Aquanaut 200 / 400

[jilted]

Update: Sorry I missed the Poolvergnuegen thread I searched for aquanaut!



Has anyone heard much about these yet? I understand that Hayward bought the Poolvergnuegen company that designed it. There is a $100 rebate off on them now and I need a new cleaner. I have been nursing an old Polaris for way too long and as troublesome as this thing has always been I'm not going that route again!

With a few pvc unions and 90's I can easily convert my polaris connection to the suction side.

[SunnyOptimism]

With a few pvc unions and 90's I can easily convert my polaris connection to the suction side.

Can you show some pictures of the modifications you plan, I would be interested in seeing them?

If you do plan to convert a pressure line to a suction line, you'll need to install either a shutoff valve or a 3-way valve if one is not already present. It helps to be able to isolate a cleaner line when not in use. My vacuum port is a 2" PVC line that is tee'd in with the skimmer/main-drain suction (2" PVC) with a 3-way Jandy valve at the pump. That setup allows me to control the split of water flow on the suction side of the pump. Also, it helps to have a spring-loaded trap door on the suction port in the pool. That way the suction port is closed off when a hose is not attached. It's a personal safety issue in my opinion as you do not want kids playing around a port that has high suction pressure on it (assuming nothing was attached to it and the pump was left pulling on the line).

Cheers.

[jilted]

The plan was to cut the return line (number 1) to match the height of the 3 suction lines (2 skimmers, and bottom) and tie in right in front of the pump (number 2) and put a valve in between to be able to adjust suction or turn off. My pump motor is 1 HP. I'll probably put a T fitting on (number 1) so I can have the option to convert back and forth.

And yes I surely plan to use the safety cover on the connection!

Side note: This pool was already here when we bought the house... I've been wanting to replace those cheap return valves with jandy valves. Maybe this is a good time to do that. Although upgrading all of those will cost almost as much as the Aquanaut!

[SunnyOptimism]

Yup, I see where you're going with the mods. It's amazing to me that they had so much 1" PVC on that booster and then just flared it out to 2" PVC like that. Do you have flow rate issues on that pressure port?

My inclination would be to do all the modification work at once but I know what you mean, good Jandy valves are expensive and putting in 4 at once would cost quite a bit of coin.

Good luck and don't forget to post your mods when you are done

Cheers.

PS- the aquanaut cleaner looks cool. I have not read any posts about it yet so is be interested in hearing how it works out for you.

[jilted]

the polaris that I inherited with the pool never performed real well even fiddling with the resistance things at the wall port. I always questioned the booster at 1" feeding into the larger pipe. I guess the good news is that the larger diameter pipe goes all the way to the pool!

I showed a friend who is in the market for a new cleaner as well and he ordered the 400 model today so I'll get to see how it works for him first!

[SunnyOptimism]

I just did a quick search and it looks really cool. I also see Penrair has a similar product. I have an old Kreepy Krauly Sandshark by Pentair which works ok but I get a lot of mesquite debris in my pool. So I may consider one of these fancier models some say if they have good performance.

As for the 1" PVC line feeding a 2" return, yeah, that was rookie move on whoever installed it. Booster pumps are meant to increase flow rate so if you put lots of resistance in the way, it chokes off the flow. Anyway, neither here nor there as you intend to modify your plumbing.

Good luck.