Hi

Just wondering what I'm doing wrong as when ever I hoover my pool or back wash the filter a small amount of filter sand is pumped into the pool after I switch the pump back on.

It's only about a handful but it's getting on my nerves now, any ideas?

have you looked at Mitzy's pool thread?

How long has it been happening ?
It could be too much sand in the filter, or a split in the pipe that runs through the sand.
Some pipework systems need a valve cracked open when backwashing and rinsing.
Does the pressure valve show a reading when backwashing ?

In the bottom of the filter is an assembly known as a collector. It has about eight plastic tentacles going off of it like an octopus and after a period of time they become brittle and break allowing sand to get into the circulation system.

Its been a few years since i had my own pool , however when i did and i backwashed the filter i was told to always follow a back wash with a small rinse to waste , prior to switching back to normal filtering..

try that then the small crap will be flushed to the ground rather than back in the pool

It's been happening ever since Mrs Balboa started doing the hoovering. Our old gardener showed her how to do it but oddly enough it never did it when he was around. We just close one valve and open the other and then it's ready to hoover to filter or to waste.

The sand in the filter was changed about a year ago so I don't think it's too much sand otherwise it would have been doing it straight after it was changed (perhaps)?

Pressure valve does show a reading when back washing but it can be quite erratic.


Is this on the outside of the tank? I've had a look at the botton of mine and there's nothing there.

Yep tried that and it's still the same. If I leave it for a while before switching it back to filter it sometimes doesn't do it

I'm probably best calling an expert in to look at it but no doubt I will be told the whole thing is buggered and needs replacing at a cost of a thousand euro's (standard practise round these parts)

The collector pipes are inside the filter (tank) underneath all of the sand.

If anything does need replacing you may be able to do it yourself but it is a time consuming and tedious job. I recently changed the collector pipes in my filter but it is a large one with 350kg of sand and you have to get it all out with a mug sized container.

This represents several hours of backbreaking work and accounts for much of the cost. If you can do this you will save a lot on money and you should be able to buy replacement collector pipes. Don't just replace the one that is broken but change them all because if one is broken now you can be fairly sure the the others will soon follow. However, if it is one of these pipes that is broken sand would continuously flow back into the pool so you should explore every other possibility first.

One other thing you could do is take the top off the sand filter and make sure the breather pipe is above the level of the sand.

I don't want to cast aspersions on Mrs Balboa's pool cleaning skills but I assume that she is doing the vacuuming with the multiport valve in the correct position. ie 'Filtration'

Thanks Beachcomber.

It did coss my mind that if the pipe was broken then surely sand would constantly pump out but it doesn't, it's only about a cup full straight after switching the multiport valve back to filter and/or turning the valves back from the hoover position.

It's just a little bit annoying as you spend an hour hoovering the pool only for the shallow end to be covered in sand grit again.

I relieved Mrs Balboa from her duties a few weeks back just in case it was the obvious

I'll check the breather pipe to see if it's in the correct position.

Cheers.