Polaris 380 Problem

[MaryS]

My one year old Polaris 380 has suddenly developed a problem. It is moving extremely slowly and the sweep tail is not moving at all. All of my skimmer baskets are clean. Does anyone have any ideas to solve this problem? Up until now, I have loved this cleaner.

Thanks!

[larry2338]

First, unhook the hose connector from the fitting where the Polaris connects to the wall of the pool. Probably will take a 1/4 turn to the left and then slide out. Inside the end of the hose connector is a metal screen. Look to see if it is clogged. If it is, remove the screen and clean it. The screen can be a little difficult to get out sometimes. Take your time and try not to bend it. Post again to let us know if that fixes it.

[MaryS]

The screen is clean. That does not seem to be the problem. Thanks

[cleancloths]

Is your booster pump working? Disconnect the Polaris and see if the water stream coming out of the wall is much stronger with the pump on versus when just the main circulating pump is running. IF the flow/pressure is not much greater there is a problem with your booster pump, if it is strong then the problem is the polaris itself. Do the wheels all turn or just one side? If one side only you may have a broken belt.

There are some adjustments, check the online manual about timing the wheels. Hate to bring up another possibility. Are you loosing water from the pool? I just ditched my 380 after 8 years as it was doing what yours is doing, but I was loosing a lot of water when it ran -- turns out there was a break in the line between the pump and the wall connector. Rather than spend a lot of money digging up the concrete I bought a Dolphin.

[MaryS]

My booster pump appears to be working properly. I am not losing water from the pool either. All of the wheels turn, but very slowly. There does seem to be quite a bit of water coming out of the pressure relief valve. I have tried and tried and I cannot turn the valve either way. Could that be the problem?

Thanks for your thoughts.

[iardon]

I just adjusted my pressure valve and needed a wrench for it. But just to initially get it to move. After that, I was able to adjust it by hand.

You might want to try with a wrench.

[rbonin]

You might want to check the "backup valve" too. This is the ball-shaped thing about 5 feet from the cleaner in-line in the hose. This thing is supposed to cause the cleaner to reverse and relocate itself in the pool every 3 minutes or so.

There should be a fairly powerful stream of water coming out of this valve every 3 minutes, lasting about 35 seconds. Otherwise no water should be coming out of it. Mine got stuck in this position and as a result the cleaner and the backup were fighting each other. End result - little movement and a quiet tail (due to loss of pressure).

Worth a check.

~Rick~

[aylad]

Mine did that when the belt that spins the larger of the wheels came off, but fixing it was just a matter of buy a new set of belts--$7. Take the wheels off and see-the belts should all still be connected.

Janet

[MaryS]

There should be a fairly powerful stream of water coming out of this valve every 3 minutes, lasting about 35 seconds. Otherwise no water should be coming out of it. Mine got stuck in this position and as a result the cleaner and the backup were fighting each other. End result - little movement and a quiet tail (due to loss of pressure).

Worth a check.

~Rick~


Should there be any water coming out of this valve when the unit is not on? My Polaris is connected but turned off.

Thank you everyone for your help!!

[aylad]

No, there won't be any water coming out of it when the unit is off.

Janet

[rbonin]

Should there be any water coming out of this valve when the unit is not on? My Polaris is connected but turned off.

I assume you mean when the booster pump is off. On mine, there is still flow through the Polaris even when the booster is off, although the flow is pretty small. When my backup valve was stuck open, I did have a smaller flow out of the backup valve when the booster was off. Each setup may vary on this though.

To verify the operation of your backup, turn on the booster and then hold the backup valve out of the water and observe its behavior. It should cycle between diverting a stream of water out the side for maybe 35 secs. and then no water stream for about 3 minutes.

[MaryS]

Thank you everyone for all of your help and advice. After following all of your suggestions, I still could not get the Polaris to work. My service company was here this morning and the problem was that the internal feed hose had come unattached. It is now running beautifully and I am a happy camper again.