Nightmare leaf problem, need some advice!

[hendrst]

I live in the metro Phoenix area and have a 12,000 gal Shasta Pools play pool with an in floor, pop up cleaning system. The pool borders my yard wall on one end, the land on the other side of the wall is common area and maintained by our HOA. Directly on the other side of the wall is a large Mesquite tree that dumps hundreds of thousands of tiny dead leaves in the pool every winter/spring. (Go here for a piture of a Mesquite branch and just imagine the mess all those leaves make: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mesquite_legumes.jpg)

Needless to say, this is a huge mess and has caused us headaches with the pump clogging, so that rules out manually vacuuming them up. I have tried using one of those venturi based leaf rakes, but my garden hose is not situated in a good spot and I usually beat myself up trying to drag it around the pool. I am at my wits end.

I'd like to get a robotic cleaner, but I don't know if it would be capable of handling all of the leaf debris. I've also looked into the Pool Blaster Max as a possible solution, but the reviews are split down the middle and I'm not sure.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Or can someone at least tell me if the Pool Blaster is worth buying?

 

[woodyp]

http://www.intheswim.com/Pool-Equipment ... l-Skimmer/
Look and see what you think of that.

 

[JasonLion]

Yes, I agree with woodyp, try out the Pool Skim.

 

[acroy]

I also like the Pool Devil http://www.pooldevil.net/

I have an oak tree dropping millions of leaves & acorns.

A good vacuum solution would be the suction-side POOLVERGNUEGEN vacuum with an in-line leaf canister (keep the big stuff out of the pump).
http://www.thepoolcleaner.com/2xpoolcleaner.html
http://www.bestbuypoolsupply.com/haywar ... ister.html

Cheers

 

[hendrst]

Thanks for the replies/suggestions.

The skimmer attachements look like a good idea, except I don't have that type of return in my pool. I was under the assumption that the cleaning heads functioned as the return from the filter. There is an outlet on one end, but that appears to be for the leveler. Either way it doesn't have the eyeball fitting, so I don't think I could attach either skimmer attachment to it.

As far as suction cleaners go, I don't think that will work for me. The popup heads run when the pump is operating, so it would have to be pretty smart to be able to navigate around the heads. I don't think most suction cleaners can do that. Or am I wrong?

 

[Melt In The Sun]

Do the tree limbs hang over the property line, or do the leaves blow in from outside?

 

[hendrst]

Do the tree limbs hang over the property line, or do the leaves blow in from outside?

They blow in. It's not a matter of having to trim the limbs back.

Also, I guess I didn't really get it across in my earlier post. The problem is that the leaves sink to the bottom of the pool. I've got one of these:

But it's a pain to drag around with the garden hose attached. That's why I was asking earlier about a self contained vac like the Pool Blaster Max. I need something that I can use to get them off the pool bottom.