Hi, this is my first post Lots of great info on this site

We bought a house about 18mths ago. It had a dodgy pool cleaner (Barracuda I think) that needed replacing not long after and we got a Monarch Systems Turbo Sweep - http://www.poolsmart.com.au/web_images/ ... ochure.pdf

Monarch's website redirects to Davey now so they must have been bought out. Davey's current product looks very similar - http://www.davey.com.au/ApplicationandP ... eaner.aspx

The cleaner occasionally stops moving, like the gears have jammed or there's not enough pressure to drive it. If it is given a light tap/kick, or the pump is stopped/started it will start moving again. Other than that it works really well. We took it back to the pool shop where we bought who couldn't find a problem with it (though all they did was disassemble and reassemble, not test it in a pool).

The pressure gauge on the filter has always read around 50kPa unless a backwash was needed. I recently noticed that the gauge was getting stuck, so while buying a bunch of stuff to get rid of an algae problem I replaced the gauge. Have now found that with the pool cleaner attached pressure reads 25kPa. Without it, pressure is up to 75kPa. So I think the guage that was on the filter before must have been playing up for some time. The manual for the cleaner says it needs 140-200 litres per minute flow rate. The cleaner has ~8m of hose. Does anyone know how to calculate the flow rate based on the pressure difference? It's not possible to measure the length of the pipes going to/from the pump/filter as it goes underground but I can do a rough estimate if it will help. I have the specs for the pump courtesy of the Waterco website.

A pressure drop like that suggests to me that the flow rate is probably not within the specs for the cleaner (and a possible reason for the cleaner occasionally stopping), and maybe I need a bigger pump?

Welcome to TFP.

Has the cleaner ever worked correctly? If so you may have a partially clogged plumbing or impeller.

It can work correctly for hours and days at a time. Other times it will stop mutliple times in an hour.

Sounds like you're right on the edge in capacity for the cleaner. I'd check the impeller for obstructions.

Do you have any air getting into the system?

I'll be checking the impeller this weekend. No sign of air in the system. Plenty of dead algae in the water at the moment though, hoping to clear that up this weekend too!

How often are you having to backwash your filter?
If the filter is clogging that will restrict the flow and therefore cause the cleaner to stop.

Not very often. It was backwashed recently, before I replaced the gauge and got these readings.

I removed a couple of lengths of hose from the cleaner and pressure only drops to 50kPa. Also discovered I had been reading the gauge wrong so the readings were 40kPa with cleaner attached and 60-70 without it. The cleaner hasn't needed a kick yet but I will see how it goes.