Hayward W3C4030 SwimClear Cartridge Pool Filter, 425 Sq. Ft.

Superior Filtering system, hands down. Very simple to fit and plumb in, about the same footprint as the old sand filter. So much more efficient, just does a better job for sure. And knowing that the changeout of the filter cartridges will be so much easier than dealing with that old sand filter is worth the cost of admission. Thank you! 2nd post: Well it’s been a year now and I can tell you for sure this Hayward Cartridge Filter is a superior filtering system. Our water has been absolutely crystal clear all season. I bought another set of Hayward filter cartridges as back up figuring I’d need a change out some time this summer but the pressure gauge hardly moved…never had to change them. I can barely remember the stress I had for years trying to figure out how to keep our pool pristine. Not anymore…our 35,000 gallon in-ground pool was sparkling all season.

Installation was very easy, only took a few minutes as it lined up perfectly with my existing plumbing. Started up my pump immediately and it has been working well since. A bit pricey, but so are all swimming pool products.

Our 23,500 gal. pool equipment suffered collapse from the 2021 Winter Storm that hit Texas over 6 weeks ago (single digits for a couple of days and no electricity). Pump seals burst, heater header assembly cracked, and every join and lever cracked... PLUS the bottom of our Hayward Filter cracked wide open. A pool sitting idle for 6 weeks becomes a chlorinated pond. Not pretty at all. Five weeks later, our pool company was able to get out to replace/fix everything but the filter. Said it would be weeks, 12 weeks or longer to get a replacement filter. Found this one on Amazon and it was delivered within 6 days. The pool tech made time and installed the filter 4 days later. The fittings were different from the original, so he had to cut the existing plumbing and redo some joins. We initially thought the tube and screen for air relief valve was not included but found those rattling around in the bottom of the filter. The filter has been running now for 48 hours with one cleaning of the cartridges so far, and will need another today. The pool is beginning to clear up and I owe it to the Hayward Filter. It has been working steady and I expect it to be just as good as the one it replaced, which worked terrific for the 10 years prior to this Valentine's Week deep freeze.

This replaced an old Hayward DE filter. I hoped the Inlet & Outlet would match, but over the years the union has been slightly changed. New piping is much simplified now. This is relatively easy to install. Pool has already recovered after three days off. I'm very certain this is going to be a big improvement over the DE filter.

At first the filter arrived damaged but the vendor was very helpful and took back the damaged unit and replaced it with a new one. The connection was about 1" higher than our previous filter but since our pump was sitting on the ground before it was easy to raise it up . Compared to our previous one cartridge filter which only managed to clear the water after 2 weeks of 9h/day runs, this unit created crystal clear water in 3 days of 10h running (water was very green). It's also less tall so we cant see it anymore behind the gas pool water heater, which is a nice unexpected bonus

So far I’m pretty happy with this filter. I’m a convert from a DE Filter system. My pool looks just as clean with this filter system. I hated removing all 15 grids from my DE filter and cleaning them at the end of summer. While this system is much easier to dismantle the filters are still a pain in the rearend to clean. I want there to be a washing machine for these so I can stick all four filters in it and walk away. The pleats of the filters are hardly clean after several revolutions with the hose and a few aftermarket filter cleaners. Design the filters so they can be cleaned easier. Other than my diatribe about the filters I’m pleased with the quality of my new filter thus far. I will give an update in a few years.

I had problems, but I want to start off saying that my family has had nothing but positive experiences with Hayward(the company not the city). I was replacing the C3020 with the C3030. I broke the manifold on my old filter from purchasing filters that were too small, that was my fault, but it was about time to replace the whole thing anyway. Called Leslies…once I hung up the phone with them, I immediately went on amazon and paid for the item and was being delivered Monday morning(did this on Saturday). I saw that the pressure gauge was cracked, but was hoping it would still work, it didn’t, but I know Hayward will send another one(did I mention they are great?). That wasn’t the biggest problem. The biggest problems were the inlet and outlet were about ¾ of an inch higher that the C3020, the union connectors were now 2 ½ inch and the C3030 was a bit fatter than the C3020. The ¾ of inch height difference was fixed by a piece of old growth redwood siding placed underneath the pump. Because the C3030 is a little bigger you can see I had to add a few inches of pipe, that wasn’t difficult either, though finding the pieces to connect the 2 ½ inch union connectors to the original 2 inch pipe was not fun. Home Depot does not carry 2 ½ inch connectors, at least not at our local store. So went to a plumbing supply store in the next town over. Got what I needed put everything together and of course it leaked. I created 16 new connections and there was only two that I really cared about and of course it was the union connection for the inlet that was leaking. So I guess I will be buying another union connector on amazon, luckily I used a 2 inch threaded pipe fitting at the union connection for this exact reason. Should be an easy fix, just frustrating, and already left a message with Hayward about the pressure gauge, I am sure I will hear back from them soon. Ran pump for 24 hours and you can see the results….BEAUTIFUL!

Had to do a little plumbing work as the old ports were at the top of the filter and the new ports are in the middle of the filter. Also, the plumbing for my pool and the old filter uses 1 1/2" pipes. The ports from this filter use 2" pipes. If you have that issue, you will need to pick up some supplies to increase/reduce the pipe size to fit the new filter. It wasn't super complicated to do the physical work, but the planning might be a bit challenging. Make sure you have a clear plan of how the pipes need to go before starting your work. I would suggest hiring a plumber if you do not feel confident and can afford to do so. That said, it works GREAT! We had a sand filter with super cloudy water. I worked on it for weeks trying to clear it up with chemicals. No good. Changed out the filter and overnight, the pool was crystal clear. It works amazing! The only issue I saw was that on one of the ports, a very very small piece of plastic was chipped off the end. I do not believe it will affect how the filter works at all. I believe this was a fluke and possibly a handling issue, but not any fault of the vendor.