Pool Vacuums

[chuck9997]

I have a Baracuda AG Pool Vacuum.. I am not sure which exact model.. but it is very similar to (if not exactly like) the Ranger. I have owned this vacuum for two seasons.. You hook it up to the water intake... and it moves along the bottom of the pool floor.

Last year.. I pretty much just swept the pool manually. I got so tired of the vacuum either... getting hung up.. or just covering a small section of the pool over and over and over.

My friend has a vaccum that floats on top of the water..and apparently blows debris up and into a basket of some sort.. He thinks it's great.

My question.. Are there really any automatic vacuums that are worth much? What are you experiences?

[rdietman]

i have the ranger also on a 40 foot pool. it works but as you said not really great. i have it set as they say and suction is right in the good area on the test guage, seems to always get wound up and stuck somewhere . occasionally climbs up the wall and sucks air causing my pump to cavitate so i hate to leave it alone. but i use it . i would also like one that really works.

[DarbyF]

I have a 40ft free-form IG with lots of trees around it. 1st tried the Hayward Navigator, it would get hung up on anything larger than a dime and both the steps and ladders. Last year I tried the Dolphin and it worked great. I have a mesh safety cover so I have a wonderful layer of "silt" on the bottom every year which took a week or so of vac'ing to waste and re-filling, but the Dolphin had it done in 3 8-hour cycles without any loss of water.

[mac1626]

1st thing to know about the Ranger, or any mat type cleaner: they are random pattern cleaners. Where they go in the pool is determined by a number of factors, but the primary cause of poor coverage is the hose is being pushed around by the jet(s), and the cleaner will be guided by the hose.

2nd item: a properly placed hose weight makes a world of difference with these cleaners. Try placing the weight about 4' back from the head. The cleaner should not list forward or backward when running.

The 3rd point is climbing can be controlled (eliminated) with most of these cleaners. You can add an extra weight, with some cleaners you can turn the mat upside down, and others have optional devices to control climbing.

All that being said, the fact that most AG pools have only one return makes it difficult for a random pattern cleaner to operate well. A cleaner that we have had great success with is the Pentair (formerly Sta Rite) L'il Shark, model GW8000. The cleaner will work well in most AG pools, has only one moving part and is reasonably priced. One note, it will not clean ledges and will not work well in a pool with varying depths.

Good Luck!
Mark

[vinnygnj]

I have the ez vac and it does a good job, it cleans about 85% of the pool. It does get stuck on the ladder.

It does get bothered by the currents in the pool (the return) and I usually have the return shooting up breaking the surface to avoid underwater currents. It comes with a replacement return that's a 90º angle to the pool wall but I'm too lazy to replace my normal return.

I have used it to clean a green pool floor and it does a great job where ever it passes. What usually happens is I put it in the pool, run it for about 3 hours, keep tabs on it to make sure it's not stuck under the ladder and clean the remaining 15% by guiding it to those spots.

I would think any pool cleaner would get stuck in an AG pool unless you remove the ladder.

[HillBoy]

Well I'm completely stuck. I have a 14 year old Polaris 180 that is giving up the ghost. It only cleans in the deep end of the pool and rarely ventures out to the shallow part of my IG pool. It has also completely stopped climbing up the sides of the pool. I have replaced just about everything: hose, backvalve, wheels, floats and it's still acting up. I just figure that it's time has come.

According to poolcenter.com (where I buy most of my parts and equipment), the best replacement would be the Polaris 280 which retails for $499 (youch!). Polaris is really good but their units and parts can be VERY expensive - ex. the replacement bags go for $20 here at Leslie's. Poolcenter.com has the Polaris 380 for $649 while the Polaris 480 runs $1449 (BIG YOUCH!). Leslie's is pushing the Hayward Viper which is an "improved" design over the Polaris but I just don't trust Leslie's who appears to be pushing Hayward as their inhouse brand.

I am somewhat interested in the Mars HP from Barracuda (http://www.poolcenter.com/cleaners_b...s_poolstor.htm) but cannot find much info on personal experiences with this cleaner. It's a spherical design so it looks like it would not suffer from the hangup problems that plague the Polaris units forcing you to buy that #@&%! backvalve. Has anyone here heard about this cleaner? Any advice I can get will be a big help.

[fog80]

I have a 30k gallon inground pool. I was thinking maybe I would buy a automatic vacuum this year. I have always stepped back because of the cost.

Anyone have any suggestions on a reasonably priced vacuum that can get the job done?

[IMherDad]

We tried one of the robotic cleaners for our 33' above ground pool. We had been given a Barracuda when we got the pool but it just never seemed to work. So we took that back and traded it in for a Robo Kleen.

Man this thing was great. It picked up everything. Problem was when you went to get it out of the pool it weighed 75lbs! We tried one and it worked great for about two weeks. The gears in the wheels kept locking up. We took it back and they gave us another one. Same thing happened to that unit.

Since it was near season's end we just got a refund and we thought we would wait until this year and see what we could find.

[SLS]

I bought a Aquabot Pool Rover Plus last year for my 32,000 IG Vinyl Pool. My 20' x 40' pool has a steady sloped bottom from 3' to 8' deep. The rover plus will only clean the bottom but I seldom have problems with my vertical walls getting algae or dirty. I only brushed the sides twice last season. I paid 500.00 including tax, shipping, and handling. I have been very pleased with it. I like it because it runs independently from my pump/filter with very little electric power. The only issue I have with it is the cord gets tangled up with itself because it is going in a radius pattern but it only takes a few minutes to untangle it. The time it saves me vacuuming it just wonderful!!! I can throw it in after a storm and in a hour or two it is clean again.

[waterbear]

I am somewhat interested in the Mars HP from Barracuda (http://www.poolcenter.com/cleaners_b...s_poolstor.htm) but cannot find much info on personal experiences with this cleaner.

I have to admit that the Mars looks good and it's price looks even better but I seem to remeber several negative reviews on here before the board crashed. If my memory serves me right the general opinion was that it tended to self destruct and fall apart after about 2 years. I am still leaning heavily toward the polaris 380 or the letro legend. I like how the hayward viper looks in their little video on the Hayward site but I do know that there have been some problems with some of the earlier production units. Don't know if they've worked out the bugs yet. The Polaris and Letro units both use a design that has been around for a long time and is pretty well debugged! From what I have been able to find out both are pretty reliable and both do a decent job. Just from looking both units over I think the drive mechanism on the Polaris looks like it might have fewer problem but I am not an engineer so don't quote me on that! If someone wanted to give me either one for Xmas I would be a happy camper!