The Most Frustrating Part of Cleaning a Pool Filter

Filter cleaning is where “simple maintenance” turns into stuck lids, mangled threads, mystery leaks, and the one moment on a job that can actually hurt you. We walk through the common pool filter problems that almost never get talked about, especially on D.E. filters and quad cartridge filters with metal clamps and spring barrel nuts, and we share the exact fixes we use when a filter top refuses to seat back onto the tank.

We get specific about the real culprit behind most hard-to-close lids: a worn or wrong O-ring, even when it looks perfectly fine. You’ll hear why brand-specific O-rings matter, how silicone spray and Magic Lube change the game, and what to do when the clamp hardware won’t thread or starts shedding metal because it’s cross-threaded. We also cover tightening and verification tips, including using a multi-torque socket and a rubber mallet to eliminate slack, because a clamp with gaps is not just a leak risk, it’s a safety risk.

From there we shift to other route realities: single cartridge filters with overtightened plastic rings, debris-packed threads, and the fastest way to break them loose without breaking equipment. We also talk about fiberglass filter tanks that leave your arms itching for days, plus simple protection steps like long sleeves and even wrapping the lid. To round it out, we dig into drain plug headaches, leaking drain plug O-rings, and backwash valve problems, including push-pull piston valve O-rings, multi-port spider gasket symptoms, and a temporary ball valve trick that can buy you time until the proper repair.

If this helps, subscribe so you don’t miss the next one, share it with a tech who’s fighting a filter clamp right now, and leave a review with your go-to filter cleaning tip.

We share the pool filter cleaning problems that blindside even experienced techs, from lids that refuse to seal to clamps that can become a real safety hazard. We also walk through practical tool-and-process fixes you can use on route to prevent leaks, reduce damage, and avoid painful mistakes.  

• brand-specific filter O-rings and why “looks fine” can still fail  
• silicone spray and Magic Lube methods to help lids seat and extend O-ring life  
• safer filter cleaning by removing the pump lid to prevent pressure buildup  
• spring barrel nut and clamp tricks when threads will not catch  
• spotting cross-threading and when replacement is the only smart move  
• freeing overtightened single cartridge rings with a rubber mallet  
• preventing fiberglass tank itching with sleeves or saran wrap  
• drain plug wrench options, leak risks, and spare drain plug O-rings  
• push-pull piston valve symptoms and O-ring replacement guidance  
• multi-port spider gasket failures and a temporary ball valve workaround  

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Hey, welcome to the Pool Vay Podcast Show. In this episode, I'm going to talk to you about some common filter issues, and these are not things that are usually talked about. So you're going to learn some new things and some insight information about pool filters, especially when you go to clean them, and I help you find these tips helpful. Are you a pool service pro looking to take your business to the next level? Join the pool guy coaching program. Get expert advice, business tips, exclusive content, and get direct support. From me, I'm a 35-year veteran in the industry. Whether you're starting out or scaling up, I've got the tools to help you succeed. Learn more at swimmingpoollearning.com. Here in my service area, we deal a lot with the full size D filters and the quad type cartridge filters, which are the four cartridge

Hidden Filter Problems Preview

SPEAKER_00 1:03

filters in the tank. Now every area is a little different. You may be in a service area where you deal primarily with sand filters, or you may be in an area where you deal with single cartridge filters. Regardless, filter cleaning and the filter itself can be something that's daunting in pool service. And I'll focus a little bit on my area first because primarily that's of course what I know the most about. And these are the D filters and the quad type cartridge filters. The first problem that you run into with these filters is the clamp that goes on there. Usually it's a metal clamp with a spring barrel nut. Now,

