Is an In-Floor Cleaning System worth the $

[waterbear]

Welcome to the Forum!


I'd rather use that money to get a good robotic cleaner and a SWCG.

+1 to that!

[Watermom]

Waterbear's signature says: "Moderator at a different poolspaforum but call this place "home".


That's nice, Evan. You're right. This is home and you are a part of our little family and have been for quite a while! We appreciate your help as always!

(Is this a new sig line for you or am I just that unobservant and it has been there forever??)

[dhanger]

Well, for what it's worth, I'm on my fifth year since new, I got in-floor popups and wouldn't be without them. It's been nearly maintenance free all along, and it works great. One thing I do to maintain it is every time I clean out the pump baskets, I pop the lid off the distribution manifold and clean the little bit of grit that builds up, there are lots of plastic gears in there and if I didn't do that it would probably have worn out before now. Other than that I absolutely love the system.

[waterbear]

Waterbear's signature says: "Moderator at a different poolspaforum but call this place "home".


That's nice, Evan. You're right. This is home and you are a part of our little family and have been for quite a while! We appreciate your help as always!

(Is this a new sig line for you or am I just that unobservant and it has been there forever??)

It's been there for close to a year now since I was asked to mod over there (and spend just about all my time there deleting spam!) It's a good forum but is more active in the hot tub sections than the pool sections. So far I have been asked to mod at 3 different swimming pool forums and have modded at two. How did I get so popular?

[Watermom]

It's been there for close to a year now

WOW. Unobservant doesn't really cover it, does it? (Maybe we'll blame it on chemo-brain. I'm certainly not gonna claim it could be from old age since I am only .... uhhh ...29!)

[joe1028]

hello,
just joined pool forum and you're my first reply to a thread.
i live in florida and have an in ground cleaning system by a&a manufacturing with gamma 3 pop up heads, these heads are adjustable in size to control pressure. the system is 5 years old and works great.

[waste]

Welcome joe1028!

Like I said, some have ones that work, and others don't. I'm glad! that yours does as it's supposed to!

Unfortunately, a LOT of folks don't have your good experience

(note - there is a LOT of extra piping involved in one of these and that can cause additional problems - the pipes are buried and not readily accessible if one breaks- folks who don't have 'deep freeze' winters are more likely to have less problems than those in that have a deeper frost line)

FWIW- I was 'certified on the "Caretaker 99" systems in '91

[steveinaz]

In have in-floor jets. They work well, but still have a few "dead spots." It won't end a need to vacuum weekly, but there isn't much to vacuum. My system is real easy to maintain and seems durable, but with hindsight I probably wouldn't do it again just due to the additional costs, and it's more plumbing runs to worry about. The heads are very simple to disassemble w/o tools, and it doesn't appear that anything can wear out on them. Having said that, I do like the way it circulates the warm top water thru the bottom--so would be a good system to have if you heat your pool. We have no deep water "cold spots" thanks to the ground up circulation.

Also keep in mind, I'm not a "bells & whistles" kinda guy--I like things simple and durable.

VERDICT?

Heated pool: Sure, as long as the extra expense is worth it to you (Mine was $2500)
Non-heated: Spend the money elsewhere