Moderator note - moved from Here:. Oasis Z5 Question - Stuck on bottom grates - Page 2
Sorry to revive an old thread, but I'm wondering if anyone has found a reliable solution to this issue. I purchased a Z5 last month and loved it for the first 10-15 minutes--just long enough for it to find its way to the deep end and crawl atop one of my 4 drain covers. It happens consistently. A call to Epic resulted in a referral to maindrainclipon.com to purchase about $80 worth of clips that I'm not convinced will work (I've read several accounts that they get sucked into the cleaner and are more hassle than they're worth). I also don't relish the idea of buying 4 unicovers at $70+ each. I called Maytronics and they basically told me to go pound sand--no solution whatsoever. They offer an angled outlet for other models, but not for the Z5. This tells me they knew of this issue when they designed the Z5, but did nothing about it. So, I'm stuck with a $1200 cleaner that I have to babysit.
The closet engineer in me started thinking about ways I can solve the problem myself. I don't think there is any modification I could make to the cleaner itself that would be reliable and not void the warranty, so I focused on the drain covers. Again, I don't want to spend several hundred dollars replacing them, so I came up with an idea that I think might work:
- Remove the 4 drain covers
- Take two 6" lengths of 2" PVC pipe and split both lengthwise to make 4 similar pieces
- Drill multiple holes into all 4 pieces (will allow water to flow through)
- Use marine epoxy to glue each PVC piece to a drain cover such that each cover has a dome (picture a quonset hut)
- Reinstall the modified drain covers
I'm thinking this would work on the same concept as the clips, but be less prone to failure. My assumption is the higher dome will cause the Z5 to either hit it and stall until it reverses, or attempt to climb it until it either reverses or falls over the other side.
Just wondering if any of you have a better solution or would like to offer your opinions.
Thanks,
Steve
Sorry to revive an old thread, but I'm wondering if anyone has found a reliable solution to this issue. I purchased a Z5 last month and loved it for the first 10-15 minutes--just long enough for it to find its way to the deep end and crawl atop one of my 4 drain covers. It happens consistently. A call to Epic resulted in a referral to maindrainclipon.com to purchase about $80 worth of clips that I'm not convinced will work (I've read several accounts that they get sucked into the cleaner and are more hassle than they're worth). I also don't relish the idea of buying 4 unicovers at $70+ each. I called Maytronics and they basically told me to go pound sand--no solution whatsoever. They offer an angled outlet for other models, but not for the Z5. This tells me they knew of this issue when they designed the Z5, but did nothing about it. So, I'm stuck with a $1200 cleaner that I have to babysit.
The closet engineer in me started thinking about ways I can solve the problem myself. I don't think there is any modification I could make to the cleaner itself that would be reliable and not void the warranty, so I focused on the drain covers. Again, I don't want to spend several hundred dollars replacing them, so I came up with an idea that I think might work:
- Remove the 4 drain covers
- Take two 6" lengths of 2" PVC pipe and split both lengthwise to make 4 similar pieces
- Drill multiple holes into all 4 pieces (will allow water to flow through)
- Use marine epoxy to glue each PVC piece to a drain cover such that each cover has a dome (picture a quonset hut)
- Reinstall the modified drain covers
I'm thinking this would work on the same concept as the clips, but be less prone to failure. My assumption is the higher dome will cause the Z5 to either hit it and stall until it reverses, or attempt to climb it until it either reverses or falls over the other side.
Just wondering if any of you have a better solution or would like to offer your opinions.
Thanks,
Steve