Pool Buster vs Pool Blaster

I bought one of the very first PoolBusters years ago. Quickly battery life got too short. After 2 years I called them and they sent me the replacement battery and motor pack for about$75. Since then, at least 3 years, it's been fine and easily runs an hour at a time. They just seem to get bad batteries from time to time and you need to catch it while it's still under warranty. I have a 16x40 rectangular pool with a 5.5' deep end. I bought the extrafine reusable filter bag and it works GREAT!

That's my experience.

So, as I predicted, my old battery box would not charge (despite religiously checking to make sure the batteries were not fully run down over the winter - except for the last month).

I have replaced it with the "new" box, which is working (who knows for how long). I am going to open the old box up and if I can get the motor to run, may try and replace the battery pack with a hand built one from some good quality Sanyo or such rechargeables.

Before I do that, I may try and "shock" the old batteries into a recharge (again, if the motor works). Sometimes NiMH batteries won't recharge if one or more of the set is completely dead but the others are OK. I have read that if you use a higher voltage charger for a very brief period (less than a minute), it can "force" enough charge into the dead batteries to allow the original charger to do its work. I'll report back if I have any good news.

Otherwise, I LOVE the idea and HATE the implementation.

I took my battery pack to my local interstate battery store and they rebuilt it for me. Total cost was $28.

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Originally Posted by CAP

I took my battery pack to my local interstate battery store and they rebuilt it for me. Total cost was $28.

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How do they guarantee that it's waterproof?

I just took off the foam gasket from the old battery pack and glued it on the new one. So far it seems OK but I have only used the PB a couple of times since I changed out the battery. I don't think that the foam gasket that is on the battery pack even serves a purpose. The waterproof part is the motor/battery cover.

No guarantee from Interstate, I didn't even tell them that this was for an underwater application.

Just a quick follow up:

The new battery pack from Interstate is still working like a charm. However the last time I used the PB some water poured out from inside the motor/battery compartment. Upon investigation I noticed that the two o-rings on the screwed cap (the part you use to turn the PB on) were in bad shape. I went to Lowe's and replaced the o-rings. This fixed the leak.

Hope this save someone out there some time/money.