It is a fine line getting the hose length just right. The hose is made up of snap-together sections, and you have enough for a fairly large pool. I used all but 2, I might add one more. The hose needs to be able to coil into an S-shape to whip the Mamba around the pool. If the hose is able to straighten out, the Mamba can stall and get stuck in one spot.
It swims around in concentric circles based on the s-shape of the hose, which has a air relief valve that imparts a chugging action on the hose. This keeps everything moving around. There is also a clip-on float ring that keeps the Mamba at the right angle. I had to play around with the placement of that. If I had too much line between the float and the cleaner, the slack line would get hung in the cove of my steps. I did pull my ladder out, and the chugging of the line kept the Mamba from getting hung on the floor drain. It did a great job on the walls and incline, and would climb all the way to the surface. then fall back down and resume cleaning.
It did seem to do a better job cleaning without making a huge dust cloud out the returns like my vacuum hose did. I definitely need to deep-clean my filter. Even though the return stream appeared to be clear last night while it was operating, this morning, the water was cloudy, so I'm still getting blowback from the filter.
All-in-all, if everything holds up, I'd say it's a great investment of $70.
