Filter Back Pressure Problem Anyone?

[neilypiece]

Hi.

Has anyone had a problem with their filter back pressurizing? I have an Aqua One 1200 filter (just over a year old)and I'm getting a constant drip from the inlet isolating valve. It's on tight enough and isn't dripping from the threads.

Having done some fault diagnosis I get a leak (regular drip) from the valve when the filter is running and also when I close both the inlet and outlet valves the leak still occurs. I noticed that when I removed the inlet tube and valve but left the outlet connected with the valve isolated the water slowly rose and started to come out of the inlet connection! I took off the outlet hose and proved that the outlet valve wasn't passing when shut so it seems to me there is some sort of back pressure in my filter. Any suggestions?

The filter is cleaned regularly (every 2 wks) and all the filter trays are correctly aligned inside the filter.

Thanks.

 

[OldMan47]

I have not seen anything like what you are describing but had a serious leak on a similar looking filter, a C-series Marineland filter. What I finally found, after months of checking, was that the leak was really coming from a poorly tightened connection on my valve body. The hose connection to the valve body on my filter is a slip on fit with a nut that then turns to tighten the pliable hose to the barbed connection on the valve body. The nut had allowed the hose to slip partly off but it was not apparent that it had moved. Instead the nut looked well tightened and the slight movement of the hose was hard to detect. When I finally took the connection apart by backing off the nut, it became apparent that the hose had moved. I simply pushed the hose onto the barbed connector better and screwed the nut back in place. Since I did that, the leak has completely disappeared. Note: the C-series looks exactly like the pictures I have seen of tetra-tech filters. I wish I had some experience with your filter but please check how well the hoses are seated on the connections. An obvious design flaw with my filter turned out to be nothing more than an error I had made putting things together.