Pool Renovation - Aqua Genie Skimmer?

[TheKyle]

Hi All,

Just bought a house with a small (16,000Gallon) inground pool in the backyard. Pool is really old, but in great shape. My concrete guy got the deck off and says the walls are 12" reinforced concrete!

The pool apparently had a side drain and a return at one time, but they are no longer functional. While I am renovating the pool deck (and the rest of the house for that matter) I have decided to go ahead and replace the pool plumbing. I came across the Aqua Genie while doing some online searching and I think this might be just what I need...

Can I get by with one of these units in a small pool like mine? This would really make it easy to run the plumbing (No additional return lines) and obviously only having to cut one section of the concrete out would be a big plus too.

What is everyone's experience with the Aqua Genie? Does it really work as well as advertised?

Thanks for the advice!

-Kyle

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

The Aqua Genie gets mixed reviews. It does circulate well, but tends to create winterizing problems and is not compatible with accessories designed to hook up to a standard return fitting. Overall it has no real advantages, there are many easy ways to get good circulation, and suffers a little from lack of compatibility.

 

[TheKyle]

Thanks for the input! I am curious as to what you mean by winterizing problems? I am in St. Louis, MO so the winters here are not horrible, but they are definitely not mild...

I read that you can still use a vacuum with the aqua genie, what other accessories are you referring to? I am a super newbie here, so please forgive any dumb questions!

The thing I liked about the aqua genie is that I would only have to install the one unit. Versus having a regular skimmer and then having to run the plumbing to the other side of the pool for the returns. Is that accurate?

Thanks Again!