Pentair Hi-Flow Multiport Valve Rebuild: The 1½-Inch Valve on Sand Dollar SD35 / SD40 / SD60 and the 2-Inch Valve on Triton II, FNS Plus and Quad DE

We covered how a multiport valve seals and the three ways it fails in an earlier guide. This one is narrower: the Pentair Hi-Flow family specifically, because it is the valve on the back of every Sand Dollar and Tagelus top-mount sand filter and on top of every Triton II, FNS Plus and Quad DE, and because its two sizes look alike from the outside but do not share internals. A technician who orders a "Hi-Flow diverter gasket" without knowing which valve is on the pad has a coin-flip chance of getting the right part.

The guide goes: identify the valve, read the leak, then the rebuild stack for each size with the part numbers that go in it.

Which Hi-Flow valve you have

There are two top-mount sizes and a side-mount variant. The size is the port size, not the filter size.

The quick tell on the pad: the 1½-inch valve on a Sand Dollar sits in a plastic clamp band around the tank neck, and its top is held to the body by six small screws with serrated flange nuts. The 2-inch valve on a Triton II bolts to a bulkhead adapter and uses eight hex nuts. If you can see a clamp band, it is the 1½-inch valve.

The Sand Dollar filters themselves are 16-inch (SD35) to 22-inch (SD60) tanks with the SD40 between them, all running the same 1½-inch valve. The internal standpipe assemblies 152229 (16-inch) and 152227 (22-inch) are tank parts, not valve parts, but they come up in the same conversation when a filter has been open for a while.

Reading the leak

Every Hi-Flow complaint resolves to one of four seals, and the symptom tells you which before the top comes off.

Water running out the backwash or waste line while the valve is on FILTER. The diverter gasket is not sealing the wall between the filter port and the waste port. On the 1½-inch valve that gasket is moulded onto the diverter as one piece; on the 2-inch valve it is a separate five-spoke seal glued into the diverter. A gasket that has gone flat, has a pinched spoke, or has pulled up out of its groove will pass water to waste continuously — the pool level drops a little every day the pump runs. If the waste line is hard-plumbed and long, a siphon forms behind the gasket during backwash and lifts the spoke; an air gap on the waste line fixes the cause, and a new gasket fixes the damage.

Weeping at the handle shaft. The diverter shaft O-ring 272511 on the 1½-inch valve. A slow drip that appears under pressure and stops when the pump is off. It is the cheapest part on the valve and the one most often ignored until the handle area is white with mineral deposits.

Leak at the seam between the valve top and body. The top O-ring 354053 (Pentair's own number for it is 272526). It hardens and flattens with age; it also gets pinched when the top is reinstalled without seating the O-ring squarely in its groove.

Handle hard to press down, or the valve will not stay in position. The compression spring 272535 (100-pound spring, 1⅜-inch outside diameter) on the 1½-inch valve or 272400 on the 2-inch valve has lost tension, corroded, or the stack of washers above it has been assembled in the wrong order. A spring that is too weak lets the diverter lift off the gasket under pressure — which shows up as the first symptom on this list, so check the spring whenever you are in there for the gasket.

There is one more complaint that is not the valve at all: sand in the pool after backwash. That is a broken lateral or standpipe inside the tank, and no valve part will fix it.

Prep and safety

Pump off at the breaker. Open the filter's air relief until the gauge reads zero. Move the handle to WINTERIZE, or to the position between two detents if the label has none; that lifts the diverter off the gasket so nothing drags across it when the top comes off. Close isolation valves if the pad sits below water level. Have a clean towel and a tray for the fasteners — on the 1½-inch valve there are six screws, six stainless washers and six flange nuts, and they are small.

Rebuilding the 1½-inch clamp valve (Sand Dollar and Tagelus)

Two authoritative parts breakdowns agree on the stack for this valve, and it is worth having the order in your head before it is in pieces on the tank lid. From the top down:

1. Handle 272520Z, held by the handle screw 272405 (#8-32) with two plastic washers 272505 under it.
2. The valve top 272530 — the black moulded top with the diffuser — with its top O-ring 354053 in the groove that mates to the body.
3. The diverter shaft passes through the top with the shaft O-ring 272511 sealing it.
4. Below the top: a stainless washer 272401 (1⅜ × 1⅞ × 1/32 inch), then the compression spring 272535.
5. At the bottom of the shaft, the diverter with its bonded gasket, 272512Z.
6. The top is fastened to the valve body with six #10-24 screws, six 9/16-inch stainless washers 272555 and six serrated flange nuts 272554.
7. The sight glass seals to the body with the sight glass gasket 271106.

If more than the diverter and O-rings are tired — a cracked top, a bent shaft, a spring that has lost its temper — the complete top assembly 272531 replaces everything from item 1 to item 5 in one piece and drops onto the existing body. It is the same assembly Pentair supplies on the 262504, 262505 and 262506 valves.

