Introducing Sand Filters, And What Swimming Pool Owners Need To Know About Them

by Liz Seyi Digital marketing manager

The importance of efficiently filtering the water in a swimming pool should never be in doubt; if you want your pool water to remain absolutely clear, clean and fundamentally safe to swim in, you need to pay a lot of attention to pool filtration.

If a swimming pool filter is doing its job, it will be effective in removing the small particles that can gradually accumulate in pool water and lead to contamination and cloudiness.

But if you have been browsing this category of swimming pool equipment at Pool Warehouse or other stores, and you have seen mention of ‘sand filters’, what are they, and how do they work? Below, we’ve outlined the essentials to be aware of.

Sand filters: a long-established, proven and efficient solution

Sand filters work on the basis of a very simple principle: a pool filter needs some kind of filtration media through to the pump the pool water, so that dirt and debris particles can be trapped, and thereby removed from the water. In the case of a sand filter, that media is sand.

Sand filtration systems were even used by the ancient Greeks for the cleaning of their bathhouse pools. So, you can be sure that it is one of the longest-established and proven methods for filtering pool water!

A pool sand filter, then, is basically a sand-filled tank connected to a pool’s larger filtration network.

As the water enters from the top of the tank and trickles down, the sharp edges of the sand will catch the larger particles of dirt, debris, and body waste materials. The sand will capture increasingly smaller particles as the water makes its way through the tank, which will all help ensure the water that emerges from the tank is as clear as possible.

How much maintenance is required with a swimming pool sand filter?

As you might imagine given that sand filters operate on the basis of capturing materials in a filter, some cleaning and maintenance will be required. As all of that captured dirt and debris accumulates in your filter over time, it will be necessary to regularly clean the filter – a process known as “backwash cleaning”. We recommend that this is done about once a week.

While backwashing will go a long way to ensuring your pool sand filter continues to operate efficiently for a long time, there will eventually be a need for the sand within the filter to be changed. You can expect to have to do this once every five to seven years.

Don’t look elsewhere for all your crucial swimming pool equipment

Hopefully, the above will have given you a good understanding of precisely how sand filters work, so that you feel well-informed when purchasing from the range of such filters that we make available at often heavy discounts here at Pool Warehouse.

With the best in PENTAIR, PQS and Hayward sand filters all presently available from our store, we take great pride in offering great deals on this important piece of swimming pool equipment. It’s all part of helping to ensure you get the most fruitful use out of your pool not only this summer, but for a much longer time to come.