Auto cleaners..I just don't get it...

[steveinaz]

I'm not sure I understand the appeal of auto-cleaners. I spend about 30 minutes each Saturday with a good 'ol vacuum head and pole. No Kreepy-Krauly hanging out of the pool, getting caught on stuff, missing areas...etc. Then there is the initial expense/repair parts.

I don't get it? Do these devices really save you any time/effort?

[ellry99]

Yes, I think so. I have a polaris 380 and it really cleans well, and I don't have to spend anytime manually cleaning the pool, ever. It really helps when there is a bad storm and we get alot of debris in the pool, in an hour or two the pool is sparkling clean.

[leejp]

I'm not sure I understand the appeal of auto-cleaners. I spend about 30 minutes each Saturday with a good 'ol vacuum head and pole. No Kreepy-Krauly hanging out of the pool, getting caught on stuff, missing areas...etc. Then there is the initial expense/repair parts.

I don't get it? Do these devices really save you any time/effort?

How leafy is your pool?

[tenax]

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.

[cleancloths]

How do you manually brush the bottom of the pool?

Once you brush - where does the stuff you brush go - thats right - in your pool water. My Blue Pearl has something like a 10 micron filter bag that takes all that crap out of the pool water. It polishes the water to a greater extent than my DE filter.

[joenj]

What I like about pressure cleaners is that nothing goes into your filter...no need to backwash. Should keep my chemicals stable since I am not adding fill water.

Joe

[cruzmisl]

If I vacuumed once a week I would have a ton of stuff in my pool......lucky you.

[mbar]

I live in the woods, have a white fiberglass pool - my aquabot is a lifesaver, or should I say timesaver I would have to vacuum everyday & twice on Sundays

[CarlD]

If you have a pool of any size, an auto cleaner is set-and-forget. Vacuuming is generally hard, sweaty work, so we let a machine do it. Maybe you can do it faster, maybe not. The machine doesn't get sweaty.

The robotics (Aquabot, Dolphin, DirtDevil, Blue Diamond, etc.) climb and brush the walls. I haven't brushed my pool's walls in 3 years--the robot does it.

[waterbear]

Since I got Zodiac Mars HP pressure side cleaner I have not had to vacuum my pool, I only have to brush the top step and the swimledge since the cleaner can't get to them, and my filter is staying much cleaner since the crud in the pool is being picked up by the Mars! It's cut down on pool maintenence a lot and I can enjoy what little time I have IN the water instead of cleaning the pool! Now if they would just develop a pool cleaner that can empty it's own dirt collection bin I would be set! (I do have to empty the cleaner weekly. I am amzed at how much stuff it picks up. When I was manually vacuuming I only did it about every 3 weeks because that's how long it took for the pool to look dirty. When I see how much stuff the Mars picks up in a weeks time I am amazed!)