How to vacuum and backwash your pool filter

You've just moved to a new house with a gorgeous blue swimming pool. You now have the task of keeping that pool clean. In a perfect world, you hire a pool man to come and service your pool for you. But if you don't have the money to hire a pool man, or you want to do the work yourself, you need to know how to maintain your pool and your pool equipment. A weekly vacuuming and backwashing when the pump pressure gets high are two fairly standard pool cleaning processes. Read below for some tips to guide you through the routines.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

1. Start at the deep end. Attach your pool vacuum to the long sections of hose tubing. Drop your pool vacuum into the pool. Hook the other end of your vacuum hose to the pool filter. If you want to lessen how much air your filter takes in before water comes in the vacuum tubes, you can separate each section of vacuum tubing and dunk it into the water, filling it up and reattaching the hoses to each other.

2. Turn on your pool filter. Once the pool filter is on, you don't want to take the vacuum out of the water. Use the vacuum pole to guide the pool vacuum over the walls and floor of your pool, removing the dirt and algae from the pool.

3. Turn off filter and remove vacuum and tubing, storing them away, once pool sides and bottom are clean.

4. Go to your filter and turn the dial from "Lock" to "Backwash." Turn the filter on. Water should come shooting out of the filter. It will start out looking clear, then turn brown and dirty. Wait unti the water turns clear again, letting it run a few extra seconds. Turn off the filter. Turn the dial from "Backwash" to "Lock."

5. Turn filter back on. Check pressure at gage on top of filter. It should be within the normal range, indicated by a green shaded area.

6. Add Diatemaceous Earth (or D.E.) by the cupful into the top of your filter intake in the pool. Figure out how much D.E. you need based on how many gallons of water your pool holds. You can dilute your D.E. first by mixing in a bucket of water, or you can pour the D.E. in directly, as long as you do it slowly, allowing bits to spread out in the water and get sucked into the filter. As long as you don't just add in a huge scoop of D.E. in a clump, which will clog the tank. Your pool is clean and ready!