Cartridge filter needs cleaning way more often than last season.

[Warren Dale]

Not sure what changed, but this year my cartridge filter seems to clog up way faster than it used to. I’m cleaning it every couple of weeks now, where last summer I could go a month or more. Same pool, same pump, same usage as far as I can tell. Pressure climbs quicker and flow drops off. Anyone run into this before?

 

[John Knight]

Not sure what changed, but this year my cartridge filter seems to clog up way faster than it used to. I’m cleaning it every couple of weeks now, where last summer I could go a month or more. Same pool, same pump, same usage as far as I can tell. Pressure climbs quicker and flow drops off. Anyone run into this before?

I had that happen when my cartridges were getting near the end of their life. They still looked okay visually but they just didn’t rinse clean anymore and clogged faster. Once I replaced them the pressure stayed stable a lot longer.

 

[Joe Smith]

Not sure what changed, but this year my cartridge filter seems to clog up way faster than it used to. I’m cleaning it every couple of weeks now, where last summer I could go a month or more. Same pool, same pump, same usage as far as I can tell. Pressure climbs quicker and flow drops off. Anyone run into this before?

Could also be more fine debris in the water this year. Pollen season was brutal where I live and my filter definitely felt it. I ended up adding a skimmer sock and it caught a ton of stuff before it even reached the filter.

 

[Danny Meerman]

Not sure what changed, but this year my cartridge filter seems to clog up way faster than it used to. I’m cleaning it every couple of weeks now, where last summer I could go a month or more. Same pool, same pump, same usage as far as I can tell. Pressure climbs quicker and flow drops off. Anyone run into this before?

Check your pump run time and speed if you’re running a variable speed pump. I was running mine too slow during the day which sounded efficient but actually let debris settle and then hit the filter all at once later. Adjusting the schedule helped spread the load out.

 

[Warren Dale]

All good points. The cartridges are a few years old so that might be part of it. I’ll also try the skimmer sock and take a look at my pump schedule. Appreciate the help.

 

[David Harris]

I agree with Danny Meerman on pump scheduling, but one thing that made my cartridges clog way faster was a small suction-side air leak creating microbubbles, then fine debris kept getting pulled through and packed tightly into the pleats, so pressure spiked even though the pool looked normal. I checked for bubbles in the pump basket, tightened the pump lid and skimmer-side fittings, then adjusted runtime to include a daytime surface-sweep window so junk hits the skimmer sooner, and my cleanings spaced back out. Do you see fine bubbles in the pump basket or returns, and how fast does pressure rise from your clean baseline?

 

[Oscar Ricci]

All good points. The cartridges are a few years old so that might be part of it. I’ll also try the skimmer sock and take a look at my pump schedule. Appreciate the help.

Looking at what Warren Dale described, I’d also lean toward cartridge age being part of it. In my system, the cartridge looked fine visually, but its ability to trap fine particles had declined. The result was faster pressure rise even though the pool didn’t look dirty. I also checked total dissolved solids and realized my bather load had been higher than usual, so the filter was simply under more stress than before.