Wash Filters In Dishwasher?

[PastorJeff]

I read somewhere of a person who washes their spa filters (regular paper filters, not Tri-X) in the dishwasher. He even suggested putting filter cleaner in the dishwasher detergent dispenser.

Anyone tried this? Is this a good way to wash filters in the winter?

-Jeff

[Mikey_in_NY]

I read somewhere of a person who washes their spa filters (regular paper filters, not Tri-X) in the dishwasher. He even suggested putting filter cleaner in the dishwasher detergent dispenser.

Anyone tried this? Is this a good way to wash filters in the winter?

-Jeff

Tried washing my filters in the dishwasher without any sort of cleaner added - came out looking clean but still debris down at the bottom of the pleats. If your filters are also pleated then the best way is still to open up the pleats with one hand, and blast clean with a hosepipe in the other hand.

I believe soaking overnight works, but not tried that yet.

[gman]

My filters are pretty large. I have a backup filter so I always have a clean filter when needed. When it comes time to clean the active filter, rather than soak them in the bathtub or a big rubber waste container, I discovered that my filters fit perfectly inside a portable cooler (medium to large variety), which we had lying around. The cooler makes removing the filter from the spa easy with relatively little water spillage over the floor. The cooler is large enough to contain the filter and plenty of water for soaking. The handles on the cooler make it easy to transport the filter anywhere, even when it's full of water.

I soak the filter in the cooler with cascade dishwashing detergent, usually for 24 - 48 hours. I'm not particularly strict about how long they soak. I rinse the filter thoroughly with a hose. The filters come out beautiful. I let them dry and store them inside a tall kitchen bag in a closet in the house.

gman

[PastorJeff]

I guess my question is mostly about what to do during the winter. Once it's below freezing, we shut off our outside hose. How do you clean the filters when you can't use a hose to blast them clean?

[footie]

Slightly unrelated question but I read that to keep the filters in A1 condition after cleaning them it's best to let them dry out completely before placing back into the tub.

Is this true?

[DK117]

I guess my question is mostly about what to do during the winter. Once it's below freezing, we shut off our outside hose. How do you clean the filters when you can't use a hose to blast them clean?

I clean mine out in the kitchen sink every week. Pleat by pleat with the sprayer on the faucet. Takes less than 10 minutes a week.

It's been working fine for me, no troubles yet.

DK117

[gman]

I live in the midwest where the summers are HOT and the winters are COLD. As I mentioned previously, I put my filters in the cooler. I fill the cooler from the bathtub and let them soak. In summer, I let the filters soak in the garage. In winter I bring the cooler inside and put it in the laundry room (or the spare bathroom). I rinse the filters outside if it's warm. If it's cold, I have several options: rinsing them in the kitchen sink with a sprayer, the laundry room utility sink, or the bathtub with a hand-held shower sprayer. I've not had any problems yet getting the filters cleaned or rinsed in the summer or winter. The cooler makes transporting the filters through the house very easy and i don't have to worry about getting water everywhere.

gman

[Pool Clown]

Iv'e only heard of washing the filters in Dish washing Soap, not in the dishwasher. cartridge filters need a good strait shot of water to get the stuff between the pleats. I don't think a dishwasher can get the sustained blast with water that the filter needs to get clean.

[Mikey_in_NY]

I guess my question is mostly about what to do during the winter. Once it's below freezing, we shut off our outside hose. How do you clean the filters when you can't use a hose to blast them clean?

I clean mine out in the kitchen sink every week. Pleat by pleat with the sprayer on the faucet. Takes less than 10 minutes a week.

It's been working fine for me, no troubles yet.

DK117

Agree - if a hosepipe isn't an option then follow DK's advice.

[Dnepr Dave]

I soak mine in a cooler too. I use TSP mixed to the strength recommended for soaking paint brushes. I use hot water, 100F. And soak the filter for a day. I rinse them with the hose, I have extras so I don't have to rinse them outside when it's freezing.

The filters are not paper, they are Dacron. They wouldn't last in the tub if they were paper.

Dave

[footie]

I have a question, is it always better to buy genuine manufacturer filters or are the cheaper ones just as good? Reason I ask is at time the manufacturer filters can be almost double the price.

[Pool Clown]

If your going to use an after-market cart, the ones iv'e had the best luck with are made by Unicell.

[Dnepr Dave]

My extra filter is a Unicell, it is exactly the same as the manufacturers filter. None of the manufacturers make their own filters, So your aftermarket filter is probably made by the same company as the original.