Procedure. With the handle on WINTERIZE, remove the six flange nuts and washers, lift the top straight up; the diverter and spring come with it on the shaft. Note the washer order. Pull the diverter off the shaft, then the spring and washer. Inspect the gasket face on the diverter: on this valve you do not replace the gasket, you replace the diverter — 272512Z arrives with the gasket already bonded and flat. Slide the shaft O-ring 272511 off and replace it; lubricate the new one with a pool-grade silicone lubricant, never petroleum. Replace the top O-ring 354053 in its groove. Reassemble in reverse — washer, spring, diverter — and set the top back on the body with the alignment tab in its notch so the ports line up with the label. Tighten the six nuts evenly in a star pattern until the top is seated; the body is plastic and the nuts are small, so snug, not heroic.

Two parts on the diagrams are not in our catalogue: the plastic clamp band (Pentair 152165) that holds the valve to the tank neck, and the valve-body O-ring between the valve and the tank. Both are widely available from the equipment brand and from distributors; if the clamp band is cracked, replace it before it lets go under pressure.

Rebuilding the 2-inch valve (Triton II, FNS Plus, Quad DE)

The 2-inch valve shares the handle 272520Z, the handle screw 272405, the compression spring 272400 and the 1/32-inch stainless washer 272401 with its smaller sibling. It does not share the diverter, and this is where the coin-flip happens.

On the 2-inch valve the sealing element is a separate five-spoke diverter seal, 272409, about 7⅝ inches across, glued into the underside of the diverter. It is replaced on its own; the diverter body itself normally survives.

Procedure. Handle to WINTERIZE, relieve pressure, remove the eight hex nuts, lift the top with the diverter on its shaft. Pull the diverter and scrape the old seal out of its groove — it is glued, and an old one comes out in pieces. Clean the groove until it is dry and free of adhesive, grease and grit; a non-acetone solvent and a plastic scraper are fine, a steel blade is not. Run a thin bead of the recommended adhesive in the groove bottom only. Set the new seal in with the correct face up — the seal has a shorter ridge on one side, and that side faces up into the groove — and press it down evenly all the way round. Let it cure before the valve sees pressure: two hours minimum, twenty-four hours if the schedule allows. Reassemble as before.

If the diverter body is cracked or the shaft is worn, or if the top itself has crazed, the complete top assembly 272422 replaces the top, diverter, seal, spring and handle as a unit for the 261049, 261050 and 261142 valves, and is also the listed top for the FNS Plus and Quad DE filters that use this valve.

The bare 2-inch diverter, the 2-inch plastic washer, the shaft O-ring and the bottom plate for this valve are not in our catalogue; the equipment brand and most distributors stock them.

Side-mount Hi-Flow valves, briefly

The side-mount versions use the same handle and spring philosophy but a different top. The 2-inch side-mount top assembly is 270067 (Pentair also lists it as 270068), fitting the 261055, 261152 and 261173 valves. For the 1½-inch side-mount valve, 271104 is a rebuild kit — diverter, sight glass gasket and O-ring in one bag — for the 261173 and 261177 bodies, and 261177 is the complete 1½-inch side-mount valve kit for DE filters. The top O-ring for the 2-inch side-mount top is 271151. The rebuild logic is the same as above; the part numbers are not.

First run

Handle back to FILTER, isolation valves open, prime the pump with the air relief open until it sprays, close it. Watch three places for two minutes: the waste line (should be dry on FILTER), the handle shaft, and the seam between top and body. Then run a backwash and rinse cycle and watch the same three places again, because the gasket is loaded differently in each position. A rebuild that is dry through a full cycle stays dry.

Cross-reference table

Only numbers verified in our cross-reference records are listed.

The remaining rebuild parts — 272512Z, 272511, 272535, 272400, 272401, 272405, 272505, 272520Z, 272530, 272554, 272555, 271106, 271151 — carry the same numbers as the originals they replace.

Everything that fits is listed on the Sand Dollar SD35, SD40 and SD60 pages, the Tagelus, Triton II, FNS Plus and Quad DE pages, and by valve model on the 262506 and 261050 pages. The full range of multiport valve parts is under Valves & Parts › Multiport Valves.

Sourcing

POOLPOINT manufactures these valve tops, diverters, seals, springs and hardware factory direct for US distributors, service companies and online sellers. MOQ starts at 50 pieces per SKU, mixed cartons are accepted to reach it, and private label is available. The 1½-inch diverter 272512Z and the 2-inch seal 272409 are the two SKUs a service truck goes through fastest on this platform; the top O-ring 354053 and shaft O-ring 272511 belong in the same bin. Request a quote for wholesale pricing.