I need some help with my Polaris 380. The wheels are not turning. The booster pump is running, there is a strong flow out of the pressure relief valve where the line conects inside the pool, there is some flow out the back of the unit and some out the tail but the tail does not whip around. There is a little flow up the suction part of the unit but not much, I think it typically has much stronger flow there.

When I turn the wheels, they all turn together. I opened the housing and the paddlewheels inside seem to still be connected to the axle correctly, that is not broken, although I was surprised at the number of turns it took to make the wheels turn.

I can't see what is wrong. And, I don't really have a local pool store that I trust all that much to just call to come take a look. I don't suppose that if I took it to a store they could see what is wrong, or could they?

Is there anything I can do on my own first?

Same thing happened to me the other day, fortunately my local PS has a free-labor policy if you bring it in yourself. There are several little hoses inside the thing connecting different parts, and three (!) of them had popped off. He plugged it all together and put new zip ties on all of them and the Polaris has been gorging on the leaves in the pool ever since.
--paulr

Check the in-line screen in the wall fitting as well.

check to see if the hoses inside are connected with the zip ties, also make sure that the jets inside aren't plugged with debris, poke them out with a paper clip

That was clean.

The three connections looked OK, but I will check it again to be certain. After toying with it a bit we put it back together hoping that fiddling with it might have helped somehow but it didn't. So, I need to fetch it from the pool and recheck those hoses.

Will do, I did notice there was a weak flow of water out the top when I removed it from the pool but it was not the usual flood of water.

Debris in a line is a possiblilty. Particularly the line that shoots water on the paddlewheel thing (I do need to learn the proper names of these parts next)

OK, I took it apart again, checked each of the 3 tubes inside, all are still securely connected.

I probed each port in the suction tube, all clear.

I blew air into the Feed Tube and covered the Hose Scrubber port and the Thrust Jet port (while holding it in place securely as it get loose when the unit is disassembled) and I could hear air exiting the ports in the suction tube. It seemed that there was air also exiting the port that would drive the wheels but I'd run out of fingers to pinch off other ports and so I 'm not totally sure.

I gently rolled the Drive Train Gear that has the paddle wheels on it and it turned the wheels eventually, it seems there is a lot of slack in that for whatever reason.

So, I turned the Cleaner Booster Pump on to check flow, it has flow but I have no idea what is normal flow. Holding the end of the hose where it connects to the cleaner, it shot out about 18" when held waist high off the ground. I don't have any idea of what normal flow looks like on that.

It does seem to me that the Booster Pump sounds "funny", just a bit off pitch, a little whine to it that I don't think was there before.

What shall I do next? How do I check the pump flow rate? How can I find what it is supposed to be? I can take a stopwatch and time 5 gallons of flow, if I can be sure that the pressure relief valve is not diverting any flow. There was a mighty flow from that valve when I was in the pool messing with the Polaris, any way it could be malfunctioning, diverting needed flow from the polaris?

You check the flow by timing the RPM of the wheels. They should turn 28-32 RPM when the water is flowing properly.

Problem solved.... it was the Pressure Relief Valve.

I stopped by Pool Warehouse Supply and described all of the above to one of the guys there and when I got to the flow rate and mentioned the mighty flow out the pressure relief valve he stopped me and said that was it.

That explains the mysterious round part we found in the pool. I thought it might be from the Polaris, but there was nothing like that in the drawings for the cleaner. Turns out it was the end cap of the pressure relief valve, not shown on any parts description since it is not a separate thing. It was about 1 1/2" diameter, very thin and slightly convex on what seemed to be the outer side and with a small star shaped fracture in the center where there was some connection to something else. On the new one this piece is black but on mine it was grey or white or maybe blue, sort of hard to say it was pretty old looking.

So, off to the pool with a $12 part to slip into place. [edit] That was it, everything works now.

Anyhow, thanks to all who responded.