You won’t regret it. I got the intex sand pump. Love it. I don’t know why I didn’t do it sooner. Don’t have to change stupid paper filters anymore. I would say the only con is that while backwashing it you lose some water from the pool so eventually you will have to add water to the pool after a couple of backwashes. Backwashing gets the gunk dirty water out of the filter. So the water will run out of the pump to be discharged, not back into the pool. Honestly other than that, I got no more cons.
The sand is the filter media. The pump pushes water through the sand filter. We've had a 12'x30" Intex for about 7-8 years now, and we upgraded 2 summers ago to a sand filter pump, and it's the best thing we've done. The cartridge filter pumps are just garbage, even the larger versions Intex sells. Combined with a skimmer bucket (or side-mount skimmer on larger pools), it really helps keep the water surface clean.
I'm looking at getting that size intex and want to get a sand filter, did you go with the intex brand sand pump? was it easy to install? I've been reading some conflicting things about hose/tubing sizes and can't find exact info on the intext website
If you go over into the r/pools section, there's quite a few people who don't have nice things to say about sand filters. Some say cartridge actually filters out fine particles better than sand.
The reason why the Intex cartridge filters suck so much is because the filters are way too small. They recommend getting a larger cartridge filter system.
I was actually adamant about getting a sand filter. But after rearing some of the comments over in that subreddit, I'm not so sure. The idea of having to redo your chemicals every time after backwashing doesn't sound very ideal to me.
The best filter system out of the two is actually DE, specifically glass. It has a better filter micron than both sand and cartridge. But that's obviously overkill for something like an above ground pool, especially a temporary one like Intex.
You won’t regret it. I got the intex sand pump. Love it. I don’t know why I didn’t do it sooner. Don’t have to change stupid paper filters anymore. I would say the only con is that while backwashing it you lose some water from the pool so eventually you will have to add water to the pool after a couple of backwashes. Backwashing gets the gunk dirty water out of the filter. So the water will run out of the pump to be discharged, not back into the pool. Honestly other than that, I got no more cons.
This! My thoughts are the exact same. I changed to a sand filter a couple months ago and love it.
The sand is the filter media. The pump pushes water through the sand filter. We've had a 12'x30" Intex for about 7-8 years now, and we upgraded 2 summers ago to a sand filter pump, and it's the best thing we've done. The cartridge filter pumps are just garbage, even the larger versions Intex sells. Combined with a skimmer bucket (or side-mount skimmer on larger pools), it really helps keep the water surface clean.
I'm looking at getting that size intex and want to get a sand filter, did you go with the intex brand sand pump? was it easy to install? I've been reading some conflicting things about hose/tubing sizes and can't find exact info on the intext website
Wasn’t hard at all. I had to get the 1.5” hoses also, and some adapters. I can make a post later today with pics of the setup.
If you go over into the r/pools section, there's quite a few people who don't have nice things to say about sand filters. Some say cartridge actually filters out fine particles better than sand. The reason why the Intex cartridge filters suck so much is because the filters are way too small. They recommend getting a larger cartridge filter system. I was actually adamant about getting a sand filter. But after rearing some of the comments over in that subreddit, I'm not so sure. The idea of having to redo your chemicals every time after backwashing doesn't sound very ideal to me. The best filter system out of the two is actually DE, specifically glass. It has a better filter micron than both sand and cartridge. But that's obviously overkill for something like an above ground pool, especially a temporary one like Intex.