Vinegar to clean filters?

[txwillie]

What does a bottle of filter cleaner cost, anyway?  It's not like vinegar is going to save all that much money.  But if it makes you happy, it's your spa, so do whatever you like.  But I can pretty much guess it won't work any better than filter cleaner (possibly not as good), and it probalby won't be all that much cheaper.

I have used filter cleaners B4. I never thought they did much of anything to actually clean the filter, plus I could never get it all out/off and that resulted in foamy water. I devised a fitting that I would use to back wash the filters after using the cleaner. I would rinse, soak, backwash, over and over, usually spending 15-20 minutes on each and dozens of gallons of water, maybe hundreds. The result? Foam in the tub. Vinegar is used in many industrial applications to descale and degrease all sorts of things, so I thought it might be just as good as filter cleaner. IMO it certainly could be no worse than filter cleaner. Would it save a couple of cents? Maybe but that's not the point. I'm gonna try it. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. If it does, I might let ya'll know, but then again I might let ya'll continue to to foam your tubs....

txwillie

[WannaSoakNow]

Good luck with the testing.       I think I may also give it a try. I'll let you know if it works.  

[Chad]

FWIW, I use filter cleaner and never get foam.

Soak filter in filter cleaner, remove, rinse with medium pressure nozzle on a garden hose, fill up bath tub, submerge and remove filter repeatedly in a timely manner a few times, and put back in spa. No foam. Reuse the same 5 gallon bucket of water and filter cleaner 2,3,4... times.

[Brewman]

I'll be interested to see your results.  
 I don't have any foaming problems when I clean my filters.  And I'm not the most thorough rinser, either.  Just a few minutes with the nozzle of my garden hose or in the laundry tub if it's winter.