Dave

[Hotsprung]

How studious do you have to be when cleaning your filters. My Sovereign is 3 weeks old and I have been cleaning my filters with hose and non-pressurised jet attachment. The process removes any discolouration and as I squirt water into the folds some larger debris is washed out. I'm using the pressure of the water to open the folds.

Should I be opening the folds by hand and getting every last bit of stuff out, or will I be ok with what I'm doing?

[dark rider]

Hotsprung, if they are the Tri-X filters, they are designed to be washed in the dishwasher on the rinse cycle/no heat dry. The end caps were designed not to catch the debris, and the ceramic mesh maintains its shape better and can handle the pressure without tearing better than the tranditional fabric filters.

[Hotsprung]

Hotsprung, if they are the Tri-X filters, they are designed to be washed in the dishwasher on the rinse cycle/no heat dry. The end caps were designed not to catch the debris, and the ceramic mesh maintains its shape better and can handle the pressure without tearing better than the tranditional fabric filters.

Thanks for the advice. I don't have Tri-X filters yet, what I have at the moment is the paper ones supplied with the tub. Most of the significant debris, tree flower petals etc comes out but some stuff is remaining in the internal crease of the paper. I'll watch and see if it becomes a problem.

Cheers

[waterbear]

If your going to use an after-market cart, the ones iv'e had the best luck with are made by Unicell.

I second this. Unicel actually manufactures many of the OEM filters, btw. I have also had good luck with Aladdin (Worldpool).

Unicel has some excellent fiter cleaning and care instructions on their website:

http://www.unicelfilters.com/retailers/Maintenance_FAQ.asp

[spawn]

Like DK, I use just quickly rinse the filter pleat by pleat and then pop it back in the tub but I rinse every two weeks. Every six weeks I just swap in an alternate filter and soak the one I removed in a cooler, as does gman, rinsing and letting it dry afterward. Very quick, easy, not messy and the filters get clean and last long.

The dishwasher routine doesn't appeal to me for various reasons but the main reason is I don't like shlepping a wet dripping filter into the kitchen into the dishwasher and then out of the dishwasher dripping through the kitchen back outside. It's bad enough for one filter, but imagine having two, three or as many as five filters and going in and out. Also, I think that I can do a better rinse than the dishwasher. I can do it quicker as well. Also in our house there is always soemthing in the dishwasher but I could try to time it for when dishes are removed in the morning before dirty dishes are loaded in - that way no risk of food waste on filter if you unload a few things that haven't been washed in order to finsh a filter. Finally, although I am sure it is okay or people wouldn't do it, I don't like the idea of placing a hot tub filter with body oils, dead skin, potentially bacteria, etc in my dishwasher where I wash the plates, and silverwear I eat with and the dishes we cook with.

[dark rider]

Like DK, I use just quickly rinse the filter pleat by pleat and then pop it back in the tub but I rinse every two weeks. Every six weeks I just swap in an alternate filter and soak the one I removed in a cooler, as does gman, rinsing and letting it dry afterward. Very quick, easy, not messy and the filters get clean and last long.

The dishwasher routine doesn't appeal to me for various reasons but the main reason is I don't like shlepping a wet dripping filter into the kitchen into the dishwasher and then out of the dishwasher dripping through the kitchen back outside. It's bad enough for one filter, but imagine having two, three or as many as five filters and going in and out. Also, I think that I can do a better rinse than the dishwasher. I can do it quicker as well. Also in our house there is always soemthing in the dishwasher but I could try to time it for when dishes are removed in the morning before dirty dishes are loaded in - that way no risk of food waste on filter if you unload a few things that haven't been washed in order to finsh a filter. Finally, although I am sure it is okay or people wouldn't do it, I don't like the idea of placing a hot tub filter with body oils, dead skin, potentially bacteria, etc in my dishwasher where I wash the plates, and silverwear I eat with and the dishes we cook with.

My .02 FWIW... The Tri-X filters don't hold water as much as the cloth/paper ones, so you don't get as much dripping, but I can understand the argument. Personally, I wouldn't recommend putting anything but the Tri-X in the dishwasher though, as it may tear and typically won't be rigid enough for the pleats not to trap debris... With 5 filters in the larger HotSpring models, I'd hate to have to clean the filters pleat by pleat, and there's no way it would be faster than a 15-20 min rinse cycle! However, if you have a single filter, the swap method is definitely the way to go. While I understand it's not appetizing to think about, the dead skin cells, oils ,etc. probably pose less risk overall than the leftover food that may be rotting in your dishwasher. That's what the sanitize cycle is for anyway! I run it every so often just to kill off what can't be seen.

