Polaris 360 tail sponge

[Johnny B]

The sponge is shot/ mostly missing.
What is its purpose? Improve direction/navigation?

Any sponge I can rig should be OK?

I see no difference in performance but apparently it is useful somehow?

Thanks

 

[PaulR]

Polaris calls that a "scrubber" and apparently it's supposed to stir little stuff up off the bottom. It has no effect on the performance of the unit. I'd think it needs to be a moderately tough kind of sponge if you have a plaster surface, or it'll get chewed to nothing pretty quickly. If you have a local dealer I'd think the sponge by itself shouldn't cost too much; Leslie's website says $5.89.
--paulr

 

[anonapersona]

That is a tail scrubber. It apparently helps to scrub the walls and sides as the tail whips around. I've gone though several this season. I found a good deal online, I ordered about 15 of them just to make the shipping less important. I also ordered several replacement tires since I've had to replace two of them this season as well. Local prices were 2 and 3 times higher for those items.

http://www.poolproducts4less.com $4.29 for 3 pack.

I think it best to replace it before it suddenly dissapears like mine did... I never noticed it in the cart filter, or in the Polaris, or anywhere else. I just hope it did not hang up in the lines somewhere. One may not be an issue, but 2 or 3 might be over time.

 

[Johnny B]

Thanks that is helpful.
If it is only to “scrub/clean” then that really isn’t important IMO because anything a sponge with essentially no pressure on the plaster can remove is about the same as the water jet that exits this same tail. The difference ought to be negligible. If a sponge was a good idea we’d have other sponge cleaners- instead we have nylon-metal brushes for plaster.

BTW, you going thru all those parts: don't store it in the sun, perhaps that'll extend the life. And I hose mine off to romove the pool water

 

[Pool Clown]

You're right Johnny. Just keep the wear rings from wearing down to the point where the plaster rubs on the sweep hose itself, otherwise you will wear a hole in it.

Years ago when those first started showing up on new units, my Polaris rep told me that those were for units going into new plaster pools so the tip wouldn't possibly make marks in the plaster. Now I know some of you out there would say that you should NEVER put a cleaner in till X amount of time has gone by. While i don't agree with that, I do respect it, when it is requested. I've put literally hundreds of these units in brand new plaster, and have had no problems, but like i said, I'll never try to talk anyone into or out of doing this if requested.

 

[dawndenise]

That's a really good price for the scrubbers, and I thought I had found good deals on eBay (5 for $9.95)! :-D

For those of us who are more frugal than we ought to be...before the scrubber material is totally worn thru on the bottom side, you can take off the scrubber and put the non-worn, upper side on the bottom and almost double the life of the scrubber.

 

[jjoshua]

It keeps the end of the tail from wearing out.

 

[PaulR]

Just keep the wear rings from wearing down to the point where the plaster rubs on the sweep hose itself, otherwise you will wear a hole in it.

Hm, I'll have to check that sometime. On mine the scrubber never actually touches the plaster--there's a definite up-curve to the tail. Sometimes I've wondered if the tail is too long.
--paulr