How to Clean a Swimming Pool Filter

When I was about ten years old, my father had a gorgeous underground pool built into our backyard. It had a cool deck, so your feet wouldn't get hot when you swam, a love seat with jets (not quite a whirlpool, but close) and a wonderful deep end too. It was shaped a bit like a kidney bean, and we loved to swim in it during the summer, and where I live, it's summer nine months out of every year. The only downside to having a pool is having to clean it, and when we were kids, daddy made sure we knew how to care for and upkeep the pool. If we wanted to swim, we had to keep it clean.

Between then and now, with a pool in the backyard where I am now, I have learned a lot about pool maintenance. The pool filter is one of the important things to keep clean in order to keep your swimming pool crystal clear and beautiful. Properly cleaning a swimming pool filter is essential for keeping other parts of the pool mechanics working properly too.

I'm going to talk briefly about how to clean swimming pool filters, but there are several different types of filters and all of them should be removed and cleaned slightly differently. If you have the instructions that came with your pool filter, you should follow those instructions to the letter or do a little research and find the website of your pool filter's manufacturer and see if they have online instructions. In the absence of those specific instructions, these generic instructions should help you clean the filter and keep your swimming pool refreshing and beautiful.

Cartridge Swimming Pool Filters
Cartridge filters for your swimming pool should have a pressure gauge on them. When the pressure increases to a certain point, it's time to clean your filter to keep your pump working optimally. How often you'll need to clean a cartridge swimming pool filter will depend on how much debris is in your pool. We like to let our dog, Jake, go swimming (as you can see in the picture above), and so we do have to worry about cleaning the filter regularly to keep Jakey hair out of it.

Clean a Swimming Pool Filter - Step One
Turn off the pump and all mechanics to the swimming pool. Always better to be safe than sorry. If you do not turn off the pump and the mechanics (flip the circuit breaker to the pool equipment to be certain) you can end up with damage to the pool equipment, the pool pump, or send things flying off in all directions and can hurt you or your family and pets. It's extremely important to turn off the pump and all electrical flow to the filter housing before attempting to remove a swimming pool filter.

Clean a Swimming Pool Filters - Step Two
Relieve the pressure and drain the water from the cartridge filter. Do not attempt to remove the filter before you have completed this step. Once the filter and housing area is depressurized, then you can carefully remove it.

Clean a Swimming Pool Filter - Step Three
Using a sprayer nozzle on your garden hose (one with a little pressure works best) start at the top of the filter and work your way to the bottom, spraying off debris and dirt and in our case, Jakey hair. Be careful not to use too much pressure or you can ruin the filter. If the filter is very dirt or if you have hard water in your area, you might want to visit a pool store and buy a chemical to soak your filter in before replacing it.

My father always dipped the filter into muriatic acid and then rinsed it off. That stuff will eat just about anything, but don't leave a filter soaking in that stuff for sure. In fact, I really don't recommend using this method, but mention it only because it worked for my father.

Clean a Swimming Pool Filter - Step Four
Return the filter to its housing in the side of the pool, locking it into place. Turn the pump and mechanics to the pool back on and flip the breaker circuit switch to return electricity to the pool equipment. As soon as the air is out of the pump, lock the filter in place and repressurize it. You'll hear some gurgling sounds, and this is normal, but the gurgling sound should stop once everything settles down and your pool should sound normal again.

Clean a Swimming Pool Filter - Step Five
If you can't get the filter to repressurize, you'll likely need to replace it with a new filter. While swimming pool cartridge filters can last for a long time, they do eventually have to be replaced.

Again, if you can visit the website of the pool filter manufacturer, you can likely track down the manual for instructions on specifically how to clean your swimming pool filter. If these generic steps don't work or you still can't figure it out, you can go to any swimming pool supply store and see if they have someone on staff who can help you. If this fails, you can always call and have a professional come clean your filter for you, which usually costs between $75-100, and watch how they do it and learn for yourself for the next time.

Remember, keeping your filter clean keeps your pool clean, and it also extends the life of the pump, the other pool equipment, and the life of the filter too, giving you more enjoyable moments of crystal blue swimming pool water for you and your family--or your dog!