operations, construction practices, safety, and business development. Featuring hosts from the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, the program reaches thousands of industry professionals each week and has become a leading voice for education and mentorship in the aquatic trades. Listen to the Talking Pools podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts now.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Flocculant andor alum aluminum sulfate. The reason, if you've ever used these products or if you've thought about using them, you are supposed to either bypass the media completely, uh, you put the if it's a if it's got a multi-port valve, you you put it and recirculate. If it is a cartridge filter, you can take the cartridge out completely. And the reason for this is because these products fill those gaps between either the sand particles or the fibers in the fabrics and will stick together and form just like a basic, not basic, will form a large mass and basically be like a brick, and obviously will not filter properly. So that is why you must be careful using those things. You can use um a small amount, very tiny, teeny, tiny, small amount of DE powder in a sand or in a cartridge filter, but this is only for like a one-time thing where you're gonna clean the filter out and discard the DE powder because it's going to drop the pressure and and drop the flow. And eventually, if you leave it in there for too long, it is going to cause you a problem instead of help the problem that you were trying to eliminate. But it can work if you do it for a very short time. So now we can get into cleaning the filters. Cartridges, pressure side cartridges. To a certain extent, also the same applies to vacuum cartridges. We are talking about the cartridges themselves. So the cartridges, cartridge cartridges are removed from the tank, and then you just want to use a hose to spray them off. Using a spray nozzle is ideal. I prefer to use a spray nozzle because using your finger with just the hose is not good. And then, but you don't want anything that's like majorly too high pressure, like an actual pressure washer, because you're just gonna destroy the fabric. And then you want to replace them after they are clean. Replace them after they are clean. As I talked about the air bleed sock things, make sure those are in place, make sure the tube, the air tubes are in place, any any inner like filter parts. I once put together, I once took apart a well, first I took it apart, then I put it back together. I put it together without the manifold that goes on top. It was one, I think it was a Jandy, I think it was a CV460, and I put the whole entire thing back together with the clamp and the locking ring thing all back together without the manifold on the top and it was in the bushes. I was like, oh my god, I had to take it all back apart. And then you want to make sure you check out the O-ring, lube it up if she needs it. If you um, you know, if you have trouble taking the lid off in the first place, you know you're gonna need to lube it, okay? It's a tip from me. Also, here's a good tip that I just learned recently after 20 years of doing this, and I want to shout out Phil for this one. So thank you, Phil. You want to remove the drain plug before opening the lid. Why? Because this will prevent any dirty water from going into the clean part of the filter where it returns to the pool. So, me having been doing it one way for 20 years, I'll tell you how I do it. Okay, I open the air relief valve, you know, obviously turn off the pool, open the air relief valve, take off the lid, take the tank out, drain the tank, hose it out, clean the filter, you know, clean the cartridge element, put it back together, and then start the system back up. Well, doing it that way allows the dirty water to go into the part of the tank where the clean water is supposed to go back to the filter. So if you open the drain plug and you can go watch Phil's video or go to his TikTok, the pool artisan is his TikTok. If you go there and check out his video on it, he actually shows it to you. If you open the drain plug first before you open the tank, the water exits the tank. And then when you open the lid and you take the cartridge out, you don't have all that dirty muck water floating around and then going back into the pool when you turn it all back on. Now I will say, I I don't that doesn't apply to sand filters. So you want to backwash a sand filter before you vacuum the pool. That's another tip, especially if it has one of those plunger valves. Those are awful, which those can be on DE filters too. So back to cartridges. Remove the drain plug before you open the lid. I know drain plugs are a pain in the ass almost all of the time, but trust me when I tell you that that was such a life-changing thing that I actually implemented because sometimes I don't actually like do things that I learn about. I just keep doing it the way I've been doing it. If you know me, you know. But yeah, I I highly recommend doing that. Also, you get to replace drain plugs if they're messed up on the filters. Okay, so degreaser and enzymes. I recommend doing this to filters that get with in pools that are, you know, used a lot, high use uh spas, sweaty, greasy people just all the time. Now you can soak the cartridge. You can get like a bucket or a garbage can or whatever. Um, and