Overall, this is a decent pump and filter for a reasonable price. There are a couple of points where I think Vevor can improve this product, but none of them are serious enough to make me feel like the product wasn't worth what I paid.
Pros
1. The screw-on filter fingers at the bottom of the tree in the filter tank were well thought out and installed easily. I had more difficulty assembling a name-brand filter than I did this one.
2. The alignment and cover device they provide for filling the filter with sand is a resuable, plastic piece that will hold up well. I have had other filters over the years, and what I have historically seen is a foldable piece of cardboard that is useless after the first fill. This plate held the upright piper for the filter tree perfectly in place and prevented sand from going into the filter tube, as expected.
3. Timer on pump motor is a nice bonus which allows you to set a repeatable run time when the motor is turned on.
4. the rubber ring on the filter basket lid is not the typical imbedded O-Ring which causes friction when trying to remove the cover. Instead, it's a specialty rubber ring which creates a rubber mating surface for the lid when screwed down.
Cons
1. The pump filter basket seal is both a pro and eventual con. It's great that it isn't the normal O-ring which creates significant friction after it sits in place for a while. However, the ring appears to be a proprietary design, so when it breaks down over time and needs to be replaced, I think we're going to be SOL trying to find a substitute/replacement part.
2. The filter pump basket lid has no way to purge air, and the way it attaches make it impossible to get an air-free basket. I ended up drilling a hole in the center of the filter basket lid to install a small brass valve that could vent the trapped air by gravity fed water. Ordinarily, I wouldn't worry about the trapped air because it typically works its way out, but the design of that lid is such that it would never go away, and I'd have about an inch of vacuum headspace under the filter basket lid. My hole with a threaded valve insert fixed the issue.
3. There's no sight glass to see the water quality on backflush. I didn't' think I'd miss the sight glass from my old filter head, but it did make it a lot easier to tell when the water was cleared up. The fast-flowing water from the backflush line doesn't provide great visibility into the quality of the water, unless you're only backflushing until the obviously cloudy water is gone. With a sight glass, you wan watch the water turn from very cloudy all the way through various stages until it was crystal clear. This is especially important on the rinse cycle which now I just have to guess that it's done rinsing.
Overall, I would recommend this filter to anyone, despite the minor annoyances listed above. Hopefully, Vevor will see customer comments and refine their products to be even better.
Brenda Farley 
