Your swimming pool filter is another very important component of your swimming pool and as such your filter choice is very important to the smooth, clean and healthy operation of your swimming pool. It works by trapping debris and dirt particles, returning cleaned water back through your pool filtrations system via your pool pump. Smaller pools will have a cartridge filter working in much the same way as a sand filter the paper will trap the dirt and debris allow cleaned water to pass through the other side of the pool filter and then be distributed throughout your swimming pool.
Cartridge filters don't last too long and rather than rinsing or cleaning it is best to replace the filter cartridge with a new filter cartridge when required to do so.
A pressure-fed filter is typically placed in line immediately after the water pump. The filter typically contains a media such as graded sand (called '16/30 Filter Media' in the UK system of grading the size of sand by sifting through a fine brass-wire mesh of 14 to the inch to 24 to the inch). A pressure fed sand filter is termed a 'High Rate' sand filter, and will generally filter turbid water down to 10 micrometers in size. The rapid sand filter type are periodically 'back washed' as contaminants reduce water flow and increase back pressure. Indicated by a pressure gauge on the pressure side of the filter reaching into the 'red line' area, the pool owner is alerted to the need to 'backwash' the unit. The sand in the filter will typically last five to seven years before all the "rough edges" are worn off and the more tightly packed sand no longer works as intended. Recommended filtration for public/commercial pools are 1 ton sand per 100,000 litres water.