I switched a couple months ago from a Polaris pressure side cleaner (w/ a booster) to a suction side clear (www.thepoolcleaner.com) on a dedicated suction line.

At the same time I switched from a DE filter to a sand filter filled w/ Zeobrite.

All these changes where driven by a change to a super efficient pump (Ikeric). Right now I've just been a running in really low speed mode.

After I killed the residue from some algae in the pool that was present during the switchover the pool looks as well if not better than it did before. There is a leaf canister inline with cleaner so some of bigger debris doesn't make it to the filter.

The pool is now configured with a "roving main drain". Suction happens on the skimmer and the cleaner. The old main drain is disabled.

The interesting thing I noticed is the steps that the cleaners can't reach are staying cleaner. My guess is with the old pressure side cleaner debris would get thrown up into the water and it would settle down onto the steps. With the suction side cleaner there is less of that.

I really wanted to have the most energy efficient cleaner that I could have and the suction side cleaner w/o any booster pumps fit the bill.

The cleaner stays in the pool most of the time. If we are having a party/company I pull it out. The hose is easily broken apart into sections so I can easily lay it out straight.

I considered robotic cleaners. One of the apparent drawbacks is I just can't leave them in the pool. I would need to cart them out and then cart them back in. I have visions some day of "Roomba" like cleaner than lives in a "garage" and comes out to clean and then stores itself when it is done.

arnold