you want and you can dilute the enzymes or degreaser or both, not at the same time. Okay, we don't do chemical mixing experiments, but you can do a process of you know, one of degrease or one of enzymes, or just one if you want. I don't care. Now, the manufacturers of the cartridges and the CPO book all state that this is very important that you degrease. Um, they did not, they don't they don't recommend enzymes in particular. That's me recommending that to you because enzymes are amazing for everything, and I I use it for this purpose. So I'm not telling you something that I just made up, I'm telling you my actual lived experienced tips. Anyway, they can be sorry, you have to do this first before any acid washing to avoid any oil from being set into the fabrics, and then it just becomes impossible to clean. And I think that's when they start to get really heavy. Now, everyone gets really mad at me when I post videos of acid washing cartridges. I don't know why I state I try to tell people in the videos, like, I'm going to throw this cartridge away next week. Okay, like that is the only time I will acid wash a cartridge. And I'm not even gonna get into about where I do it and how I do it. That's a whole different episode. My point here is that in the CPO, actually, in the CPO book, it says in the CPO book, and as I mentioned, the actual filter manu the cartridge manufacturer, one out of two of them, the second one just recommended their own products. So I could go through the SDS and see exactly what every single one of them is. I imagine there's a product that contains acid because how else are you gonna get rid of scale on the cartridge? Okay. Like I said, this is one of those things where you do it only if you really, really, really, really need to. And for me, I do it only when the pool is not functioning properly. It has a crazy amount of algae, like if I'm doing a green to clean, or if, you know, I just want the pool to be clean and the filter and just hosing it off is not gonna do it. And the customer has already agreed to getting a new cartridge. If I say, hey, I'm gonna acid wash this, or I need to acid wash this, do you need are you gonna get a new filter? If they say no, then I'm probably not gonna do it because it's just gonna be harder for me later because I'm the one taking care of the pool, right? And trust me, I wouldn't stare you wrong. I promise. So an acid wash is okay in those circumstances under those conditions. And then, of course, you want to be safe, you know, don't do it in someone's rose garden. Just go watch my TikTok. Anyway, I have more information from the filter manufacturer. Isn't that nice? I wrote it down and I forgot all about it. And here's what the CPO book says, by the way, on page 146 in the 2014 version of the CPO manual. It says, after a thorough oh, and I quote uh after a thorough rinsing, any minerals can be removed with a light acid wash. And then here is from the filter manufacturer as a rule of thumb, acid wash only when required, if at all, and never without thoroughly cleaning the element with the cartridge degreaser first. And then they go on to recommend applying a several drops of applying several drops of acid directly to a small area of the filter media. If bubbling occurs, this indicates you should proceed with a mild acid soak, and then they say to go check their instructions, which are one part muatic acid to 20 parts of water until all bubbling stops. Now it is time to replace the cartridge. I think I mentioned a little bit when the fabric gets all fuzzy, if the bands around the outside break, if the pleats are collapsed, sometimes at the bottom they'll be bent if you have any cracks at the end caps, or if the fabric is like super heavily saturated or stained, or if the whole thing is just really heavy, it's usually an indicator for me. If you have like a if it won't come back white again, you know, that's usually an indicator of the life draining from it. And let's see, next we have DE. And real quick, I want to go over DE powder safety, and it's extremely important to handle it safely. So you want to make sure that you cover your face, don't store it in an open area. It can apparently cause damage to mechanical equipment because it is so it's super sharp at the microscopic level. This is why it causes lung damage, but also motor, it can cause motor failure, pump failure, because it becomes airborne very easily. It's super fine, and then it will enter into the windings and the parts and things, and it will corrode things. Also, it can contaminate reagents if it's you know blown around all airborne, which you don't want. Now you have the pressure side DE, which is pretty much exactly the same as a sand filter in the way that it in the way that you backwash it. It has the filter rinse, you know, all those same cycles, except that instead of just being one tank, it has a top and a bottom, and then, you know, some type of thing that locks it together, a ring or clamps, bolts, or whatever. So then the internal grid assembly is basically the same as a vacuum DE in that it is plastic grids coated in fabric, but instead of being round or circular, they're more like a I guess a fin type shape, and they're arranged in a circular way around the center of the thing. And so then water enters the tank through a multi port valve, just like with the sand filter, and then is apparently