I mentioned yesterday that Brian has been working on getting the pool set back up. New pump (less horsepower and hopefully, not as big a drain on the electrical), new pipes, an inline chlorine feeder, and I guess you'd call the filter a rebuild. Or not.
We have a Hayward DE 720S pool filter. The DE is diatomacious earth, the 720 is the total square foot area of the filters. We've had this for as long as we've had the pool, at least twenty years. Once or twice a filter was replaced (there are eight pieces, seven long, one short) and once he replaced all of them. This time, a complete set of filters was ordered.
When Brian took it apart, he took it all apart. The old filters were thrown away and then he cleaned out the inside, which was really nasty, full of stuff that wasn't getting flushed out when he did the occasional flushing. A lot of gunky buildup.
So, the deck is done, he has everything in place, how he wants it set up. Twenty years is plenty of time to think about how you'd do things differently, you know?
This morning, he started working on getting the filter back together. What a nightmare. It shouldn't have been. The videos on YouTube made it seem like a snap. But, it wasn't. Watchng the videos together, at one point I warned him I was going to punch him hard in the arm if he didn't adjust his attitude. (He knows it's an empty threat, I would never hit him, but I had to get his attention.) I know he was frustrated, but if you want my help, don't yell at me. I'm not asking stupid questions, I don't know what you've already tried, I'm trying to get a grasp of what you've done.
So, I go back outside with him, back to the shop. It's probably around ten o'clock. These filter things have a top (manifold) and a bottom (bottom). There are two ways to put it together. By putting the individual filters on the bottom first, the putting the manifold on the top. Tubes run through the filters and at the top of the filter, there's an additional piece that gets smaller and has slots on the sides of the top. The manifold is supposed to slide onto the these. I was able to get the filter pieces located properly on the bottom, like putting a puzzle together. This is the type of thing I can do. (And it takes me longer to get frustrated when things don't go right.) Once that was done, we tried putting the manifold on and it wouldn't go on. So, we took it all apart (again) and started by putting the manifold on first (everything upside down), but getting the bottom of the filter pieces lined up just wasn't happening.
I told Brian I would get it to work, but I wanted to move the whole thing to the patio, out of his shop. I have a problem with one of my legs and it starts to hurt and sitting down really helps. And I wouldn't be in Brian's way and he wouldn't be checking on my progress, he could do the kind of work that pays the bills.
I watched more videos, hoping for some magical resolution. There wasn't one. I did see a couple of videos with some sort of guide for the top, but we didn't have a guide (holds the pieces in place so when the manifold is placed on top, the slots and guides are lined up). I looked for them online, but Brian wanted this done today. I did what any crafter would do. I cut my own out of cardstock. The paper wasn't big enough, but it was sure close. But, not close enough. The circles were open and the top of the filters slid out.
I came inside and did the post about Rocky, cooling down and sitting for a while. Brian came in to take a break as well. My mind was still searching for something that might work. And I came up with an idea of wrapping string around everything so it would kind of keep it in place. Tried that with some yarn and it was working a little better, but the manifold still wasn't going on easily. Brian came out and asked if I needed any help, to let him know if I did and just then, I wasn't ready. The plan this time was to wrap the entire thing with a lot of string (around the top to bottom), turning it upside down and putting it on the manifold that way.
He went back to the shop and I had another idea. The tubes are evenly spaced, but the filters were sloppy without the manifold being in place. Where they fit into the bottom wasn't even three quarters of an inch, so they slid out place without much movement. The yarn around helped, but what if I tied the tubes that were across from one another in place? It was worth a shot.
The manifold, so you know what I'm talking about. Those eight holes are supposed to fit snuggly over the top of the filters. The big thing at the left side is the outake tube. Water comes in the bottom, upwards through the filters and tubes and out to the pool.
I was working with the holes at the bottom of the picture, wrapping the yarn around the hole directly across, at the top. I did the left side hole first, the right side second. Tightened the yarn up and checked the manifold placement. It took about ten minutes and I was satisfied. I didn't have to wrap the other holes at all. I went back to the shop and told Brian I needed his help.
There was no play or rocking of the manifold. Finally! Brian gently pounded each one down with a mallet and we were almost done. The thing now was gettting it back to the shop without the bottom falling off. The wire stake that goes from the bottom to the top wasn't in place. So, what Brian did was pick the entire thing up high enough for me to get the stake up through the middle and through the hole in the middle of the manifold. He put the bolt and screw in place, tightened it down and took the whole thing back to his shop.
It was a little after five.
Last I looked, the filter housing was back together and on the deck.
 |
