Pool Filter Deep-Clean Service
A hose rinse is not a filter cleaning. This is what actually restores flow.Starting at $80–$150per deep-clean — flat-rate pricing, free on-site inspection, no contracts.
What Filter Deep-Clean includes
Cartridge, DE, and sand filters all clog with two things a garden hose cannot remove: sunscreen and body oils bound into the pleats, and calcium scale from South Florida's hard fill water. We strip the filter down, soak the media in a degreaser and then an acid bath, inspect every band, gasket, grid, and lateral, and reassemble it to spec — then verify the pressure drop on the gauge before we leave. If the media is past saving, you get the honest call and a written replacement quote instead of a cleaning that won't hold.
- ✓Full teardown — housing opened, media removed, o-rings and clamp bands inspected
- ✓Two-stage soak: degreaser for sunscreen and body oils, then acid bath for calcium scale
- ✓Individual pleat, grid, or lateral inspection — tears, collapsed cores, channeling
- ✓Manifold, standpipe, air-relief, and pressure-gauge check
- ✓O-ring and gasket lubrication (replacement quoted if cracked or flattened)
- ✓Reassembly to manufacturer torque spec, then a live pressure test
- ✓Clean-baseline pressure recorded so you know when it's due again
- ✓Honest replace-vs-clean call with a written quote if the media is done
South Florida pool owners whose filter pressure sits 8+ psi above its clean baseline, whose returns have gone weak, or whose water stays cloudy no matter what the chemistry says.
What to expect: our filter deep-clean
Most "filter cleanings" in this market are a rinse with a garden hose in the driveway. That knocks off the loose debris and leaves behind the two things actually restricting your flow — oil bound into the pleats and calcium locked in the fibers. Here's the sequence we run instead.
- 1Record the dirty pressure
We read the gauge before anything comes apart and compare it to your clean baseline. The gap tells us whether this is a routine clean or whether something else — a collapsed cartridge core, a broken lateral — is driving the restriction.
- 2Open and inspect the housing
Clamp band, o-ring, air-relief valve, and pressure gauge all get checked while the housing is open. A weeping band or a flattened o-ring is a five-dollar part that becomes a flooded pad if nobody looks.
- 3Degreaser soak
Sunscreen, body oil, and lotion bind into cartridge pleats and DE grids and will not rinse out. The media soaks in a degreaser first, because acid on top of oil just seals the oil in — this is the step almost everyone skips.
- 4Acid bath for scale
Our fill water runs 250–350 ppm calcium hardness, which means scale in the media, not just on your tile. A dilute acid soak dissolves it and gives you back the surface area you paid for.
- 5Media inspection
Pleat by pleat on a cartridge, grid by grid on DE, laterals and sand bed on a sand filter. Tears, collapsed cores, channeling, and calcified sand all get flagged — this is where we tell you honestly whether cleaning is worth it.
- 6Reassemble and pressure-verify
Everything goes back to spec, gaskets lubricated, and we run the system and read the gauge before leaving. Your new clean baseline goes on the invoice so you know when the next one is due.
Why a hose rinse stops working
A cartridge filter traps debris, but it also traps everything that comes off a swimmer — sunscreen, tanning oil, lotion, hair product. Those oils don't sit on the surface; they wick into the pleat fibers and go tacky. A pressure washer drives them deeper and can blow the pleats apart at the same time. Only a degreaser soak takes them out, and it has to happen before any acid touches the media, or the acid seals the oil in place.
The second half is local. Palm Beach County fill water frequently arrives at 250–350 ppm calcium hardness, so every top-off adds scale — and it deposits in your filter media exactly the way it deposits on your waterline tile. That's what a dilute acid soak dissolves. Skip either soak and the filter comes back to service already partly blinded, which is why so many owners feel like their filter needs cleaning every six weeks.
What a clogged filter is actually costing you
Restriction is expensive in three directions at once. Your pump pulls more amps pushing water through a blinded filter, which shows up every month on the FPL bill. Your sanitizer stops circulating properly, so chlorine sits in the shallow end while algae starts in the corners. And on a salt pool, low flow can drop the cell below its flow-switch threshold — the cell stops producing, chlorine falls, and you get a green pool that looks like a chemistry failure but started at the filter.
That's why we record a clean-baseline pressure on your invoice. When the gauge climbs 8–10 psi over that number, the filter is due — not on a calendar, on the actual reading. Most South Florida pools land somewhere around every three to four months, faster with heavy bather load or a screen enclosure dropping debris.
When cleaning stops being the answer
Media does not last forever, and we would rather tell you that than sell you a cleaning that won't hold. Cartridges run about two to four years before the pleats go soft or the core collapses, and a single replacement cartridge runs $50–$200. Sand channels and calcifies after five to seven years; a sand change runs $250–$450. DE grids tear and DE or sand media replacement runs $180–$420 installed.
If we open your filter and the media is finished, you get that in writing with the number, and the deep-clean charge goes toward the work if you want us to do it. What you will not get is a cleaned filter that reads high on the gauge two weeks later and a shrug about why.
On the job in South Florida
Filter Deep-Clean — Common Questions
A cartridge filter deep-clean runs $80–$150 in 2026, which covers the full teardown, the degreaser and acid soaks, inspection of every pleat and gasket, reassembly to spec, and a live pressure verification. A DE recharge runs $40–$80 per change. If the media itself is finished rather than dirty, replacement is quoted separately and only with your approval: a single cartridge runs $50–$200, a sand change runs $250–$450, and DE or sand media replacement runs $180–$420. Filter cleaning on schedule is already included for weekly service clients.
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