“I’m thinking of switching a DE filter to a sand filter, what are your thoughts?”

Well, I could see why somebody would think about switching to a sand filter. Sand filters are very low maintenance. You probably only have to change the sand every five to seven years, but there are some downsides especially if you’re going from a DE filter to a sand filter. Specifically, DE filters can sieve your water of dirt particles as small as 1 to 3 microns, whereas sand filters are more like 25 to 40 microns. But there may be a happen medium between sand and DE.

That happy medium is the Cartridge filters because its filtering quality is between the two (12 to 15 microns) while also having other advantages. The cartridge filter is great at saving water because with the sand and the DE, you have to backwash every time you need to clean it. But with the cartridge, you just pop the lid open, you take it out, and to hose it off. It saves a lot more water than backwashing.

Yes, another thing to think about is if you get algae or a real cloudy pool, its a lot hard to clear it up with a sand filter because it doesn’t filter down to a small micron as a cartridge or DE filter. That’s something to take into mind when you switch your filter from a DE to something lower