Thank you!

Thanks Debbie! Glad it helped! 😊

My guess is that will work fine if it is rated for water use. If you look online for a replacement Hayward pool filter pressure gauge you can see that 60 psi is the max. Even with a dirty filter pressure shouldn’t be over about 30psi.

Are you using actual cotton balls or "filter balls" made specifically for swimming pool filters? I wouldn’t use cotton balls in any of the baskets. I have seen someone mention putting filter balls made for pool filters in the skimmer basket but I have never needed to do that with a properly functioning sand filter. Don’t worry about not smelling chlorine, that’s actually a good thing. If the water is correctly sanitized you shouldn’t smell the chlorine in your pool. A strong chlorine smell indicates the water has a high level of combined chlorine, or chloramines, (basically used chlorine) which needs to be refreshed by shocking the pool. There are a lot of videos about it. As for the slow return, this can cause problems with a salt pool like inadequate filtration and low chlorine production. Both would promote algae growth. If your gauge shows low pressure and your pump sounds weird, debris might have clogged the pump impeller which will prevent the pump from working properly.

The valve setting doesn’t matter when replacing the gauge, but the pump must be turned off.

Should not matter much as long as it has a range of 0-60 PSI and the threaded end is 1/4”NPT. Other pressure ranges will work but 0-60 PSI is probably the best operating range to use for readability and accuracy on a 2” dial. Lots of gauge options pop up on Amazon with a search for “pool sand filter gauge”. Current price range is around $9 for a cheap one or $25 for a Hayward. I picked mine up from a local pool store for around $7.95.

@@fiveable I changed it today. Turned off the pump and clorinator and did the work. When I took the gauge off some water came out though. I should have needed to close the filter as well? All good now but my gauge marks 1 and it’s making a strange noise. What could be the issue

@ss_websurfer filter setting shouldn’t matter. Is your pump located on the ground at a lower level than the filter like mine? Sounds like you might still have some air in the system. Make sure the pump is primed. The way mine is set up I didn’t need to prime my pump and the air was pushed out when I started the circulation pump back up.

@@fiveable it’s the second week I have the pool. Complete noob here. There’s no weird sound anymore and I was reading my gauge wrong… there is 10 PSI now. I have an above ground pool. Pump and filter are next to each other in a level below the pool.

@@ss_websurfer I understand. I was in the same boat when I got started with my pool. Stick with it. You’ll get the hang of it in no time. The noise could have been the pump until it got good flow again. The water probably came out where the gauge mounts because the water level of your pool is higher than where the gauge mounts. In my case the water level is lower so mine pulled air in instead. I’m guessing you have a replaceable filter instead of a sand filter. If that is the case I would recommend looking up a video on how to replace or maintain that style of filter. Not that you need to replace the filter but because there might be good information about valve settings and priming the pump if needed.