Backwash! It's a Good Thing!

Backwash! It's a Good Thing!

Nope. You don't have to drink the water in your pool and leave your residual saliva behind to backwash. Backwashing is the process of cleaning your pool's filter thoroughly by reversing the flow of water. The process take a couple of minutes and needs to be done until the water runs clear through the waste line. Most people backwash when the pressure guage indicates a pressure rise of eight to 10 pounds above the clean/start up pressure. But, be careful not to OVER backwash! Otherwise your filter will never reach its full potential. A clean and maintained filter lowers your electrical bill, provides healthier pool water, prolongs your pool filter's life and prolongs the life of your filter pump motor.

EverClear Pool Service is great at backwashing! Just don't share your soda! The process is generally similar to this:

1) Turn off the power at the circuit breaker to the pump and turn off the pool pump before moving the multi port valve handle.

2) Depress the multiport valve handle from normal operation to the backwash setting. To prevent damage to the seal, always depress the valve all the way before you turn.

3) Lay the waste hose out to where you want to dump the water.

4) Turn the power back on and run the pump for two minutes. The water in the sight glass will turn from cloudy to clear.

5) Turn the power back off.

6) Depress the multiport valve handle again and this time turn it to RINSE. After backwashing, the sand will be loose and will need to be reset. Additionally, any dirty water from this process will need to be rinsed out of the filter to WASTE to prevent it from re entering the pool.

7) Turn the filter on and run filter at RINSE for a couple of minutes.

8) Turn the pump off, depress the multiport valve and turn it to the FILTER setting.

9) Turn the pool pump on for normal operation of the filter. Now, check the filter gauge to make sure it has dropped back down to where it's supposed to be. 

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