Bestway Pool Filter Cartridge Type I Review: The £6.99 Two-Pack That Stops the Leaks
Cheap unbranded copies fit until they don't, and a leaking pump top is nobody's idea of a good afternoon. Here is how the genuine Bestway Type I cartridge compares, straight from 100 UK owners.
If you own a framed pool, an above-ground paddling pool or one of those inflatable spas, you already know the filter cartridge is the part you forget about until the water turns cloudy. The Bestway Pool Filter Cartridge Type I is the small pleated cartridge (also sold as Size 1) that sits inside filter pumps rated for around 1,249 litres, roughly 330 gallons, an hour. It comes as a two-pack for £6.99, which is the whole appeal: one in the pump, one drying on the side, swapped over on rotation.
The listing carries a 4.5-star average across more than 28,000 ratings, so it is clearly a workhorse product. But cartridge filters are one of those items where the experience splits hard depending on how heavily you use the pool and, crucially, whether you buy the genuine part or a lookalike. We went through 100 recent UK reviews to see where owners land, and there is a consistent story in there worth telling before you add it to your basket.
The Fit Problem Nobody Warns You About
The single loudest theme across the five-star reviews has nothing to do with how well the cartridge filters. It is about fit. Plenty of owners arrive at this listing after a bad experience with a cheaper alternative, and their relief is obvious.
Ralph T. (5 stars) sums up the trap: "I bought "compatible" filters from another supplier... They did not fit. Length was OK but the hole in the middle was visibly smaller when compared with the normal filters. These filters fit correctly." That small centre hole matters more than you would think, because if it doesn't seat properly on the pump spindle, water finds a way past.
Holy Shields (5 stars) had the same journey with a worse symptom: "I bought similar (cheaper) brand before on Amazon and they didn't fit well enough leading to leaks from the top of the pump. These filters however are a perfect fit and successfully caught all the cr*p suspended in the pool water." A leaking pump top drains your pool and your patience at the same time, so a cartridge that actually seals is worth the extra pound or two.
One thing to flag: the Type I is the small cartridge. Several reviewers ordered it expecting the larger size and found it too small for their pump, and a couple found it fit an Intex pump rather than a Bestway one. Measure your old cartridge before you order. It should be roughly 8 cm across and 9 cm tall.
Rinse, Rotate, Repeat: The Two-Pack Trick
The reason this comes as a pair, and the reason experienced owners keep buying it, is the rotation routine. You run one cartridge, and when it gets dirty you pull it out, blast it with the garden hose or agitate it in a bucket, and drop the spare in while the first one dries. Do that and a two-pack can stretch a surprisingly long way.
Rhea (5 stars) runs a heavily used pool and has the system down: "I get these every few weeks during the summer as I like to have at least 2 in rotation... Simple enough to clean off with the hose and pretty easy to use, good value for money and pretty happy with durability considering I can scrub one clean about 10 times before having to replace it." Ten cleans per cartridge on a hard-working pool is a strong return.
Others describe a gentler routine. Lisa Howells (5 stars) wrote that where shop-bought filters made her "change from shop bought once a week. These were easy to clean and lasted the summer." And derek (5 stars) shares the exact method: "after a week of use you can remove filter and agitate in a bucket of clean water to remove some of the dirt and get a little more life from the filter before having to replace it." If you only fill the pool for the odd sunny weekend, two cartridges could easily see you through a British summer.
Where Heavy Users Hit a Wall
Now the flip side, because it is real and it comes up often enough to matter. If your pool is busy every day, some owners feel these clog faster than they would like, and once clogged they can be hard to get properly clean again.
P Cooper (3 stars) put it plainly: "Perfect fit, easy to clean however they did clog up quite quickly. Whether due to the water being bad or the filter I'm not sure." NicNak (3 stars) had a sharper version: "They are ok. But I need to replace too regularly.. they don't clean to reuse more then once." And tracy fisher (3 stars) drew the line clearly between light and heavy use: "Does its job if the pool isn't used but if you use the pool frequently these need changing weekly."
A few of the lower ratings suspect the cartridge is thinner than the one that shipped with their pump. One two-star reviewer noted "Far few 'splines' and clog far easier requiring cleaning every 24 hours instead of few days/once a week," while Magdalena (4 stars) said it "Works very well even though it's not as thick as the original one." Whether that is a manufacturing change or normal variation is hard to say, but the takeaway is clear: for daily-use pools, treat this as a consumable you swap often, not a set-and-forget part.
What UK Water and a Short Season Mean For You
Our pool season is short and the weather does half the work of dirtying the water for us: pollen in early summer, leaves and grass clippings on windy days, plus whatever the kids and the dog bring in. If you are in a hard-water part of the country, you may also notice scale and cloudiness building faster, which puts more load on the cartridge. None of that is Bestway's fault, but it does shape how long a cartridge lasts.
The practical guidance from the box, and echoed by owners, is to swap or clean the cartridge every couple of weeks under normal use and daily if the pool is heavily used. Bubbles (5 stars) follows exactly that: "Perfect fit, wash one whilst other is being used and swap every week. Collect a lot of rubbish and robust so far after a lot of swaps during the holidays." Keeping the pump running and the cartridge fresh is what keeps water clear across a warm spell, so buying a spare two-pack early in the season is sensible rather than optimistic.
Worth knowing: because Amazon pools ratings across variants, a handful of reviews on this listing refer to different filter types or sizes, and a couple of five-star comments actually describe receiving the wrong size for their own pump. Read fit-related reviews with that in mind, and always match the Type I to a pump that takes the small cartridge.
The Duds: How Often Do Bad Ones Show Up?
No filter line is perfect, and a small number of reviewers received cartridges that were faulty out of the pack. Mrs. Nicola S. Walsh (1 star) opened hers to find one "separated from the top to the pleats," and RJHoward (1 star) described filters so tight the pump struggled to pull water through, then had a frustrating time getting the seller to help. Those are worth being aware of, though they sit well inside the minority: in our sample of 100 reviews, 77 were five-star and just 4 were one-star.
If you do get a bad one, check it on arrival rather than waiting until mid-season, and be ready to go through Amazon's returns route if a seller is unhelpful. A quick inspection out of the pack, looking for even pleats and a firm top ring, catches the obvious defects before they cause a problem in the pump.
For most people, the picture that comes through is straightforward. This is the correct, genuine part that fits where the copies wobble, it cleans and rotates well for light-to-moderate use, and it costs about the price of a coffee for two. Heavy daily users should budget for more frequent swaps and keep spares in, but that is true of any cartridge in this class.
Bestway Pool Filter Cartridge Type I, 2 Pack
The genuine small cartridge for Bestway and compatible filter pumps. Two per pack so you can rinse and rotate, keeping your pool or spa water clear all season.