Back when we moved into this house a little over ten years ago the pool was already setup with a (fairly old) Polaris 280 system.
Over the first six years we lived here I spent way too much time and $$$ repairing/rebuilding that thing so when the booster pump gave out about two years ago I just tossed both it and the old pump, re-plumbed the pipes to edit out the booster pump bypass section and sealed off the outlet with a screwcap.
Now that I am (hopefully) going to get this pool back in line with the TFP method I am considering adding some sort of leaf-bot back into the equation.
I am not terribly interested in adding a booster system back in so the options that I have looked at so far are a Kreepy GW9500 and the Polaris 360 and have a few questions about both.
1. Regarding the Polaris, have their machines evolved into being any less maintenance intensive over my ancient 280?
2. My pool is over 30 years of and the standard returns are just smooth plastic outlets (no adjustable jets or threading) and I was wondering if there is a simple adapter I could purchase to hook up the Polaris to them or do I need to modify at least one of the outlets into a threaded type first?
3. Regarding the Kreepy, since it is vacuum based I assume that it connects into my skimmer's intake like just like my manual hose/vacuum does?
4. Does the Kreepy have some sort of catch/receptacle for leaves and twigs in-line or does it just rely on my pump's secondary skimmer to catch the larger debris?
Also any general opinions of the effectiveness of either device would be much appreciated.
Thank you.
Over the first six years we lived here I spent way too much time and $$$ repairing/rebuilding that thing so when the booster pump gave out about two years ago I just tossed both it and the old pump, re-plumbed the pipes to edit out the booster pump bypass section and sealed off the outlet with a screwcap.
Now that I am (hopefully) going to get this pool back in line with the TFP method I am considering adding some sort of leaf-bot back into the equation.
I am not terribly interested in adding a booster system back in so the options that I have looked at so far are a Kreepy GW9500 and the Polaris 360 and have a few questions about both.
1. Regarding the Polaris, have their machines evolved into being any less maintenance intensive over my ancient 280?
2. My pool is over 30 years of and the standard returns are just smooth plastic outlets (no adjustable jets or threading) and I was wondering if there is a simple adapter I could purchase to hook up the Polaris to them or do I need to modify at least one of the outlets into a threaded type first?
3. Regarding the Kreepy, since it is vacuum based I assume that it connects into my skimmer's intake like just like my manual hose/vacuum does?
4. Does the Kreepy have some sort of catch/receptacle for leaves and twigs in-line or does it just rely on my pump's secondary skimmer to catch the larger debris?
Also any general opinions of the effectiveness of either device would be much appreciated.
Thank you.