directed to the bottom of the tank, and then it is and then it it gets onto the it's then collected on the grids, and then dirt and debris are trapped in the DE powder. And so then when you backwash it, you must add new DE powder. Usually that's done through the skimmer. You just want to make sure it's not a good idea to just dump it dry into the skimmer because it is so unsafe to breathe in. It's also better for the filter capability for the for the DE powder to win as a slurry as opposed to a dry powder because then it could end up chunky and it's not going to filter properly. Every once in a while, at a reg at regular intervals, preferably, you want to remove the grids from inside the tank and clean them off manually. So even though you're backwashing, not all of the DE escapes the tank, and some of it, some of the old DE is is deposited back onto the grids. And so you want to take that apart, hose them all down, clean it down. Same thing as with the cartridge filter, you want to do enzymes and or degreaser first, and then a light, delicate, soft acid wash afterwards, if necessary. Now with vacuum DE powder, I mean not powder, vacuum DE filters, replacing the DE powder is called pre-coating. So what you want to do is you isolate the tank from the pool, and there's a separate tank, uh separate pump for this. Usually we just call it a vac pump because it's also used to vacuum the pool when we still used dedicated suction lines. So if I say vac pump, that's what I mean. The used should be, Florida, we're looking at you, should be collected and discarded in a way that is compliant with local codes and should never be drained into sewers or open bodies of water. Now, as the water drains from the tank, the main pump is shut off and the grids become exposed. Then a hose is used to spray off the grids and to rinse down the whole inside of the tank. Now, for this, I feel like me personally, this is not like a rule or anything like that. Me personally, I feel like a spray nozzle is a little bit too harsh on the DE grids, or at least like a full jet. Like if you maybe had one that you could throttle a little bit and have it spray a little bit more gently as opposed to something super high pressured. Um, because the fabric does tear pretty easily in the uh with the DE filter, a little bit more easily than with a cartridge filter. So you want to rinse the whole inside of the tank, and then after that's done, so that all goes out to waste, as I said. Um, I think I said it. After everything is cleaned, then you refill the tank with the pool water. So you're gonna switch around some valves. Actually, it's uh if you're if you're doing a a big commercial pool, it's really huge, like eight-inch valves, plunger valves. So then you want to again refill with the pool water, and then you set the vac pump or the secondary pump to well, you don't set the pump, but you set the valves so that the pump recirculates instead of draining. And then this is why I brought up a little bit earlier. This is the same this is you want to do this with pressure side and with DE and with vacuum DE. Mix the DE powder with water, please. Don't just dump it in dry, because nobody likes that. Also, your lungs don't like breathing in DE powder. So your lungs don't like it, and the filter doesn't like it because as I said, B, it can result in uh the coating being all lumpy and you have pockets of air and you have just uneven, unevenly coated grids, which is a health code violation. The health department will make you fix it or shut you down if you cannot. Just mix it with water first and and do it safely. So then you want to pour the slurry, which is the DE mixed with water, you want to pour that around the tank as evenly as possible. I've had some tanks where you absolutely could not walk around the one side of it, so there is no way you could get into the other side. So just do the best you can. Now, after a minute or two, I like to let the DE circulate with the vac pump on for like at least two minutes. Well, at least one minute, two minutes. You want to have the water be an even color so that you get a nice even coating and you don't have any chunks or clumps or a whole lot of the DE settling to the bottom of the tank. So then you want after after you've mixed it sufficiently, turn on the main pump and then turn off your secondary pump, your back pump. Now, here's where it's important with DE powder because if you do not use enough, you will not have proper coating. You will not have it caked on properly to the grids. And you can get, well, not you can, it definitely will because people are oily and greasy. You'll have body oils, you'll have debris, you'll have these things that will stick to the fabric of the gri of the of the grids instead of DE powder. And then you'll have stained, yucky looking, you know, fabric and it won't filter right. Too much. Oh well that will that will reduce flow because you have oil stuck in your fabric and nobody wants that. Too much powder will make too thick of a cake on the grids, and obviously reduce filtration quality that way. It's called bridging. If you have too much and the powder forms a bridge and connects the two grids together in between the grids, and then it's not gonna filter because it's just a big pile of muddy DE. The normal amounts of DE powder range from one to one and a half pounds of powder per 10 square feet of filter