Nobody wants to jump into tepid and murky looking pool water especially during sweltering hot summer days. Even if you’re just hosting a poolside brunch and not diving into the pool, it’s important to keep your pool water looking sparkly and refreshing. While this is your pool filter’s job, it’s always best to give it a hand to increase its efficiency and to extend the overall life of your pool filter system.

Give your pool filter a hand by scooping out and vacuuming your pool every once in a while. By removing these larger pieces of debris, you’re preventing pool filter clogs and essentially making the pool filter’s life easier. Not only that, but by cleaning out visible debris, you’re essentially starving out algae and other microscopic baddies of their food supply.

Every once in a while, test your water for their chemical levels to ensure that everything is at their proper levels. By ensuring that your chemical levels are at their proper levels, you’re ensuring that your pool filter won’t become a breeding ground for live microorganisms.

Your pool’s water levels will naturally fluctuate. This can be through evaporation or rain, or even from kids (or siblings, hint, hint) doing excess cannonballs into the pool. By ensuring proper water levels, your pool filter will be functioning at its optimal levels. If the water level is too low, add some water with a hose, and if the water level is too high, drain some out using a submersible pump or a V-pump. You wouldn’t want to drain water using a bucket, trust me on this.

Always maintain a water level that’s close to halfway up the opening of your pool skimmer. Don’t forget to check your water chemical levels after topping up/pumping out water as well. Use a Water Levelling Device to keep your water levels automatically level so you won't have to refill the pool water manually.

Always make sure that your pool pump’s filter baskets are intact and undamaged. Not only will this prevent your pool pump from becoming damaged, but this will prevent larger debris from entering your pool filter and preventing it from filtering out the smaller pieces of debris as it was designed to do.

Always make sure that the seals around your cartridge filters are in good condition. Ensuring a good seal on your cartridge filter can prevent debris and bugs from getting into the filter from the environment.

Every week or two, pull out the cartridge filter and give it a good wash with a pressurized hose. This will blast away any large pieces of debris and anything sticking to the filter that might prevent it from doing its job. You’re also extending the life of your filter this way by removing anything that might choose to live on the filter and degrade the fibers in the long run. If blasting it with water doesn’t work, give it an overnight soak in some Zodiac Pool Filter cleaner to melt off and kill any algae that has stuck to it and it should be as good as new.

Sand pool filters are the filters of choice for one reason, they’re built like tanks and they don’t require as much maintenance as cartridge filters.

Some people do backwashing every week as part of their weekly pool maintenance schedule but that’s not really necessary. At the very minimum, do a backwash once a month or when it’s needed. Here are three things to look out for when it’s time to backwash.

• PSI – If you’ve taken a note of the optimal operating pressure, checking the PSI gauge is an easy backwash indicator. If it’s 5-10 psi above optimal pressure then it may be time to backwash.
• Water Flow – If the water coming out feels sluggish then this is also a sign that a backwash is in order.
• Water Clarity – If the water doesn’t look right or is cloudy, this is a sure sign that a backwash is needed.

Aside from backwashing as needed and general maintenance, there’s nothing much else to do to maintain your pool sand filters except to remember to change the sand out around every five years. If that time has come then you can check out our article on how to change your pool filter’s sand down through the link below.

As we have mentioned earlier, keeping the pool clean is a great help in maintaining the life of our pool filter by lessening the amount of debris that reaches it. What better way to keep the pool clean by calling in someone that doesn’t complain, does a complete job every single time, and looks cool while doing it? No, we’re not talking about having a pool guy come in and clean the pool for you (although that may be an option) but we’re talking about a Robotic Pool Cleaner.

A robotic cleaner like the Zodiac TX30 Tornax can work in tandem with your pool filter to make sure that your pool filter will require less maintenance and function more efficiently. By making sure that all of the surfaces are scrubbed clean of any algae growth, you’re guaranteeing yourself crystal clear filtered water as well as extending the life of your pool filters by lessening the burden on the entire system.

Your pool is one complete ecosystem where all of the components should work in harmony. This is why this pool filter maintenance guide has tips that may not be related directly to your pool filter. By making the entire system function more efficiently, you’re essentially maintaining your pool filter and extending its life time and efficiency.

New pool Owner? Here at Mr Pool Man, we got you covered. Check out these other cleaning tips below:

• How to maintain your swimming pool
• Getting your pool filters ready for summer
• Cooler Times are Coming! Time to warm up your Spa!

Do you have any questions about this topic or the featured products? No worries, we're here to help! Drop us a question down below and we'll get back to you ASAP.

Happy swimming :)