to me, it's kind of like snowblowers..aside from when it's really really cold, why not just get some exercise and shovel by hand..at least with the cold, it's a better excuse than using an auto pool vac on a warm summer day i think the appeal is simple..reduce pool maintenance to an absolute minimum..now, i could argue on the other side vs shoveling snow that i put a lot more time even without vacuuming into maintaining my pool then shoveling snow every winter what i don't get is why pool vacs cost so much money(well i do, but it's not right) and why so many people who spend 1500 to 3000 bucks on a pool vac have problems with them..it's criminal.