leaf rake not a great buy!

[consoleman]

So i decided to get a leaf rake or bagger like this one.... http://www.amazon.com/Swim-Time-NA316-Leaf-Bagger/dp/B000MOIX3A

I have a polaris that i inherited from the previous home owner, but it needs to be repaired. So I figured I would give this a try. I hooked up a rubber hose to it I seem to be having trouble with it. Does anyone have one of these? Did you experience any of the following problems?

Not enough water pressure (the water pressure looks like it starts out great but then dies down causing the bag to fold when moving the bagger around)
its hard to maneuver it around (im not sure if its the bristles rubbing the pool surface causing this)
its easily tilted (it seems the side opposite to the where you attach the pool rod thing you use for a handle is always lifting up causing it to tilt)

I was disappointed after the purchase but for 20 bucks.....well i guess you get what you pay for

 

[gtemkin]

I used to use something similar but it had roller wheels on the bottom instead of bristles. Yes it was hard to move around too. Generally it was a slow, plodding process. Mine never had bag collapsing problems unless I moved too fast or tried to lift it out of the water in it's standard orientation. To get it out of the water, I'd have to slowly rotate it to bag side down, bring it to the edge, untie the bag off while it was still in the pool and lift it out separately from the housing, water flowing the entire time. It's a wet process for sure, but works well for sucking leaves and sludge off the bottom.

 

[Swampwoman]

I have one of those that truly saved my back during a foreclosure rehab...involving 20 wheelbarrows full of leaves. I wouldn't likely use it unless there was a significant volume of leaves on the floor, because it works best when silt/debris clog the net to get more suction. Water pressure makes a difference, maybe yours is low.

For normal amounts of leaves I'd just use a real leaf rake. For vacuuming, use the pool vac system if your bot is down. But I think the problem here is maybe that you're expecting it to clean a pool. I don't think that's what it was designed for. It was designed to be a low cost option to remove large volumes o leaves without as much back strain. It will never work as a pool vacuum IMHO.

 

[woodyp]

I agree with Swampwoman--good for what it was designed to do. Don't expect much more.

 

[duraleigh]

I found it disappointing, too. I have a very high volume of leaves and found that the canister worked OK, but wasn't really designed for the work load I was giving it.

It is much faster for me to have a really high end leaf rake and just do it manually. (Ugh!)

 

[consoleman]

My pool has a lot of side with large radius's on the deep end. So when I use the leaf rake I end up pushing all the leaves to the opposite end. The job ends up becoming a back and forth kind of deal.

Thanks guys