I have a suction side Hayward Naviagator that I'm thinking of converting to a pressure side Letro or Hayward Phantom. My question is, do the pressure cleaners send water to the filter, or just through the bag attached to the cleaning device itself? I'm thinking that the pressure cleaners would not clean fine dirt as well as the suction cleaner that was sending water through the DE filter. There must be more to this than I'm aware of, since most pool builders I've talked to only build pressure side pools.
do pressure cleaners filter dirt or just large debris?
- Thread starter laff66
- Start date
Pressure side cleaners collect the dirt in their own collection bag, which leaves the filter clear of dirt longer. Many of them have different grades of bags that can be attacheded depending on the type of dirt you are cleaning (such as silt bags or leave bags). They also stir up the water so particles too fine for the cleaner to catch will go thorugh your filter sustem to be caught by your filter. IMHO, this is a good arragement since the larger particles will be trapped by the cleaner and your filter olny has to worry about the ones too small for the cleaner to catch. This way your filter can go longer between cleanings or backwashing! Some of the robotic cleaners do have micron filter bags and can filter the water on par with a DE filter but the pressure side ones can't. IMHO, it really isn't necessary since the stuff the cleaner is desinged to pick up is the stuff that falls to the bottom of your pool and they all do an excellent job at that. The really tiny stuff will stay suspeneded in the water where your filter can remove it Pressure side cleaners also act as a traveling 'return jet' for your pool so they help distrubute chemicals and heat and help eliminate dead spots in the circulation.
Okay, thanks. I guess I'm just worried that stirring up the water won't be sufficient to get it into the skimmer, especially out of the deep end. Oh, and our main drain is somehow blocked, which probably won't help either!
laff66 said:
Many new pools are being built without main drains and just skimmers. Adding a pressure side cleaner will improve the circulation in your pool so I don't expect you will have any problems.
Rather than which filters better, I think it is a good generalization to say that Pressure cleaners clean your pool FASTER than suction side.
Both will clean your pool extremely well and I would purchase based more on the speed I needed rather than a perceived difference in their filtering capability. There's certainly no set rules but the larger the pool, the more tendency that a pressure side would do the job a little more efficiently.
Likewise, it's my opinion that a robotic would be a little faster still and a VERY large pool would lend itself to a robotic's speed.
Both will clean your pool extremely well and I would purchase based more on the speed I needed rather than a perceived difference in their filtering capability. There's certainly no set rules but the larger the pool, the more tendency that a pressure side would do the job a little more efficiently.
Likewise, it's my opinion that a robotic would be a little faster still and a VERY large pool would lend itself to a robotic's speed.