Clamp Lids And O-Rings That Won’t Seat

SPEAKER_00 1:42

if you have a single cartridge filter, it's going to be maybe a plastic ring or a plastic ring nut type thing where you unscrew it, and it's different than these metal, these uh stainless steel clamps, I should say. And these clamps are problematic in many ways. The first one that you're gonna run into, especially if you're new to the business and you decide cleaning filters, is that you can't get the filter top back on after taking it apart. You know, you'll push down on it, you'll try to get over the O-ring, and you'll just have zero luck getting that top part back on. So you can put the clamp box back on the filter. A lot of this has to do, of course, with the O-ring that's in between the top and bottom part. So there's a lip on the filter on the bottom filter, and this lip has an O-ring on there. Depending on the filter, is the O-ring that's on there? They're all brand specific. So the Pentair filters, the Clean and Clear 420s, and then the Hayward filter or the Jandy filter all use different O-rings. So just keep that in mind that these O-rings are manufactured specific to the filter. So if you have a Hayward Pro grid, you'll have to order that O-ring or have that O-ring available to help get that lid on. So the number one reason why the top won't go on and close is because that O-ring is worn out. There really isn't anything else in particular that would cause that lid out to go on except for an O-ring that's worn out. And in a lot of cases, the O-ring looks perfectly fine, it doesn't look worn at all. Now sometimes you can tell it's worn because it's kind of warped and you could it doesn't go around the tank too well, and that's obviously worn out. But in most cases, you can't even tell that it's worn. The only way you're gonna tell that it's worn is that you can't get the lid back on the filter. Now, one thing I've introduced in my service is using silicone spray for the O-rings. Now you can get the silicone spray at an auto parts store like Auto Zone. Just ask look for R V grade silicone spray. They have it at Walmart too. Anyone will work. Right now I'm using the Blaster Silicone Spray, and this again is an R V grade silicone spray. And I spray all the O-rings on my route with these when I clean the filters, and it makes the O-rings last a lot longer, in my opinion. Now, sometimes you can get you can still use the O-ring that's on there if you lube it up really good, and you can use magic lube also, even though it's quite messy, it does sometimes give you just that little more that you're gonna need to get that lid back on. So try to push that lid on with the O-ring lubed up, but if it looks like it's just not going on, changing the O-ring really will solve this problem. So put the manufactured O-ring for that filter and then lube it up really good with silicone spray, and you should be able to get that lid on, no problem. You can't really put that clamp back on unless the top part and bottom part are snug together. Don't even waste your time trying to, but sometimes you can actually pull the top down with the clamp. So, what I do sometimes if I'm having trouble getting it on, even with the new o-ring, sometimes it's tough. I go to Pinter 4000 series filter lid, I'll put the clamp on the back of it, and then I'll start to close the clamp around the filter, and then I'll push down on the lid as that clamp is closing. And generally I can get that clamp back on the filter. Now here's where the danger zone is with when you're doing the filter cleaning. This part where you're putting the clamp back on is actually the part on the filter. If you look at the little label there, and it shows like the filter lid blowing off and like killing the stick figure that's on there. This is the most dangerous part of the filter cleaning. When you're getting that clamp back on, if this filter were to turn on, that lid could blow off and really cause serious injury to you. So there are a few things to prevent this from ever happening. And I've given this tip before. The thing that I recommend you tell your employees and you do yourself is that when you go to clean a filter, take the pumplet off the pump. That way, if the pool were to come back on for some reason, let's say that the timer had a malfunction and it started up, or if you forgot to turn off the automatic timer, or the employee

