Today I’m going show you how to clean one of my favorite filters: the Pentair Quad D. E. diatomaceous earth filter.

The first thing we want to do is make sure that the pump is off and it stays off. We’ve got a Pentair variable speed pump. I’ll open the little pump door and show you how to turn it off. To put it in STOPPED Mode, I’m going to push the Start/ Stop button and you can see that it says Stopped. The pump will not turn back on. Whenever we clean a filter we always want to open the air bleed to relieve any pressure. On this filter its just a simple turn. You may be able to hear the air relieving itself. Now its OK to open.

[azon_inpost asin=”B004VU8UHK” tpl=”tpl_4″]Pentair 188592 Quad D.E. Cartridge Style D.E. Pool Filter, 60 Square Foot, 120 GPM[/azon_inpost]

I want to pull the manifold off the top- just kind of wiggle it and it pulls right off. That’s the air relief/ bleed screen. You can hose that off or just rinse it off in the pool. You don’t have to drain this filter, it’s nice if you can. If there are two things about this filter I wish that Pentair would improve, “Are you listening Pentair?”I wish they made this filter in black to match their other line of pumps and, the drain is in an awkward spot. I’ll show you where. As you can see, the drain plug is in a really awkward spot and its DIFFICULT to get to. Well, it doesn’t help when you tighten it! Its hard to tell which way to turn when its upside down. And once I get it I can open it and the water will spill out. I feel like I’m doing yoga right now. . . Now that the tank is drained, you just wiggle and pull the four elements out. These look much like paper elements but they’re not, they’re made out of polyester or nylon. They are a much heavy duty material but you HAVE TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU RECHARGE the FILTER with new diatomaceous earth, or, if you run straight dirty water through this you will ruin the these very quickly.

[azon_inpost asin=”B004VU8N6I” tpl=”tpl_4″]Pentair 178655 Cartridge Replacement Quad 80 Pool and Spa D.E. Filter[/azon_inpost]

Do you want to take a look in the bottom of the tank? And that’s what the tank looks like. So I found a nice place in the yard to clean the filters. There are SEVERAL things I like about the Quad D. E. filter: 1) it filters more fine particulate out than a regular paper cartridge filter 2) and from a service guy’s perspective, its SO EASY to clean. The pleats are much further apart so it doesn’t take as long to clean it, you don’t get as wet and its an easier clean up. Also, I use a DE alternative when I recharge the filter. I’ll show that when we recharge it (later in the video) but it makes less of a mess and its organic so that you don’t get diatomaceous earth, traditional diatomaceous earth that tends to leave white marks (residue) in the yard. I’ll go about cleaning it now. I think it took less than 2 minutes to clean that element and this backyard doesn’t even have very good water pressure on the hose. You could literally clean these out almost spotless in less than 15 minutes. You can’t do that with a large paper filter. That’s pretty clean! Can you see how easy the dirt comes out of here because its coated with diatomaceous earth? The diatomaceous earth is the filtration media which captures the dirt and coats the filter and it just comes out with very little water pressure. Its great. Four filters cleaned up pretty quickly- very easy to do. Now, let’s put them back together and we will recharge the filter. I’m back at the filter ready to put it back together. One of the things you always want to do is take off the o-ring. I always go dunk it in the pool just to get any grit or dirt off of it. Then you want to make sure that the groove that it sits in is nice and clean. This is a mistake that many people make when they don’t take the o-ring off and a little bit of DE or dirt builds up around it and when they put the clamp on the filter leaks. You can just hose it off or, just pour a little water on it and run your finger around it and it’s ready to go. If you look inside the filter you can see what it looks like after I’ve hosed it out and it’s all nice and clean. Put the bottom manifold back on, it just sits there. And now, I can put the elements back in. What I didn’t mention, another thing I love about this filter is they are so light even when they’re full of dirt, they are a lot lighter, a lot lighter than dirty paper cartridge elements.

