We Clean More Filters in October Than in July

Ask most pool owners when their filter needs the most attention and they will say midsummer. It is a reasonable guess and it is wrong. Around here, October and November are harder on a filter than July ever was.

Pressure is the only honest signal

Every filter has a clean starting pressure. Write yours down; almost nobody does, and without it you are guessing.

When the gauge reads roughly eight to ten PSI above that baseline, flow is meaningfully restricted. That is the moment to clean, not a date on a calendar.

A restricted filter does not just fail to clean the water. It makes the pump work harder and run hotter, and pump motors are one of the most expensive items on the pad.

What fall actually puts through your filter

Leaves are the obvious part, but they are mostly caught by baskets. What loads the filter is finer: broken-down leaf matter, seed debris, dust, and the organic load that comes with all of it.

In the older Denton neighborhoods and out in Highland Village, where the tree canopy is mature and the lots are large, we regularly see filters go from clean to needing service in half the time they take during summer.

Cartridge, sand, and DE all handle it differently

Cartridge filters cannot be backwashed. They have to come out and be cleaned properly, and in heavy leaf season that may be every six to eight weeks rather than every three months.

Sand filters can be backwashed, which helps, but backwashing does not remove oils or fine buildup. If pressure stays high after a backwash, the media itself may be channeled or hardened.

DE filters give the finest filtration and need the most care. Grids need cleaning and inspection, and DE must be recharged correctly afterward or you are running an expensive sand filter.

The cheap habit that prevents most of this

Empty your skimmer and pump baskets every week without fail. A full basket starves the pump, and a starved pump moves less water through the filter, which makes everything downstream worse.

It takes two minutes and it is the single highest-return maintenance habit there is.