Clamp Safety And Barrel Nut Tricks

SPEAKER_00 5:52

forgot to turn off the breaker, the filter will not fill up with water because the pumplet is off the pump. And so this would be my number one safety mechanism for you is that whenever you're doing a filter cleaning, go ahead and take the pumplet off as well. And this simple little tip could save your life or save the life of your employee. So I highly recommend doing this. And something that also happens when you're trying to get the clamp on, is that you can't get the spring barrel nut over the threaded part of the clamp. And this happens sometimes, it just depends on the filter, really. And sometimes you're struggling to get that back on. What I like to do is I'll take off the spring part of it, and I'll just use the exposed nut, and then I will put it on the clamp, and then I'll tighten that part until I get a good portion of it so I can get the washer on and put the spring barrel, put the spring part on. So basically you'll take it apart, take the washer off, take don't use the washer, I should say, then you'll take the spring off, and just tighten the clamp up without that for now. Once you have some slack, then you could put the washer back on, then you can put the spring back in, and then you can tighten it up pretty easily. So that's the method I use when I can't really get that little threaded part a little more slack. I'll just do that trick, and it works highly effectively. Once in a while, you'll try to thread in the nut, spring barrel nut onto the threaded part of the clamp, and you're not gonna get it to move much, and you'll see metal shards coming off of it. And what happened is that that means that whoever serviced it prior cross-threaded that part. Unfortunately, there's not a really great solution for this except replacing the clamp itself. You may be able to get the spring barrel nut back on with a lot of effort, but then when you go to get it off again later, it's gonna be a mess. I would suggest not even trying to put it back on if you notice that it's not going on easily, and as you're putting it on, it's just really, really tough, and you see shards of metal again. It's just cross-threaded. One way to prevent this is to always carry a tube of magic lube with you, and I actually dip that threaded part into the magic lube as far as it'll go, it actually fits right into the magic lube tip or the opening of the magic lube, and you can pull it out, and there'll be a lot of lube on there. So that's a little thing that I do. If you lube those up all the time, chances are it's gonna extend the life of that nut and it's not going to cross-thread it. And one reason why it gets cross-threaded a lot is because it's not lubed up. So that's one thing people forget to do is lube up that threaded part of the clamp. Once you have it back on and you're tightening it, I definitely like using the multi-torque socket set. They make them for every filter type. So if you get a good power drill, I like the Home Depot rigid drills. Get a good core of this drill with a lot of torque, and then use the multi-torque to put the spring barrel nut back on. Once you get it on there to where it's not moving anymore, you've drilled it, you know, mz, and it stops. I give the drill like three or four spins if you have room to do this, and that gets it on there really tight. You also want to carry a rubber mallet, and once you get it where you think is really tight, tap around that clamp with a rubber mallet, and you'll have some more slack usually. And at that point, tighten it a little bit more by spinning the drill with the multi-torque on there, socket on there, and this will be on super tight. You want to have no gaps in that spring. If you look at the clamp itself, it has a guide on there, and you should have no gaps in that spring, otherwise, it it could potentially cause that filter top to blow off. The problems I run into with the single cartridge filter is that sometimes they're on too tight. Whoever puts them on puts that plastic threaded part on extremely tight. Other problems I run into is a little bit of cross-threading. Sometimes there's actually debris stuck in there as well, like dirt. And when you put that on there, it actually makes it really hard to get off. A lot of times, a rubber mallet, if you tap it at a certain point on that plastic ring, you can actually loosen it up pretty easily. So the rubber mallet is a great tool to have. Just get a good one from Amazon or Home Depot. Heavy duty one is what I like to use. And you can tap again strategically on that ring if there's a handle, and that usually spins it free, no problem. But those plastic threads do wear out over time on those single cartridge

Single Cartridge Rings And Stuck Threads

SPEAKER_00 10:31

filters, and it's something that you have to be aware of, especially if if it's been cross-threaded by somebody and not installed correctly. But a lot of times they're gonna feel like impossible to remove sometimes, and just tapping it strategically with a rubber mallet really does loosen it up pretty well. You can unspin that thing. Just be aware that it may have to you have it may have to replace the filter eventually at some point if you're having a lot of trouble getting that ring on and off the top, and getting a top off the filter. Have you ever cleaned an old fiberglass filter? And then your arms start to itch after, and they start to turn red. What that is, is basically the fiberglass shards in your arm. What happens is that when the sun hits the top of the tank, it starts to wear down the fiberglass on the filter tank. And over many years that the filter is really old, or I've seen this happen, which is to expose the direct sunlight after just a few years, that tank lid starts to get a little brittle, the coating on there comes off, and you're left with just exposed fiberglass basically. So when you go to clean that filter, a lot of times you're putting the lid on and you're you you're kind of hugging that lid to get the lid on properly as you're seeding it onto the o-ring, or if you're you know moving and you're touching it with your arms on top, any kind of

