Polaris 360 vs 340 - Current/past users please!

[Lenny]

I've used the 360 for several weeks between this year and last.

It does a good job, but not great. My biggest complaint is that it doesn't climb my stairs. I had to fiddle around with the hose connections and hose length quite a bit before I got everything right but it's pretty much trouble free now.

I opened early this spring (mid April) and I have to say that it's done a pretty good job with a hell of a mess.

[cwstnsko]

The 340 has a problem with a worm gear in the drive mechanism that tends to break. Until recently the worm gear was only available as part of the gearbox for about $215 One of our local pool stores recently started stocking the gear for about $17 One of the other good pools stores has a big pile of dead 340s they use for parts.

[Sherra]

Thank you all for your feedback.

If you have a dedicated pressure line, have you considered using a Polaris 280 with a booster pump. I think this would give you the best performance.

I want to avoid a booster pump...I simply do not want to deal with paying an electrician to come out and rewire for the pump and put in a new timer and pay for the extra electricity to run an extra pump. I just want to avoid having to be out and vacuuming my pool for an hour to an hour and a half each time we go out to use it. Yes, I literally spend that much time manually vacuuming the sand from the bottom of my pool.

[Lenny]

My 360 is very powerful and, in fact, I have to think about adjusting my valve positions to decrease it somewhat.

Yesterday it swallowed a fairly large frog.

[donfranko]

Another possible solution is a better Vac head. Check out "Cleaning Tools" on the main order page. I have both a Polaris 280 (with booster pump) and this vac head and found the vac head to be much faster than the brush head given to me by the builder. Good Luck.