Whats the Best working Pool Cleaner for Intelliflo ?

[gman66]

Whats the Best working Pool Cleaner for Intelliflo ?
I have an older pool with 2 skimmers. I was thinking of setting up a pool cleaner that is attached full time to one of the skimmers and program the Intelliflo 3.2 for this.
I know that some pool cleaners work with less or more flow.
Whats the best compromise so as to set up the Intelliflo for lower flow (power savings) but enough to make the cleaner do its job.
Is this possible??

 

[chem geek]

A robotic cleaner is usually the best, but also the most expensive, and this is independent of the type of pump.

In general, the pressure-side cleaners are better than the suction side ones, but most pressure-side cleaners require relatively high pressure and flow to operate and typically use a separate booster pump that provides up to 50 PSI at a low flow rate (< 25 GPM). At it's maximum RPM of 3450, the Intelliflo, at 20 GPM it produces 94 feet of head, or 41 PSI, and this would be on a dedicated line. Because of this (and to reduce electricity costs by getting rid of the booster pump), I purchased The Pool Cleaner (4 wheel pressure pool cleaner) that I can run on a switched dedicated line at the lowest Intelliflow flow rate of 15 GPM which results in 11 PSI with the cleaner attached and 4 PSI unattached so the cleaner has a pressure resistance of around 7 PSI at this flow rate (their recommended wheel RPM rate is 11-14 and the 15 GPM flow provides just over 14 wheel RPM which seems to work fine). I first tried to run the Intelliflow with some flow to the regular returns and some to the cleaner, but this didn't work out very well. Though some people just attach The Pool Cleaner to one of the return lines and let it run whenever the pump is running, I didn't want it interfering and it seems this wouldn't work very well if one has more than 2 return lines anyway (I have 3) as too much flow gets diverted to the "open" returns instead of going to the cleaner.

Suction flow cleaners are like The Pool Cleaner in that they do not require high flow rates nor pressures, but attaching one to a skimmer does reduce skimming action. There are a lot of people who love their Kreepy Krauly, however. My guess is that it won't be as good as a pressure-side cleaner with a dedicated booster pump nor as good as a robotic cleaner.

I've been happy with The Pool Cleaner, but I also have an automatic electric safety cover that covers the pool when not in use so it doesn't get a lot of junk in it. So I can't say how it will work in an environment with more junk to clear.

Richard

 

[mas985]

I have the suction side "The Pool Cleaner" and it works pretty well. It requires less suction than most cleaners and it climbs the walls to the water line.

I have a large Elm tree next to the pool and the cleaner does quite well with the large amount of leaves that I get. I use a separate suction line with a leaf trap but if you run it off a skimmer, then you can just use the skimmer basket as a leaf trap. Most recommend a pressure side with a large leaf load but I have not had any issues with a suction side unless I allow leaves to collect on the bottom for several days.

If I were to get another suction side cleaner or pressure side for that matter, I probably wouldn't consider anything else. This design seems to work very well and most owners are quite happy with it.

 

[gman66]

So in my case i have two skimmers and that my only choice right now as there is finnished concrete decking around my pool and additional brick patio over the existing pool plumbing to the equipment.I can only attach to one of the two skimmer's .
With this in mind what would be the most logical and cost effective setup?
Can i use a Kreepy Krauly hooled into one of my skimmers?

 

[mas985]

You should be able to use any suction side cleaner including ThePoolCleaner or Kreepy Krauly. Most will work fine through the skimmer. You don't need a dedicated line. However, you may need to shut off or restrict the second skimmer depending on the suction to the cleaner. But with the Intelliflo, you should be able to increase the RPM to get the suction you need.

 

[chem geek]

I should have made clear that the reason I chose to use a dedicated line with the pressure-side The Pool Cleaner was 1) it was already there for my previous Letro Legend with booster pump and 2) my goal was to minimize electricity cost. I could have readily hooked up the cleaner to a regular return line and turned up the RPM (or GPM) on the pump to compensate, but I wanted to minimize power usage so ended up running the cleaner off-hours at night on its dedicated line so that it only uses around 540 Watts (my regular circulation at 26 GPM is around 275 Watts while running through my solar panels at 48 GPM is 1500 Watts).

 

[tmoss]

I have the legend II pressure side cleaner on a dedicated line using the intelliflo. I run it at 15 gpm which draws approx. 700 watts for 1-3 hrs/day depending on debris loads. The cleaner itself has been keeping the pool quite clean considering the trees nearby. I do run it with the wall relief slightly open otherwise the intelliflo is very uncooperative. After reading Chemgeek's posts months ago pertaining to the Pool Cleaner I was about to go that route. However pool is new and with a 3 year warranty on all the equipment I decided to tweak this setup for now. I'm glad I didn't spend additional money at this time for the Pool Cleaner now that I realize the legend works very well and my electrical costs are minimal. The PB and the local Pentair rep were clueless regarding setting up for optimum energy efficiency. Thanks to the folks at this board and a pump engineer at pentair's East coast office I finally got things configured to work as best as possible considering the design flaws inherent in this pump.

 

[chem geek]

I have the legend II pressure side cleaner on a dedicated line using the intelliflo. I run it at 15 gpm which draws approx. 700 watts for 1-3 hrs/day depending on debris loads. The cleaner itself has been keeping the pool quite clean considering the trees nearby. I do run it with the wall relief slightly open otherwise the intelliflo is very uncooperative.

That's good to know. It sounds like the Legend II wants something less than 15 GPM but at moderate pressure so you have to relieve some of the pressure or else the Intelliflow trying to push 15 GPM through a Legend would likely just shut down thinking it's "blocked" or beyond the pump's ability to deliver that flow into that amount of head (the Intelliflo is not designed for low flow / high pressure). Given the 700 Watts, the Intelliflow might be running at around 2500 RPM or so with around 23 PSI. The Letro Legend II is designed to work without a booster pump, so perhaps only needs 15-18 PSI or so -- at least that's my guess. So that's why it uses more electricity than The Pool Cleaner, but it probably does a better job cleaning.

If I ever run into trouble with my Pool Cleaner, it's nice to know there's another option for me. Thanks.