"rb608" wrote in message
It took all of about 15 seconds for me to see that the return water was
simply a jet of cloudy white crap. Clearly whatever was going in the
filter was coming right back out the other end.

Okay, one more shot at this. The problem described above is, in fact, *the
problem*. After turning 12,000 gallons of water into a large chemical
experiment, I had the water professionally tested, and it's nearly perfect
(hooray for me). Chlorine is a bit high (but the pool's still green), and
alkalinity is a bit low. Everything else is spot on.

I've pulled the cartridge out and cleaned it. Consdiering the possibility
of a bad fit, I measured the housing against the filter, and that's a
perfect fit, both in length & diameters. The filter is clean, almost new,
and correctly reinstalled. Still, if I hook up the vacuum & push it across
the still obscured bottom, I get a thick, god-awful plume of stuff out of
the return. The filter just isn't filtering. I see several options.

1. The filter is doing a fine job and is catching 99% of the stuff I'm
vacuuming. The plume I'm seeing is only the 1% of really fine stuff that
escapes the cartridge filter. If I keep vaccuuming, I'll eventually see a
net positive result. Inasmuch as I've been running the pump non-stop for
weeks with no discernable improvement, I'm thinking this isn't the correct
answer.

2. The whole cartridge filter system doesn't work worth crap. It's a
terrible idea & I should never have bought it. Maybe true, but if I'm the
only one having this problem, it's probably not indicative of cartridge
filters in general.

3. The filter cartridge is defective. By process of elimination, this
seems the most likely. I'm not sure how I'd test this hypotheses other than
buying another (damned expansive) cartridge to see if works any better. If
it does, problem solved. If it doesn't, the answer was 2, and I'll be just
as frustrated, but significantly poorer.

I'm still traversing the local pool supply stores looking for someone with
half a brain who can help, but no luck yet. Methinks I'll be calling
Hayward on Monday & see what their customer service is like.

More to come, no doubt.

Joe