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This is especially helpful for people who don’t have a lot of strength- maybe the elderly if you still have to clean your own filter. So, you can pick these up pretty easily and just set it in there. By the way, there’s no right-side-up. either way it goes in. I put my little screen on that’s been cleaned. Those just tap in place. . . . and my o-ring. Make sure there is nothing on this o-ring. And, I don’t believe in lubing the o-ring. I know a lot of retail stores will tell you they like to lube the o-ring. To me, it’s great for about a month and it’s nice and slippery and then the lube turns to glue and then it attracts dirt and it’s a big mess. When you need a new o-ring every couple years, just buy a new one, I am not a lube guy. The tank goes on any way you want. I always try to do it so the when the gauge is closed that it’s facing where you can see it well. Just set it on there. The clamp goes on either way. I’m a rightie so I like to put it on for me being right-handed. When I took it off it was left-handed and I don’t (personally) like it that way. It doesn’t matter which position the band goes in and the bolt. You can put it anywhere you want. I like to put it out of the way so I don’t catch my clothes on it or run into the bolt. So this is how we assemble it: little washer- and I’m detailing this because SO many people put this together incorrectly, we find it ALL the time. Spring, then I’ve got my nut, my washer and it slips inside and I tighten it. Now, most things on a pool equipment set you just want to hand-tighten, except the filter because its under pressure we really want to tighten it down pretty well. When it (the pump) turns on it will stretch it a little bit and it will loosen the band so I always like to tap it a few times to help seat it. You can use a rubber mallet, a rock, your socket, what have you, I’m using my socket today so I’m using it. After you tap it you’ll feel its loosening up a bit and you can crank it down a little bit more. That’s pretty good. You don’t have to go crazy tight as some people do (Scott!) but good-n-tight. And then, we have to put this. . . drain plug back on. . . PENTAIR, ARE YOU LISTENING? Black filter. . . drain plug in a different spot. PLEEEAASE?? Maybe on the side? You don’t want to go too tight here. Just snug because it is plastic. I always tend to go a little looser than tighter that way I don’t over-tighten it and crack it.

[azon_inpost asin=”B004W4TQJ6″ tpl=”tpl_4″]Pentair 190058 Pressure Gauge Replacement Pool/Spa Valve and Filter[/azon_inpost]

Worst case scenario it leaks a little bit and I can always give it another half-turn with my channel-locks. Let’s turn it (the pump) on and might as well do it right now and we’ll bleed the air out. I’ll turn the pump on. The variable speed pump will start up. We’ll wait for the water to fill up the tank. If you can picture this, there’s air in the tank and water is filling the tank up and as it fills it up it’s blowing the air out of the air relief. Once water comes out I’ll shut it (the air relief valve) off. Let’s go charge this thing up!Its time to charge the filter. You want to do this withing 5 minutes of bleeding the air out of the filter. You don’t want to wait too long because dirt is accumulating on those filters. I like to use the DE alternative called Aqua Perl.

There are several different brands. This is the one I prefer. As I said, you can wash it down the gutter- I don’t recommend that but it’s not illegal to do so (in my county)like it is diatomaceous earth and it cleans up well in the yard and goes away quickly. So this is a Quad 80 filter, not the Quad 60 that my cameraman told me!It’s a Quad 80 so it requires 8 one pound scoops of diatomaceous earth. Some people still use coffee cans and try to do the calculations. . . why bother?! Get yourself an orange pre-measured DE scoop. It might be $5, $10? It will last a long, long time and there’s no calculations. One of these is 1 pound. You don’t have to add all eight scoops at once. You can divide it up depending on how big your bucket is. And you don’t have to be perfect with the scoops.

[azon_inpost asin=”B004W4NH9Q” tpl=”tpl_4″]Pentair 178654 Cartridge Replacement Quad 60 Pool and Spa D.E. Filter[/azon_inpost]

You don’t have to pack it in. And this is very, very important: you want to mix the diatomaceous earth into a slurry-trust me, I’ve tried it on my own pool. You would think that by just pouring it into the skimmer that it would mix itself up on the (way to) the filter, it doesn’t. It will clumpy and actually find dry spots on your filter six months later when you clean it. What we’re going to now is we’re going to make a slurry just by stirring it with our hand or with a stick. You want to do so until all the lumps are out. Its very easy to tell. Once you do that, you slowly pour it into the skimmer. The pump will suck it through and then it will coat the filter. Four, five, six, seven, eight. . . Some people recommend wearing a mask when you’re doing this, it certainly wouldn’t hurt. I don’t unless it’s a windy day. Today the wind is pretty calm so it’s not blowing around but you definitely don’t want to stick you’re face in there and breathe it or snort it in. Another thing I love about this filter: with all the residue DE that may spill, you can always just wash it off into the pool or off of the deck. Any extra D. E. that goes in the pool is eventually going to be filtered through the system and its going to be trapped by the filter and help coat the filter. Now I have a nice clean work area. That’s it!That’s how you clean the Pentair Quad Diatomaceous Earth filter. Hopefully by the time you watch this, this filter will be available in black and the drain plug will be in a better position!This is a superior filter. I hope enjoy it on your pool. Thanks for watching, I’m Mike the Pool man.