In-floor cleaning systems

[BruceAZ]

I was just wondering what people's opinions were on them. Everyone that I have talked to who has one loves it. The only negative comments I hear are from people who don't have one. We are planning on getting one, but I wanted to hear others opinions. We are going the owner/builder route and our consultant recommends the Polaris Caretaker. One of the pool builders we got a bid from recommended the MagnaSweep. I would love to hear the good and bad about these systems.

We are building an inground pool.

We live in Arizona and have a Paddock Pool with something called PCC-2000 in floor cleaning system and really love it. It was worth the extra money.

[us3]

We also live in AZ and are having pebble interior put in. Everyone we have spoke with has mentioned that the pebbles will most likey block the pop ups. In-floor was our original plan, until we started looking at the cost and decided to go against it thus saving 5-8k on the total cost of the pool.
My MIL has a regular plaster interior and we LOVE what the in floor does with her pool.
Hope that helps...2 different scenarios

[waterbear]

My biggest concern with in floor cleaners (I researched them before I decided to go with fiberglass instead of gunite for my pool) is that they use a manifold that switches the output between the different cleaner heads. As it switches it creates a large backpressure on the system. I actually observed the pressure gauge on a filter with such a system jump up and and down as each popup came into play. I don't know the long term effect of this but IMHO, it certainly can't be good for the pump, filter, etc. It seems that it would create a lot of stress on the plumbing, pump, and filter system. My understanding is that all in floor cleaners operate this way.

[mabrolat]

Curious - anyone else have experience w/ in-floor cleaners for IG gunite pool? Any longterm data as to equipment wear as per Waterbear's concerns?

[South_Texas_Sun]

Curious - anyone else have experience w/ in-floor cleaners for IG gunite pool? Any longterm data as to equipment wear as per Waterbear's concerns?

We got "talked out" of the pop up cleaner system by our poolbuilder.

I never saw the system installed, but the promo pictures looked like something that roughhousing kids could hurt their little feet on. (or bigger kids

Just a thought....I really don't know if it's a valid concern in practical use, but I'm very pleased with the dedicated pump/line robot cleaning device approach.

STS

[Poconos]

My own take on anything buried where you can't get to it easily is, forget it. I don't like main drains and these popup cleaners appear to be much more trouble than they're worth.
Al

[cwstnsko]

I have the Paramount PV-3 sytem in my Shotcrete pool with Pebble -Sheen. It's 2.5 years old with no issues and it make the pool VERY low maintenance. The system does not increase back pressure as it changed circuits, it DECREASES back pressure as it hold two circuits open simultaneously during the switch. I do run higher back pressure than pools w/o in-floor, but it hasn't casued any issues to date.

I've heard reports of LONG TERM problems (20+ years) on pools with in-floor systems due to the cyclic pressure on parts of the system.

With regard to problems with the heads, that's a function of the complexity of the heads. Heads with lots of moving parts (springs, ratchets etc.) have more probems than simpler designs (like the PV-3)

Some brands of heads are VERY expensive.

AFAIK, all of the systems need the gear mechanism in the distribution valve changed every 5-10 years.

In-floor is not cheap, and adds more components to maintain, but it dramatically reduces the amount of time spent sweeping and vacuuming the pool.