Fiberglass Itch Prevention While Cleaning

SPEAKER_00 11:46

rubbing against the top of that filter will cause a lot of that fiberglass to come off, and they're pretty microscopic, and they'll get lodged into your arms, your into your skin, and you'll be itching and rubbing your arms for like two or three days later. It's really annoying. I'm actually getting itchy talking about it right now, just psychosomatic. And basically, the way to avoid that, I work with long sleeve shirts and I roll them up, and when I'm doing a filter cleaning, I'll roll my sleeves down, and that offers me pretty good protection. Now, if you don't have long sleeve shirts, then your other option is of course to wrap the top with some saran wrap from Costco. It's a great method and it's a great preventative method. Just wrap the entire top of the filter with a saran wrap, and this is going to prevent you from getting those fiberglass shards in your arms as you're cleaning the filter. Let me talk a little bit about the drain plug and the drain plug O-ring. Now, if you have a Penthair Clean and Clare Plus or FS FNS filter on your route, you'll notice that the drain plug is directly underneath the top and bottom manif top and bottom inlet. And this is a problem because you're gonna need a special special wrench to get that off. Penthair makes one, it's called the Penthair Plug Wrench 19219.1192019 is the part number if you're looking for that. Multi-torque also has what's called the button hook, and it's also made, it's actually a better design than the Pentair one because it has more of an angle, and this is great for getting those plugs off. But one of the dangers with this is that sometimes you can

Drain Plugs That Break Or Leak

SPEAKER_00 13:25

actually damage that plug, trying to get it at a weird angle, and you have to take everything out of the filter and try to get the broken part off from inside the filter. Sometimes they'll break that plastic plug off at the threads, causing it to leak a little bit, and then it's kind of a messy thing to replace that plug. And again, you have to go from the inside of the filter to get the rest of that out sometimes. So I generally don't mess with these drain plugs when I'm cleaning the filter. What I'll do is I will open up the pump lid, like I mentioned before, and all that dirty water that's in there will actually drain out through the pump lid. I do this a lot because those drain plugs are a pain, and having to mess with them is something I don't do often. And a lot of times the water is gonna go back down, and if you have the pump lid off, it'll just it'll just run right over out of the pump, basically. And it's okay to have a little bit of dirt in the tank, in my opinion, versus having to deal with this drain plug that is the most ridiculous location for anyone to put a drain plug, by the way. But they've changed that with their new filters, they've actually moved the drain plug location to a better area. The other things you're gonna have sometimes the problems you're gonna have with getting these drain plugs off filters, especially the cartridge filters that are up against the wall of a house or against a fence, is that the installer didn't leave any room for you to actually reach in there to get the drain plug off. Again, the button hook is a great tool for this, but a lot of times you can't even get the drain plug off because it's right up against the wall. And again, don't worry too much about it if you can't get it off. But one of the problems you're gonna have with drain plugs is that they're gonna start leaking on you once you get them off and put them back on. There's actually an O-ring on there that needs to be lubed up really well. I use the silicone spray on that. It almost carries spare O-rings for those filter tanks because when you take that drain plug off, a lot of times that O-ring is worn out, it's gonna start dripping from that plug area. If you have certain Jandy filters on your pool route, certain cartridge filters by Jandy have these gigantic drain plugs, they're like huge. I don't know why they put them on there. We have to use like a large pair of channel locks to get them off and on. I have some I ran into some of these before and I thought they're pretty ridiculous. Of course, they drain the filter like within like 10 seconds, but they're kind of ridiculously sized drain plugs on those filters. But just keep in mind that whenever you remove a drain plug on a cartridge filter, there's a potential for it leaking. There's a potential for it to having bad threads. There was a run of waterway filters where the threads were bad, and whenever you move that drain plug, it would leak from there. So just be aware there are some things to be concerned about when you remove that drain plug from the filter when you go to clean it. But it's a good idea if you can remove it to remove it and drain that filter out so you can get a complete cleaning of that pool filter. And briefly, I'll cover backwash valves. I'll probably do an entire podcast on this, but there are two types of backwash valves basically out there. There are the multi-port valves and then there are the push-pull piston valves. Now, with the push-pull piston valves, what you're gonna run into is sometimes you'll see water leaking when it's fully closed. That means that the O-rings inside there are worn out. You also run into the problem where you'll pull it up and then you can't push it back down. And this is a pretty big problem because if you can't push the backwash piston back down, it's gonna stay in backwash mode and drain the pool when you turn on the pump. Again, a rubber mallet does come in handy here. I don't recommend doing this more than once, however, before changing the o-rings. But I've been in a pinch before where it just needs to go down slightly. And if you hit it with a rubber mallet on top, typically

