If you’re a swimming pool owner who works with a pool service and maintenance company, you may not give too much thought to when should pool filter sand be changed? Hoiwever, your swimming pool contractor is concerned with that and he will let you know when it needs to be done, and why. It’s not necessary for the sand to be replaced often, but it shoudl be replaced at least every three to five years. How frequently it needs to be changed, depends on how much traffic the pool sees and how dirty the water is.
When should pool filter sand be changed?
The sand filters out tiny debris particles and over time, the sand’s rough edges get smooth and when that happens, the dirt and debris that were once filtered and captured by the sand will slip through and will be put back into the pool water. This means that the water chemistry will require more frequent checking and you may find you need to use more chlorine to keep the water cleaner.
It is the time necessary to change the sand in the filter that will take your pool contractor the longest time and cost you the most money. A bag of pool grade sand is about $10 for a fifty pound bag and your filter may require about seven bags of sand during the changing. If you’re looking at a return on your investment and to changing the sand every three to five years, you can see it’s not a big cash outlay and the benefits far outweigh the costs of sand and labor for the change.
If you aren’t certain when — or if — the sand has been changed in your filter in the past three to five years, it’s probably time to ask your pool contractor to to check and see if it’s time and then plan to have it addressed before another swim season rolls around!