area. Now I you have to know the size of the grids, so if they're like 18 inch or 19 inch or 20 inch or whatever, and then both sides get filtration or have area, and so you have to multiply all that together, and then it you can come up with the exact amount of DE in pounds. I'm sorry, I cannot help you with that at this time. There's a lot of information in here, and I just couldn't find it. Anyway, it's available somewhere. You can ask me, and I'll give it to you, or I'm sure Rudy's talked about it too. But as I said, one to one and a half pounds per 10 square feet of filter area. Now there are DE alternatives. You have a wood pulp fiber-based product. This also can be used in cartridge filters, not sand, but cartridge filters to help remove oils more easily to give you better filtration. And then the fibers do not need to be collected and discarded like DE does, it can just go to waste safely. And finally, we have sand filters. You have your backwash process, which is a rinse, waste, and rinse cycle. Now, as I said earlier, the water in a sand filter goes from the top to the bottom. Backwashing reverses the flow of the water, so now it's going from the bottom to the top, and then all the debris is flushed out. All the sand get this is why you need to leave room in the top. If you've ever installed a sand filter and put new sand in it, you need to leave room at the top. And the reason for that is this cycle here. Well, there's several reasons, but the sand gets pushed up and then it releases all the dirt, and then that goes through the collectors or the distributors, and then is flushed out to waste. And then you do the rinse cycle and the and the waste cycle cycle several different times, and then as I said earlier, you just want to make sure you plan on vacuuming after you backwash, just in case. And it just I did say earlier, especially if it's the plunger type valve, which I did not bring up, because you just either pull it up or pull it down. There's really not much to it, and those are old and a pain in the buttocks. And to wrap it all up, the low for flow problems that are caused by a dirty filter, if you are not cleaning your filter at the end of the filter cycle and you are waiting too long, you have low flow and you have high pressure. So, with low flow, you're gonna have heaters not working, you're gonna have vacuum systems not working. Obviously, I don't mean the vacuum systems that have dedicated pumps with no filters plumbed in. Sometimes they do, though. The build the builders get you. The vacuums will not work correctly, water filter, not water filters, water features will not function properly properly. You'll have people complaining about their spa is not spilling over that my my spa is not working, you know, things like that. And then if you have high pressure, as I talked about, you have damage to the filter media, you could have debris driven straight into the fabric weaves of cartridges or DE. You get the channeling and the sand filters, which is exactly what it sounds like. The debris goes through them instead of being filtered by the sand. So that's high pressure stuff that results in poorly maintained equipment, and then you you have an insufficient circulation. So make sure you are cleaning these filters because they are very important. They're not the heart of the system, that's for the pump. Remember that. So to wrap things up, you should clean the filter according to how how often the pool needs it. So this one once a month crap in Florida, I'm coming for you guys. All right, you want to use the pressure gauge to determine the end of the filter cycle. So, right now, think about all those pools who have pressure gauges that don't work and go replace those pressure gauges. Okay, charge everybody forty dollars. I actually am just kidding, I don't know how much. To cost, but replace them. Be like, listen, we need to get you a new filter gauge. They're very important. It's probably the most important part of the filter after the thing that holds it together and keeps it from exploding. Oh my god. You know, on that note, be careful and don't get careless when reassembling the filter tanks. I always make sure that I have the air relief valve open when I turn on the pump because I it's safer that way. If it, you know, if something happened and you didn't open it, at least it's just gonna pour out water. It's not gonna build up all that air pressure and send it like a bullet and almost hit the person in the pool next to you. If you saw that video on TikTok that went around a little while ago, that's exactly what happened. So just make sure you open the air relief valves. Make sure you it's it's a much better idea to turn off the pump before changing any valve position, even if you're just like changing something real quick to vacuum or to whatever. It's always a better idea to turn off the pump. I know not everybody's gonna do that all the time, but just be careful out there. And as you know, just to bring it back to the beginning, the filter is not the heart of the system, but the pool is only as clean as the filter. So I'm gonna leave you on that. And thank you to our sponsors, Revved Up Apparel. Please go check them out and follow Talking Pools on all the socials. You can follow me on all the socials, and I think that's it. Uh, I'll see you next Tuesday.

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Bye.