[spawn]

DarkRider - I hear you on cleaning 5 filters pleat by pleat - that would definitely be a pain. Less dripping from the Tri-X filters would help, but do they still drip? Maybe that is an incentive to go ahead and mop the kitchen floor at that time. Interesting news to hear about potential risk from food scraps in the dishwasher - I had not heard of that problem. I hope it is rare because my dishwasher doesn't even have a sanitize cycle and in three decades of using a dishwasher I have never used one - good for you to take this precaution. I am sure that it must be okay to put the tri-x in a dishwasher or the filter mfg would not be saying it is ok. Still I would not be comfortable with the idea - I'll just use my dishwasher to wash dishes.

A couple questions though. When putting filters in the dishwasher do they have to be vertical or can they lay down? I have a removable rack section on my lower rack that would allow me to set filters vertically but I would not be able to get more than about three at a time. If you can lay them down - no problem. Would hate to have to do two runs to do the weekly filter rinse.

Since only tri-x filters should go in the dishwasher this is kind of a tri-x filter issue. I have heard that when the tri-x filters clogs they can't be chemically cleaned and must be replaced - is this true? I have heard that because of this, people with high usage prefer the non tir-x filter. Also, since the circ pump filter is the one that really does the work and gets dirtiest, that some guys might use tri-x on the pump filters and use the regular filter on the circ pump, or some guys just dispense with the use of the circ pump altogehter. Have you had any issues with the tri-x on your circ pump?

[dark rider]

I would just load them in a plastic bag after washing, and you won't have to deal with the dripping at all. As to fitment and effectiveness of cleaning horizontally vs. vertically, I think most dishwashers would clean them better vertically, but if you have pot/pan sprayer jets in the back of your dishwasher, they could probably do just as well horizontally. I have a Kitchen Aid dishwasher with a HD food disposal built in. I don't pre-rinse or soak anything, and it does a heack of a job getting everything off and getting rid of food debris. I used to have a Bosche that was very highly rated, but was garbage in comparison. It relied on high temps to disolve food and had no food/garbage disposal, so it was always clogging, unless you pre-rinsed everything. The Kitchen Aid puts out more pressure and I would never again buy a dishwasher without the built-in food disposal! The moral of the story... the dishwasher method will only likely be as effective as your dishwasher. For me, I've got plenty of room to fit in 5 vertically or horizontally, so no worries.

[spawn]

Well thats great for people to be able to lay them down in the dishwasher and still get them clean if they can't get all five vertically - for some reason I had imaged that to rinse them effectively you would have to allow the water to run out the bottom. Maybe I just had that image because I have my filter vertical when I rinse it because I don't think it would rinse as well horizontal. Thanks for the info...

[hottublady]

My filters are pretty large. I have a backup filter so I always have a clean filter when needed. When it comes time to clean the active filter, rather than soak them in the bathtub or a big rubber waste container, I discovered that my filters fit perfectly inside a portable cooler (medium to large variety), which we had lying around. The cooler makes removing the filter from the spa easy with relatively little water spillage over the floor. The cooler is large enough to contain the filter and plenty of water for soaking. The handles on the cooler make it easy to transport the filter anywhere, even when it's full of water.

I soak the filter in the cooler with cascade dishwashing detergent, usually for 24 - 48 hours. I'm not particularly strict about how long they soak. I rinse the filter thoroughly with a hose. The filters come out beautiful. I let them dry and store them inside a tall kitchen bag in a closet in the house.

gman

Nice!!! Thanks for the tip!

[north_of_boston]

I guess my question is mostly about what to do during the winter. Once it's below freezing, we shut off our outside hose. How do you clean the filters when you can't use a hose to blast them clean?

Well, since I'm only doing it once a month, I bring the hose out (it's on a carrier in the garage) turn on the water momentarily and do it. Here in "coastal New England" we have days that are temperate enough to do just that. Now, with the new tub, I just keep a spare filter and clean it after removal (and put the other one in).

This is a hoot - but something to be aware of. I had a leak in my last hot tub and had to fill it up once a week. I kept a hose off to the side. It was a Sears super-duper-heavy-duty-as-you-can-get-guarantie-a-vie type.

The hose would freeze. So -- I would throw the hose in the tub to thaw it. Then, to refill the tub, I'd turn the water on at the spigot. Use caution - because the ice can come flying out of the hose like a string of bullets -- you don't want to get hit in the face with that.

Needless to say - don't forget to turn OFF the outside spigot from inside the house after you're done.