So this just happened....

Katodude said:

Also the M500 has a 3rd brush that actually looks more like a brush. So I am going to force myself to believe it is a good brusher.

Click to expand...

Yeah, the M Series is a completely different platform. There is that third brush on the bottom whose sole purpose is to scrub. So it's definitely better than the S Series in that regard. The starting price of the M series is a lot higher though ... although it seems the S Series is starting to ratchet its entry price up as well

My Latest Toy - Thanks Amazon Day Sales!

Perhaps not interesting to some but if you have a suction cleaner I always recommend an in-line leaf canister to keep debris out of the suction line. The additional head-loss is minimal but the potential savings from not having to deal with a suction line plug or a full pump strainer basket is … priceless.

I had the very large flip-top Pentair canister -


But I got a Hayward W650 instead because it’s half the size and has a solid strainer basket as opposed to the mesh bag.





So you might be wondering what the chopped up pool noodle hack is all about ? I have found that if you let the full canister go in the pool it eventually sinks and kind of points the hose downward. This can interfere with the smooth motion of the cleaner around the pool. By adding a Pentair hose weight to the wall connector hose and a chunk of pool noodle to the front of the canister, you can orient the canister so it’s always floating at the surface. This keeps the rest of the hose strain-free. Works like a charm and only costs $2 for a chunk of pool noodle.

Because the Hayward canister has a nice hard plastic strainer, I lined it with a hairnet like I do my skimmer to make it a cinch to clean.

Worthless Piece of CR_P is what I renamed it to …. PoS for short …

I have since gone back to using suction cleaners. If you mange to read this entire thread (dont, unless you have insomnia), you’ll find that my feelings on robotic cleaners has dimmed. They are very expensive for how they are built and only have a 3-5 year lifetime before they fail. They cannot be easily rebuilt and, even if you do, you’re just throwing good money after bad. If you’re rich enough with lots of eff-you money to burn, you can afford to simply trash these things every few years and buy new. That’s not how I like to roll so I’d rather use my suction side cleaner which costs about 1/4 the price and takes pennies on the dollar to rebuild. A suction side cleaner will work reliably for 5 years or so and I could buy three to four of them for what Dolphin charges for one of theirs. The supposed convenience is not worth the cost in my book.

YMMV …