Polaris 360 assistance needed

[Rhuel]

We have a brand new gunite/plaster pool that was plumbed for a 360. I recently bought a 360 and I've adjusted the wheel RPM to 30 and let it do its thing. The problem is with the hose length adjusted long enough to reach the deep end and shallow end, the cleaner gets stuck in the corners of the steps. After a few minutes, the backup valve starts blasting water and the 360 floats to a different part of the pool, sinks and starts to clean again. This all sounds normal, but the cleaner keeps parking itself in the corners in the shallow end and the process repeats. I've tried adjusting the thruster jet up/down/left/right and varying angles and it doesn't seem to help. I took out another section of hose to shorten the distance the cleaner can travel so it can't reach the steps, but then it reaches its max length in the deep end and won't drift to either side, it just goes in a straight line and stays stuck at the end of the hose until it backs up. With the shorter hose, it's stuck at both ends of the pool.

Any suggestions on how to get this thing to work in my pool?

Attached are a couple Google Sketchup images of the pool. The Polaris was plumbed in at the end of the red arrow and the places it gets stuck are at the white steps. The cleaner will bump along any part of the center step and slide along to the right step and get stuck, unless it makes contact all the way to the left, then it it will get stuck where the white small step meets the blue wide curved step.

 

[gilbee]

It might just be one of those things that can't be resolved...ours gets stuck on the steps sometimes, usually frees itself, but we have no expectation of the 360 to clean the steps. Part of my daily routine is to take a brush and sweep the stuff off the steps to the floor of the pool so the 360 can pick it up.

 

[Rhuel]

It might just be one of those things that can't be resolved...ours gets stuck on the steps sometimes, usually frees itself, but we have no expectation of the 360 to clean the steps. Part of my daily routine is to take a brush and sweep the stuff off the steps to the floor of the pool so the 360 can pick it up.

We weren't expecting it to climb/clean the steps, more of hoping it wouldn't get hung up in the corners for such a long time before it backed up. It may just be something we have to live with.

 

[gilbee]

Has it done this from the very beginning? I can't say for sure it won't hurt anything (I really don't think it will though), but I removed the little screen filter in my hose and it made a lot of difference...understand though that filter is there for a reason, and junk that filter might catch now makes it to the unit, but I've had my 360 and backup valve apart more than a couple of times (before our re plaster, the 360 was picking up pieces of plaster and aggregate that we're getting caught in the gears), so I'm comfortable cleaning it out if it needs it.

 

[Rhuel]

Has it done this from the very beginning? I can't say for sure it won't hurt anything (I really don't think it will though), but I removed the little screen filter in my hose and it made a lot of difference...understand though that filter is there for a reason, and junk that filter might catch now makes it to the unit, but I've had my 360 and backup valve apart more than a couple of times (before our re plaster, the 360 was picking up pieces of plaster and aggregate that we're getting caught in the gears), so I'm comfortable cleaning it out if it needs it.

It's a brand new cleaner and has acted this way since new. Regardless of the adjustments I make to it, it just ends up in the shallow end parked in a corner. It seems to run through the pool just fine, it's just the design of pool that trips it up (gets stuck in corners).

Seller won't take it back as it's been too long since we bought it (36 days) and nobody seems to want to buy it on CL or this message board, so I'm stuck with it. I hate to sell it on feeBay.

Any adjustment advice appreciated.

 

[jrs_diesel]

I recently rebuilt my 360 and it ended up only following the pools perimeter. I found later that the hose connection inside the 360 for the thrust jet had snapped off. It didn't have far to move, and some water still made it to the thrust jet making it appear the work. It didn't put out enough thrust to make the 360 move around like it should. I ended up getting a new water management system from Polaris under warranty, which fixed my problem. I suspect there may have been a bad casting of the plastic, since the hose connection for the tail sweep hose popped off with little effort when I took it apart again.

You may have a similar problem. Fairly easy to check for as well. Just take off the head float, catch bag, and top shell. You'll be able to see all of the hoses at the bottom. See if any are cracked or broken.

The front wheel is supposed to help get itself out of corners. Are all three wheels driving?