Hi all. First time poster here.
My Jandy RayVac finally packed it in after 8 years of service and I was a bit surprised to find they’ve stopped making them. It worked well and covered the whole pool instead of just parts of it like my previous suction Kreepys and Barracudas did. I started out looking for a plug and play pressure side replacement for the RayVac and quickly narrowed it down to the Polaris 360 and the Legend II. I run my cleaner on the same circuit as my waterfall with the filter and heater on a second pump so I’m using a lot of power with two pumps so this got me to thinking about alternatives. A local dealer carries the Dolphin line and he offered me the use of a demo unit M4 for the weekend so I have had it in my pool since yesterday. I am very impressed with this cleaner. I thought my pool was already pretty clean but I can’t believe the amount of crud it has picked up in just 24 hours, mostly sand and fine dirt that really wasn’t visible on the bottom along with the usual leaves and worms after all the rain overnight. Also, the water is now crystal clear so it appears that there was a lot of very fine suspended gronk that my sand filter just wasn’t catching. All good news.
It took me a while to figure out what this cleaner is doing with all the back and forth starts and stops but it seems to have figured out the layout of my pool. Does it remember between uses or does it just start over every time you use it? The coverage is good; it seems to have been everywhere in the half dozen times I’ve used it. My pool is free form with no straight lines, 9 feet deep, 40 feet long. The bottom slopes up from the deep end in all directions, then transitions to about 3 feet or so of vertical all the way around. Transitions in the shallow end are flat to vertical.
Couple of questions. The M4 seems to avoid vertical walls most of the time when encountering them. It just runs up the slope or across the floor in the shallow end until it hits the vertical, stops and reverses. About one time in five it will attempt to climb the wall and sometimes makes it but often not. Even when it does get to the top, the floats come out of the water which prevents the roller from actually reaching the waterline. Scrubbing comes to within an inch of the surface but no closer. Is this how it’s supposed to work? I have thoroughly cleaned the filters several times as the filter warning light came on within an hour the first time I used it. I noticed that climbing ability improved right after cleaning. Is there anything else I can do besides the arm and float adjustments? Also, this unit comes with a timer that allows you to set the cleaner to come on at regular intervals. This would mean leaving the cleaner in the pool. Is it ok to do this? I thought robots should be removed between uses. I’m also wondering if I should look at the M5. I don’t know how much more it costs but it includes a remote and has a split roller. Is it something I should consider? Is it significantly better than the M4?
Thanks for any thoughts on this. I do need a cleaner and I like this unit a lot, pricey as it is. Manual vacuuming just isn’t my thing.
My Jandy RayVac finally packed it in after 8 years of service and I was a bit surprised to find they’ve stopped making them. It worked well and covered the whole pool instead of just parts of it like my previous suction Kreepys and Barracudas did. I started out looking for a plug and play pressure side replacement for the RayVac and quickly narrowed it down to the Polaris 360 and the Legend II. I run my cleaner on the same circuit as my waterfall with the filter and heater on a second pump so I’m using a lot of power with two pumps so this got me to thinking about alternatives. A local dealer carries the Dolphin line and he offered me the use of a demo unit M4 for the weekend so I have had it in my pool since yesterday. I am very impressed with this cleaner. I thought my pool was already pretty clean but I can’t believe the amount of crud it has picked up in just 24 hours, mostly sand and fine dirt that really wasn’t visible on the bottom along with the usual leaves and worms after all the rain overnight. Also, the water is now crystal clear so it appears that there was a lot of very fine suspended gronk that my sand filter just wasn’t catching. All good news.
It took me a while to figure out what this cleaner is doing with all the back and forth starts and stops but it seems to have figured out the layout of my pool. Does it remember between uses or does it just start over every time you use it? The coverage is good; it seems to have been everywhere in the half dozen times I’ve used it. My pool is free form with no straight lines, 9 feet deep, 40 feet long. The bottom slopes up from the deep end in all directions, then transitions to about 3 feet or so of vertical all the way around. Transitions in the shallow end are flat to vertical.
Couple of questions. The M4 seems to avoid vertical walls most of the time when encountering them. It just runs up the slope or across the floor in the shallow end until it hits the vertical, stops and reverses. About one time in five it will attempt to climb the wall and sometimes makes it but often not. Even when it does get to the top, the floats come out of the water which prevents the roller from actually reaching the waterline. Scrubbing comes to within an inch of the surface but no closer. Is this how it’s supposed to work? I have thoroughly cleaned the filters several times as the filter warning light came on within an hour the first time I used it. I noticed that climbing ability improved right after cleaning. Is there anything else I can do besides the arm and float adjustments? Also, this unit comes with a timer that allows you to set the cleaner to come on at regular intervals. This would mean leaving the cleaner in the pool. Is it ok to do this? I thought robots should be removed between uses. I’m also wondering if I should look at the M5. I don’t know how much more it costs but it includes a remote and has a split roller. Is it something I should consider? Is it significantly better than the M4?
Thanks for any thoughts on this. I do need a cleaner and I like this unit a lot, pricey as it is. Manual vacuuming just isn’t my thing.
