Ruptured DE Filter cartridges

Pool Equipment
1

I am having issues with blown filter cartriges in my Pentiar DE Quad 100 Filters. The pool is new this spring and opened in May.

Pool Characteristics:

  1. 50,000+ gallons

  2. Two Pentair DE Quad 100 Filters (One filter is assigned to the 12 foot deep end. The other filter is assigned to the 3 skimmers)

  3. Three Pentair 3HP Intelliflo VSP pump. Each filter has its own pump. the other pump feeds rock slide and waterfall.

4) Return line is 2" and the flow can be split between the 6 returns and/or 2 shelf bubblers. (Both filters join into the same return 2’ return line.

  1. Pentair Hybrid heater

  2. SWC generator

  3. Sun shelf with 2 bubblers

  4. Waterslide and slide

History:

At the begining of July we came home to the entire pool floor coated in DE powder. The filter was opened and it was found that all 8 filters had ruptured through the blue rubber end cap. Spoke with my pool maintanice company and and no reason could be identified as the cause. New filters were placed and we moved on hoping it was a weird one time event. Recently larger white flakes started to appear at the return ports. My pools service said it was “pool dandruff” coming from the SWC and recommended an additive to help controll scaling. Today the filter was opened and we found that about 2/3 of the filters had ruptured. This time the pool service thinks it may be the highflow backwash valve causing the problem. I am at a loss as to the reason of continued filter cardridge failure. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

2

We’d be glad to assist you. The two common issues we see with ruptured cartridges is too much flow or plumbed backwards. Make sure the plumbing from the pump is going to the port on the valve that says pump/inlet and the line returning to the pool is coming out of the port labeled return/pool.

If it is plumbed correctly, I would look at the flow rate from the pump. The Pentair Quad DE filter is designed for a max flow rate of 160 gpm. It’s possible the flow at the highest RPM settings could exceed the designed flow rate of the filter. There are flow meters that can tap into the plumbing that will tell you the exact GPM.