Advise on Automatic Pool Cleaner

[Jimh64]

I have a 24' above ground pool. There are so many pool cleaners out there right now. Has anyone had any success with a particular model? My wife wants me to put a center drain in our pool, but I have heard that if I have a good cleaner it works beter than a center drain. Plus I am in the process of converting my pool to chlorine, so I don't want to have to start over again!

Thanks!

 

[dmanb2b]

I have a pool rover jr, that I picked up last fall at namco (refurb unit for $149)...you can find them new on sale for around $249....works great on my 24ft...the only time I vacum is if I get the very fine dust settled on the bottom, but that is rare...vacumed once in the past 30 days...I just brush my wall and bottom and drop the rover in 3 times a week.

FYI...the rover is a self propelled unit and completes it's cycle in 2hrs, but honestly the floor is clean in about 30 mins to hr

 

[dmanb2b]

I also opted out of the center drain idea...installed properly it works great, but did not want to chance liner issues and having to winterize the drain, as it can get cold in the winters here

 

[Jimh64]

Has anyone had success with any pool cleaners other than the Pool Rover Jr? I am sure this is a good one, but I would like to chose from a few different models.

Surely some of you have ones that you are very happy with!

Thanks!!

 

[Laenini]

I picked up a Wanda the Whale automatic cleaner off of Ebay this spring and I have been really impressed with it! Here is a link to the auction I purchased it from, just so you can see: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0191506770
I did end up buying an inline leaf canister too:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0194363295
I think it does a fantastic job, and maybe I'm just easily amused, but I find it to be fun to watch too! I did kind of struggle with it the first few times I tried to use it. There were 2 things that I needed to learn so that Wanda could do her job right. First, I needed to figure out how to prime Wanda's hose using the pool's return jet so that I wouldn't keep causing the pump to lose its prime as I hooked her up to the skimmer. Second, I needed to learn to point the return jet down towards the bottom of the pool while Wanda was doing her thing so that the force of the return jet wouldn't keep pushing Wanda across the pool whenever she got close to the jet. Once I learned those 2 little tricks I have had wonderful success with this product.