alanfw

I'm after opinions: Recently, sand began entering the pool from the filter. I finally got around to removing the sand to look at fixing the filter. The filter sand hasn't been replaced since the pool was built - around 15 yrs ago - but the system continued to work fine until the sand problem. After removing the sand and lateral assembly I discovered that the people who constructed the system put TWO sets of laterals in the central pipe (ie 16 individual laterals instead of 8). Unfortunately, the company no longer exists in Australia and I can't seem to buy replacement laterals (they are screw-in with 20mm thread), so I've blocked the inlet for the broken one as a temp measure and decided to buy a new filter (on the basis that the remaining laterals are probably becoming brittle and are likely to fail soon anyway). So, here's my question: Is it a GOOD idea to have an extra set of laterals? Are there any disadvantages other than cost? And will my current filter (with now 15 laterals) end up working better than the NEW filter I buy (which will probably only have 8 or so)?