My Polaris never seems to work properly. It always parks itself in one position and wont move. I've cleaned out the skimmer baskets and made sure there is not any debris in the lines. What else am I missing? Thanks for any help.
Sorry about the hijack! I have a 360 and it does almost the same except it usually gets stuck in the corner or on its side. Just rebuilt also and a new back up. I read on polaris' website that the hose should be no more than 6" longer than the furthest point of the pool, mine is like 6 feet longer. Could that have anything to do with it??
Hi. I have a 380 with the same problem. He's been rebuilt, new pressure valve new backup valve thing. Plenty of pressure. The pressure to the rear valve is so strong it will shoot across the yard. But my tail is not moving and my wheels are not turning neither in the water nor out of the water. I've had several people look at it (2 stores, my pool guy, his equipment repair guy, my brother. They all say it's good, but when I put it back in the pool...it doesn't work.... ARGH!) You mentioned a gear box, can you tell me where it is and what it looks like? Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I don't think his belt is broken.While my Polaris is a model 380 I had a similar issue. I recently purchased a house with a pool and have never dealt with pool maintenance before. I did plenty of research here and elsewhere and determined that the Polaris needed rebuilding, so that is what I did. Once I put it back together, however, the Polaris did not want to move. I then discovered that there are a few small conical water-jet outlets that provide streams to the gears, tail, output and the debris collection bag. My stream to the gear box was clogged with a very small amount of stuff, but it was enough to keep it from functioning correctly. I cleared it with a blast of air from a turkey baster, but a straw or even a poke with a fine wire would probably work well too. Now it zooms around like new. It is not very hard to take apart if you take your time. I would check that and the belts that propel the wheels and see if that does not fix your problem. You can also inspect the bearings to see if they actually replaced them too - if they are shot then your 280 won't be going anywhere fast.
One other thought - if the 280 has a thrust jet on the back like mine, it does matter what direction it points. play with that and see if it makes a different.
Good luck!