Rebuild Pool Vac Ultra or the Pool Cleaner?

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B

Bobba

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May 7, 2011
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My Pool Vac Ultra is in need of a bunch of parts (again) so I was considering the 2 Wheel Pool Cleaner. The PVU always seems to be in need of something and was wondering how often Pool Cleaner owners are having to replace parts? What are the weak points (if any) of the Pool Cleaner? I saw that it was $359.00 at Backyard something or other with free shipping. Any experiences with them?
Thanks
 
Iam looking to do this in the next couple days so any opinions would really be appreciated. Are the Pool Cleaners tire treads a once a season item? Does the Pool Cleaner stop if it sucks up a small piece of landscape rock? I have read that the hoses and fittings are not very durable and too stiff. Any problems with this? I have also read both that it does not climb walls and that it does climb walls. Your experience? The PVU does keep the pool clean WHEN it's working properly. I just do not want to spend $350-$400 and have the same or a whole new set of problems
Thanks
 
What happened to all the Pool Ceaner proponents out there? I have a 18x36 kidney shaped play pool that goes from 3' to 5.5' with the suction port at about the middle. Would there be any real advantage to the 4 wheel vs the 2 wheel? The Pool Vac Ultra spends a lot of its runtime just recovering from flipping over or getting stuck in a corner. Would the 2 wheel Pool Cleaner also do this? Anybody?
 

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Just got it today.

First impression is that this thing is well made; the plastic seems thicker and stronger than others I've seen and it has a nice weight to it. The flaps on the front and back do just that when you carry it but in the water they fall right into place. Those flaps are where I noticed the plastic construction - there's nothing chinsy about them and they are reinforced nicely. I thought it would be unstable with just two wheels but the drive mechanism keeps it from tipping over. The connection for the hose is a true swivel so the hose doesn't get coiled up. I saw it make one loop while I let it run, 5 mins later the loop was gone.

I ditched the bypass valve it comes with and adjusted my pump speed to get it to 12rpm - that was 1500 rpm on my system and about 240 watts. It easily climbed my walls and after playing with the float location it wouldnt break the surface. Rereading the manual it gives a range to mount them in - turns out if you put the floats exactly in-between that range it balances it just right to where it starts to fall a bit below the surface. Pretty cool too see it climbing the walls.

The hoses are more flexible than the Hayward ones and they fit together much tighter.

I let it run for an hour and a half and it picked up the few things on the floor (I'd manually vacuumed earlier in the day). Unlike the navigator it's replacing it doesn't have a pattern of concentric circles and then moving over and repeating. It appears more random and at times it would do what looked like almost two full rotations before it would go straight again. Length of time in a straight line varies. Really cool to see it rotate while on a vertical wall!

It came with an adaptor cuff for the skimmer and off size ports and also a safety cover for a dedicated 1.5" threaded suction port. I just bought one of those a few months back for I think $35 or so - oh well. It's a nice add-in and if you don't have one there's no excuse not to put it in.

Hooking up the hoses and tweaking the speeds took maybe 10 mins and that's because I wanted to get exactly 12 rpm on it. The floats took maybe another 10 mins or so and again I'm picky and had I more carefully read the instructions I would have started where I ended up.

Overall I'm very pleased with it. I'll report back in a few days.
 
Hi carlscan26, I am glad that you shared your opinions on your new purchase. Please do report back on how you like The Pool Cleaner. We are in the market for a new pool cleaner. The lazy side of me says that we should just get another Hayward pool vac (Hayward Navigator) since we still don't understand fully how the pool vac and the pumps work yet. We figure that if we get the same thing, it can't go wrong. Based on what I have been reading about The Pool Cleaner, we would need the 4-wheel one since our current hose is 40 feet long. We need to make a decision within the next few days.
 
I was in your exact shoes 8 months ago when we moved in. Our water was a mess, the navigator was covered in copper coating and wasn't running. But it had been working for the last owner and I had tomsort out the water and equipment - you know this story haha.

Since then I've spent about $125 on it in parts and was looking at another $100 for the latest issues. The fact that leslies sells a yearly rebuild kit that costs over $100 and my experience with our unit leads me to believe they're designed to wear out. Enough was enough. Only time will tell but from my research it seems like tire treads are the only real wear item. Those are a bit pricey at $40ish for just the front ones and I don't k ownhow fast they will wear out on a vinyl pool. I called the company too and they were great answering all my questions. She said that they really only see people ordering body parts and flaps and things when people don't replace the tires and the base starts dragging which on plaster will wear out those pieces. So ok even if it's new tires every year it's still cheaper than what imwas spending on the navigator. I talked to two people with them and one of them has had his for two years Nd hasn't changed his tires though they're close to needing to be. He runs his every day for two hours and it's a plaster pool. We'll see what it turns out to be for my pool. I replaced the pads on my navigator after 6 months and those are like $18 I think?

Only time will tell but I can say I will never get a navigator again.
 
So a few days later I have a few more impressions. It turned out the cleaner was able to climb to the edge of the waterline and suck air. So I slowed down the pump by 50 rpm which helped and I also moved the floats back about 4" from the cleaner. Since then it hasn't crested the surface. Meanwhile it does a great job cleaning the pool. I am going to try cutting it down to 3 hours from the 4 I was running for the navigator.

I mis-stated that the mechanism keeps it from tipping over bit it's easy enough to lay it down with the hose parallel to the ground.

So far so good!
 
Ooops, never mind my question. I think I found the answer on ThePoolCleaner site. Its says the cleaner uses the existing pump and filter for power. Due to the shape of our pool, we are looking at the 4-wheel version. The cleaner comes in suction or pressure models. I wonder which model is easier to maintain?
 
carlscan26 said:
They have three types - suction, pressure and a convertible one that can work with either method.
Click to expand...

I just ordered the 4-wheel pressure side model. I never heard of a convertible model. Not on the web site. I called the company when I was trying to decide and told them the dilemma I was in about choosing which one and they never said anything about one being available either. I may have been interested in getting a convertible model.
 
It was either on the side of the box or in the instruction manual. it looks like they use the same box for suction and pressure types as it has info on both on the oppostie sides. There as also somthing about a kit to mak the conversion.
 

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