Dirt coming thru my jets when i vacum

[jdudge]

i have the same problem with dirty water being shot into the pool on start up.. I have a hayward CE 75 DE filter with filter fingers. I've taken it apart and reassembled. Replaced the Diaphram, the top plate and a few suspect fingers so far. The suction and return rate is great. The problem is when I vacuum the visible dirt the pressure is not building up in the filter as it should when it gets dirty.. The only part left to replace is the bottom plate.
Never had this problem before.

[paulbest]

with sand filters, dirts can be pushed directly through the filter. thus when this situation happens, this may indicate an internal filter problems or a problem with the filter control valve. old or loose valves permits the water to elude the filter and return to the pool unfiltered.

into the bargain, sand filter works well when its a little dry, so prior vacuuming the pool using sand filter, it is highly recommended to not backwash it. you may also want to add filter aids which supplies additional layer of the sand bed to help trap more dirt.

another tip here is to set your multiport valve into "waste". this will pull the water from your pool and directly out of the backwash port. this works effectively especially to debris that are very tiny, fine and small which mainly causes the clogging of your filter.

[GrahamC]

I am having the same problem but have a cartridge filter. I thought the cartridge filter should be good enough to filter out the finer particles.
Somebody gave me some clarifier tablets (aluminium sulphate) which i believe make the particles clog so they are bigger, but it says do not use with cartridge filter.
It is getting very frustrating… pool water looks nice and clear, I vac the bottom and all the dirt spits back through the returns and hey presto - cloudy water!
Company that plumbed in pump etc to cartridge filter and air source heat pump have not included a valve to waste - is this best practice or should they have put one in?
What should I do?

[Denniswiseman]

Is there some propriety additive that can be added to the skimmer to make the your filter more efficient
We add Diatomaceous Earth to our sand filter to get the fine particles but that isn't recommended for cartridge filters
If you don't have a MPV with waste on it. It would have been a good idea to be able to divert your water to waste

I have seen this post about connecting to waste with a cart (not sure if it will work for you)
1. Remove drain plug at the bottom of the cartridge filter canister. Its 1.5 inches threaded.
2. Thread in an adapter or coupling to 1.5 pvc.
3. Then a shut off valve then a 1.5 drain pipe.
4. When I need to drain down the pool open the shut off valve and turn on the pool pump.

[mlbmeep12]

I have a 2nd year old sand filter. I vacuumed a bunch of dead algae off the bottom. Had it set to "waste" while vacuuming. Once I restarted the filter on "filter" all the dirt and debris I vacuumed came shooting out of the circulation jets. This filter is only on it's second season, so I'm not sure what is going on. I've only used an Polaris automatic vac before this, so I'm not sure if I did something wrong or what. It is my understanding that when set to "waste" the water is bypassing the filter (and thus the lines back to the pool), so there is no way that water and dirt should have been able to get back into my pool. My nearly perfectly clear pool now looks like it does when we open in the spring. Can't see the bottom. I'm feeling very defeated by this thing right now. Any ideas on what is going on? Thanks!

[Teapot]

Is the multiport plumbed correctly? Don't laugh but I once drove 150miles to solve a similar issue which turned out to be plumbing!
When you vacuum to waste there is a lot of water coming out of the waste pipe?
You need to be running the hose to top up at the same time as it will empty the pool very quickly. Maybe run a backwash and rinse before going back to filter just in case

[Denniswiseman]

Did you set the MPV to RINSE after vacuuming to waste which should be done even after backwashing
Don't worry though it will settle down and you can do it again