Suggestions on setting up my new Polaris 280?

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lovingHDTV

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May 25, 2007
528
Round Rock, TX
I'll be getting my new cleaner to replace my worn out Viper 550 on Wednesday.

I'm looking for advice on how to set it up properly. I always felt that when the Viper was setup, the hose as cut too short, but I've never installed one before and they doing the install had . . . . The reason I felt this way is that it always would get stuck in the corner of the steps and the wall by the skimmer. That cleaner always traveled in a somewhat clockwise direction, and that is a bad angle to hit the steps when along the wall. When it got there the hose was somewhat taut so the cleaner had a hard time spinning around to get unstuck. I really don't want the same thing for the new cleaner.

So any help on how to get the right length of hose, pressure settings etc would be greatly appreciated.

thanks,
 
Ok, I read the manual and figure I can get the hose length correct.

Is it better to set it up to run on the booster pump only, or should I run the filter pump on hi, low? Looks like there are different restrictors to control the water flow to the cleaner itself.

Just don't know if I should run the filter pumps at the same time as the cleaner pump.

thanks,
 
You ALWAYS have to run the main pump when the booster is running or you can burn out the booster pump. It is not self priming and needs to have the water flowing through it by the main pump. Run the main pump on high if it is multi speed when you run the booster. It's job is the BOOST the pressure in your line, hence the name booster pump. In fact, you are supposed to turn the main pump on first, then the booster and when you shut it off you turn the booster off first and then your main pump.
 
I put it in yesterday and I love it!

There is no way it can get stuck in the corner where the Viper did. With only powered wheels on every leading edge it just runs over everything.

It does appear to run on two wheels a lot, leaned way over, but it may be the stiff hose. I'll keep an eye on it.

thanks for everyones help,
 
I've been running it for a while and see that it tends to tie itself up in a pretzel.

When I cut the hose to length I took 48" out of both lengths of hose, basically on each side of the center swivel. I did not remove any of the floats. As I watch the cleaner in action I'm wondering if there are too many floats for the remaining hose. I wonder this because the floats are colliding and the cleaner can't untangle the hose because of this.

Anything wrong with removing one float per hose section?

thanks,
 
One issue we had with ours was the directional hose whipping out of the water all the time, spraying salt water on the back of the house.

I bought a weight that attaches to the end of the hose, and it still moves like it should, but the hose stays in the water about 90% more.

It might help with your floating issue??
 

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Line Float Location

My PB just hooked up my Polaris blackmax 280 with two floats per line segment (between the swivels). He did not put a line float behind the backup valve - this caused the valve to drag on the pool bottom with the Polaris on two wheels. The solution was to move a line float to about 2' behind the backup valve to add flotation and get the valve off the bottom of the pool.

Everything works great now.
 
I removed a float from each main hose segment and that did help. I then re-timed the wheel rpm and found that they were a little slow at 25rpm so I removed the restricter valve and I'm now getting 31.

The combination of both things seems to have helped a lot. I see the pretzel knots getting undone now. Hopefully that fixed it for me.
 
SeanB said:
One issue we had with ours was the directional hose whipping out of the water all the time, spraying salt water on the back of the house.

I bought a weight that attaches to the end of the hose, and it still moves like it should, but the hose stays in the water about 90% more.

It might help with your floating issue??
Click to expand...

Sean - what type of weight did you use for yours? We just had our Polaris installed and are having a similar issue.

Thanks!
 
Still tweaking a little. I noticed that with the blue disc gone I get a lot of water coming out of the overflow valve.

But with the blue disc I only get 25 rotations per minute and the hose twists.

Is there anything wrong with drilling out the blue disk hole a little larger to try and get a happy medium?

thanks,
dave
 
Nothing wrong with making the hole a little bigger. I've done that for some of my clients. If the water coming out of the overflow valve doesnt bother you then you can just leave it be. I'm surprised the weights didnt come with the polaris. They are usually yellow in color and ring shaped to go around the tail hose. If the tail is whipping around alot try adjusting the flow screw where the tail attaches to the unit. Usually when a polaris gets tangled it is a float issue or a swivel is backwards.
 
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