Backwash Valves Leaks And Fast Workarounds

SPEAKER_00 17:04

it'll go down just far enough to close it. And you'll have to change those O-rings by the way, and there. Sometimes they're really hard to get those pistons out, so just be aware that if it starts to wear out to the point where you can't close it or you have trouble pulling it open, those o-rings have expanded in there, and it's gonna be hard to pull that out of the cylinder. So, what you do is you take the ring off, and then what I do is I just stand over it and I go side to side and start twisting it a little bit, and eventually I'll be able to pull it up. I have a video like backwash valve problems, and you'll see me in there like working my way to get this piston out. And I'm like almost getting a hernia by the time I get it out of there. But once you change those O-rings, there's two O-rings in there. Once you change them and lube them up with magic lube, they'll slide really easily, and you'll have no problem with that backwash piston. Just don't let it get to that point where it gets really stiff where you can't pull it open or close it, because then it really becomes hard to change those O-rings later. As far as the multi-port valves, the notorious spider gasket is something to be aware of. This gasket keeps the different ports separate from each other, and when this thing wears out or gets torn or comes loose in there, the ports are no longer separate. So when you put it in filter mode, you may have some dirty water leaking into the pool. If you put it in backwash mode and then put it back into filter mode, you may have water leaking out the bash backwash line as well. Now there's a pretty quick fix for this until you can you can get it fixed. What I like to do is keep the pools running all the time. I don't like when the pools are off because then anything can happen. Plus, you have to waste time going back to the parts store, coming back to the pool that day. So what I'd like to do is I carry ball valves. So you carry two-inch ball valves and one and a half inch ball valves, and a little trick here to give yourself some more time, is at the end of the backwash, if you can access it. Now, sometimes they're attached to a P trap or they're plumbed in underground. At that point, you can't do anything but change the part. But if it's leaking out of the backwash while the pool's in filter mode, what I like to do is get a ball valve and just stick it at the end of the backwash discharge. Typically it's one and a half inch, and you just put that ball valve on there and close it. There's no need to glue it on there because there's not a lot of pressure coming out of there. So I'll just put it on the backwash pipe, and then I'll close the ball valve. It does stop the leak basically until you get time back there to change that the the piston o-rings on the push-pull type or the spider gasket and the multi-port if it's leaking out of the backwash why it's in filter mode. So a little trick there that is pretty effective. Just carry some ball valves with you, with the red handles, put it on the backwash pipe, and then turn it off so that it's not leaking at that point, and that buys you a little bit of time to change that later. And like I mentioned, the backwash portion of this can be a separate podcast, so I'll probably do that in the future. But these are some kind of tips that you don't hear very often about filter cleaning and filter issues you may run into on your pool route. If you're looking for other podcasts, you can find those by going to my website, swingingpoollearning.com. On the banner, there's a podcast icon. Click on that, and there'll be a drop down menu of over 1900 podcasts you listen to at your leisure. And if you're interested in the coaching program, you can learn more at poolguycoaching.com. Thanks for listening to this podcast. Have the rest of your week and God bless.