Dirty Pool Full-Court Press

by Felicia A. Williams

I know full-court press is a basketball analogy but that’s what I decided to do to get my pool clean. Enough of this half-hearted attempt at getting the pool clean. It’s time to spend an entire day getting up close and personal with the pool. I decided to treat the pool like a newborn.

When a newborn comes into the home, you watch every little sigh, gurgle, cry, movement, etc. to learn how to communicate with your newborn. Well, I decided to take 14 hours and do the same thing with the ever so dirty pool (this pool cleaning thing has been going on for too long and I just want to get it done).

A Grueling Day of Pool Cleaning

The day began at 6:00 AM. I manually cleaned my Hayward DE filter. I opened it up, hosed out the housing, cleaned the fingers and added new DE. Because of the extremely dirty condition of the pool, initially, I had to regenerate the filter every 5 to 10 minutes and change the DE every hour.

In between regenerations and DE changings I fished out dead leaves from the bottom of the pool. Doing so woke up the dormant dirt particles that were enjoying themselves on the bottom. I’ve got to say, the Hayward filter worked like a champ!

As the pool got cleaner and cleaner, the time between regenerations got longer and longer. By the end of the day, it went from every 5 minutes to once every hour and a half. Additionally, the need to clean the filter and replace the DE diminished also. Towards the end of the day, I threw in a bottle of shock and a bottle of algaecide in an attempt to get rid of the cloudiness and the green tint.

What a Difference A Day Makes

It was a long day, but I see definite improvements in the pool. I am growing an unhealthy fondness towards my Hayward DE EC40 Perflex filter. It took me a little getting used to. I had to learn how the filter liked to be treated and how it responds under various conditions, but I think its Pool Water Getting Cleaner well worth the learning curve. For those of you who complain that your Hayward DE filter’s pressure drops (meaning the force of the return flow) and the PSI level is rising too high, it’s because your pool water is dirty (Hayward filters are allergic to dirty water and they respond by raising pressure and slowing return flow).

A dog may bark when it needs to go out, a baby cries when she’s hungry and your car will shut off when it runs out of gas. Well, the Hayward DE filter has its own language. You may not want to do what needs to be done in order to get your pool water flow pressure up and PSI down, but cleaning the pool is the only way to maintain steady flow and pressure with a Hayward DE filter.

You will have to regenerate, backwash (for those with functioning backwash systems), clean the fingers and replace the DE as often as necessary to get the water clean. If you put in the hard work up front, you’ll be a happy camper for the rest of the pool season.

Not Home Free Yet

I don’t have crystal clear water yet. It needs a good vacuum and the pool walls scrubbed, but I think enough is enough for one day. I started at 6:00 AM and stopped at 8:00 PM. I learned a world of information about my filter and wouldn’t trade the lesson for the world. At least I know I’ve got a quality filter that can handle the dirtiest of pools (and I mean really dirty).

About the Author: Felicia Williams is a wife, mother and grandmother who likes to write about a host of topics.

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Last Modified: 24 March 2020