Roadrunner Pool Services › Guides › Weekly service
The surface is the easy part. Filter pressure is the part that costs money if you ignore it.
A real blow puts fine grit in the water, on the surface, and eventually through the skimmer into the filter. Most of the damage from a dust event is not what you can see the next morning.
Net the surface before the debris waterlogs and sinks. Empty the skimmer and pump baskets, because a full basket starves the pump and a starved pump runs hot. Brush the walls and steps so the fine material goes into suspension where the filter can catch it rather than settling into a film. Run the filtration longer than usual for a day or two.
This is the one that matters. Note your clean starting pressure, because it is the only number that tells you when the filter is loaded. When pressure climbs roughly eight to ten pounds above that clean baseline, flow has dropped enough that the filter needs cleaning. After a heavy dust event a cartridge filter can get there in days rather than months.
Running a loaded filter does not just clean poorly. Low flow means the heater may not fire, a salt cell may throw a no-flow error, and the pump works against pressure it was not meant to fight.
If the pool is genuinely cloudy rather than dusty, or the filter was already due, an extra trip is cheaper than three weeks of a pool that never quite clears. We quote that as a one-time visit rather than folding it into weekly service, so you can see what it costs.
Manufacturer intervals are written for average conditions. Ours are not average. Between blowing dust, a long season and heavy use, most pools here need filter cleaning noticeably more often than the book suggests. Cartridges also have a life beyond cleaning: once the pleats are packed or torn, cleaning stops restoring flow and it is time for new elements.