Pentair EC-160301 Clean & Clear Plus 420 sq. ft. Cartridge Pool Filter

I started looking into how to maintain my own pool. I had a DE filter and started looking at how to add DE to the pool and doing the back wash, etc. While researching, I found the DE is carcinogenic. When you apply DE you are supposed to wear a mask and breathing it in will cause lung cancer. Funny thing is once it is wet is is harmless and you can eat it but you just can't breathe it. Also if you are paying someone to maintain your pool who knows if they are sloppy or not and spilling the powered DE all over when adding would put your family at risk. I've researched heavily into alternatives and found Sand filters, but they don't do that great of a job filtering and you have to back wash very often. They seem to work well only when really dirty. Weird... I then came across the media filters. I have media whole house filters and I like them. I also learned that the new media filters are very close to how good DE cleans. With this media filter I should be able to go the whole season without having to take it out and clean the media. By cleaning the media, I mean just a hose down. It looks to be a relatively simple process. Now down to the bad part about this product. The packaging! The packaging is really bad, hardly any protection for the product at all. I had to return the first one I got because the top was ripped and parts fell out. Side of the box had a big hole in it. Had a couple of scratches... The second one came the same exact way, but I opened it to make sure nothing was broken internally and decided to keep it and had my pool guy install it. We will see how well it works and if it meets my expectations. The 420 is supposed to be able to filter 54,000 gallons of water in 6 hours. So I should be able to clean my pool which is about half that size in about 3 hours! I will provide an update after my season is over if it is really going to last the whole season!

We purchased this filter last year when our old one gave out. After the purchase - while we were waiting for delivery - we received a call from the company. I was so impressed that they wanted to answer any questions we might have on the new filter when it arrived. These days it's hard to find such service. In the year we have owned it we have been very pleased. Pool is clean and filters do their job. The unit is easy to use. The hard part is always putting the pressure ring back on and tightened, and I always wish I had an extra hand to hold it in place while I get the bolt and screws tightened. But that is just normal stuff. The assembly was easy enough and we had no trouble connecting it to the existing plumbing.

We replaced our old Hayward S-200 sand filter with this cartridge filter and the difference in clarity of our pool water is amazing (night and day). We also replaced our pump with the Pentair variable speed. Another fantastic product. We purchased a larger filter than what was estimated for our pool and wow, what a great move. We sized it big enough, so that we wouldn’t have to clean the cartridges until the end of summer. So much better than sand filter. We will never go back to sand filter. This is so much cleaner and lower maintenance. And, less chemicals. Also, we never have to skim it in the mornings, like we used to.

Easy install and it works great. They say clean every 6 months but I clean them every three months with a hose and it takes half the time to clean them. Don't need a pool guy anymore.

Product & packaging was delivered damaged and all of the hardware and stickers are missing. Box arrived open and chunks of the box were missing. Completely unacceptable for such an expensive product.

cleans well, but took a week running 7 hours a day to clear up my pool of 24k gallons. i added a little de to boost it and after a week, the water was mostly clear. for the week, it was somewhat cloudy as the filter was not filtering as well as i expected it to. i had the chemicals set correctly, cleaned the filter 3 times in two weeks to ensure it was clean. it works, well, just be patient. i am happy with it.

Read all the reviews about the packaging and broken parts. The item weighs approximately 75#’s so which results in cardboard wear and tear. The box was delivered with minor wear to the exterior. Inside, the parts were intact and in good shape. The reason I went this route was for cost savings. My old filter housing is 15-years old and failure of the housing is not what I wanted to wake-up to one day. My suggestion is read the reviews carefully and you will see failures occurring from 12-17 years. This is an easy project for the house owner since it has 2-unions to deal with and two O-rings. Apply a little pool lubricant to the union and your done.

Filter arrived in a pretty beat up - falling apart box. Fortunately, the only damage found is one filter cartridge. Trying to get just the one damaged filter cartridge replaced. (Not sure how well that will go..)