Anyone know about the Polaris 380 pressure-side pool cleaner? I Picked up an old used non-working Polaris 380 pressure side wheeled pool cleaner.

[Dirk]

The boring part is that the pool has three pumps

Sorry, I don't have the wherewithal to sort out your plumbing from a text description. It sounds like your pool is plumbed in a non-standard way, or you're misunderstanding the plumbing, or both. I'll focus on what I don't know about vacs instead of what I don't know about plumbing!! But there are folks here that can help you sort out the plumbing, if you ever want to tackle that topic.

 

[Dirk]

Something else to ponder... If you end up tempted to buy a booster, for about the same amount of money you can buy a suction-side vac. They don't require a booster, and they can be run from the suction port in your skimmer (the same way you run a manual vac). They don't have a catch bag, or a tail. They send gunk to the main pump basket, and then on to the filter for the fine stuff. Then you can abandon rebuilding your broken vac, which may or may not fix it, and have a new, for-sure vac system.

The downside of running them via the skimmer is that you can't leave them plugged in all the time, as they would interfere with the skimmer function. So you'd have to go out and hook it up periodically, but at least you wouldn't have to manually work the pole. (Pretty much the same chore the stand-alone pressure system you're trying to get working would be.)

Now all that said, that doesn't solve for your skimmers not running through your filter (if I understood that correctly). That's very odd, if that is in fact how your pool works. For either your manual vac or a suction vac to be effective connected to a skimmer port, you'd have to replumb your skimmers correctly so that they get filtered. This is how pool plumbing is supposed to go:

pool --> ports in drain(s)/skimmer(s) --> ** --> main pump --> main filter --> * --> gas heater --> chlorinator --> return ports --> pool

* If there is a booster, its feed hose branches off the pipe between the filter and the heater.
* A solar heater also draws from and returns to the same branch between filter and heater (the booster would branch off first).
** Normally a suction-side cleaning system has a dedicated line that starts from a port in the side of the pool and runs to the multi-valve suction manifold that balances suction between drain, skimmer(s) and vac, which then leads into the main pump.

Spas and blowers and water features add yet another layer of complexity to a pool plumbing system, but they all fit together in a pretty standard way. Pools that don't conform to that standard can be problematic. And it almost sounds like you might have an in-floor cleaning system, which I know even less about, except they add an even more complex layer.

 

[ajw22]

And its tail swishes around to suspend the fine silt that has settled on the bottom into the water column, where it can get sucked into the skimmer. .

The Polaris tail brushes the pool surfaces and you can do that much less often.

The foam tail and the tail ring weights are sacrificial and run along the pool surfaces brushing them. The foam tail wears smooth and should be replaced before the tail end rubs in the pool.

And the round ring weights will get worn flat from rubbing on the pool surface. The ring weights close to the tail end will wear while those higher on the tail will stay round. You can rotate the weights on the tail like you rotate tires in a car to even out the wear. When most of the weights are flat they should be replaced.

There should be 6 or 7 weights on the tail.

The Polaris pressure cleaners are finely balanced machines. The engineers who designed them gave a lot of thought to friction and weights to maximize performance. When new they work superbly climbing walls and steps cleaning a pool. As they age the cleaner loses its balance like an old person, slows down, becomes tipsy, and can’t climb the way it used to.

Unlike an old person you can give a Polaris cleaner periodic maintenance and restore its performance to like almost new if you understand how the engineers tuned and balanced it.

Few people maintain the tail of their Polaris pressure cleaners with the foam scrubber and tail weights. Which leads to disappointment in the cleaners performance over time.

 

[Homebrewale]

You don't have to be in the pool. Connect the hose to the vac head and the vac head to the pole. Push the vac head, with the pole, down into the deep end. Now some of the hose is in the pool, the rest is lying on the deck. The hose section in the water will be full of water. The hose section on the deck should be near your skimmer. Kneel next to the skimmer, grab the hose a few inches above where it enters the water, and slowly feed that chunk of hose into the water, repeat, repeat, repeat, a foot or so at a time. As long as the "dry end" is out of the water, and you continue to feed the hose into the water as described, the hose will fill with water and the air will escape out of the dry end. Continue feeding until the dry end goes underwater, and keep it under water. It doesn't matter if some or most of the hose is floating on the surface. If you fed it down into the water correctly, it'll all still be 100% full of water. Now feed the end of the hose through the skimmer mouth and into the skimmer well, keeping it under water the whole time. Then connect the end to the suction port at the bottom of the well. Again, even if the hose is mostly floating, that's just the plastic floating, there won't be any air in it. Then turn on your pump. One man job.

If you can't get the hose to feed through the skimmer opening, that's OK. While the end is underwater in the pool, seal it with your palm. Lift it out of the water and plunge it quickly into the opening to the skimmer well. You might get a gulp of air if you don't do it perfectly, but the pump can handle that. Then connect the end to the suction port at the bottom of the skimmer. Then turn on your pump. Still a one man job.

There is an easier way. Stick the hose end over one of the jets in the pool. It fills up the hose with water.

 

[1poolman1]

Thanks everyone for the kind advice as I am a complete noob when it comes to pool cleaners.

You said that right where I think I probably have too much pressure/volume (nominally at 90 gallons per minute instead of about 12 or 13 gallons per minute) but I do need to invest in the proper pressure testing apparatus, as I can always LOWER pressure (e.g., with the suggested diverter valve).
View attachment 607330



Ah! Perfect. When I hold it up in the air & run the sump pump, I see water spritzing out of the case bag, so I can presume, for now, that the suction part "might" be working.
View attachment 607328

Thanks for confirming the debris is collected in the bag and the rest of the water goes back into the pool, unfiltered.
I can see a few places where, when held in the air, the water sprays out of various openings.
View attachment 607329

Thanks for that parts list, as the wheels aren't spinning when I hold it up in the air; so I'm assuming that's the first thing I need to look at to see why they're not moving.
Do all three wheels drive or is it like a 2WD conventional vehicle with a differential where only one wheel is doing the traction at any given time?

Single wheel is driven by paddle wheel through the drive shaft that also drives a cogged wheel on the other side that then transfers power to the other wheels by belts. All three should move simultaneously. You can loosen the cap with the black pressure relief to get less pressure to the cleaner and slow the RPM.

 

[Dirk]

that doesn't solve for your skimmers not running through your filter

You could add a pre-filter to the manual vac hose (or suction-side vac hose) that would catch debris. That might solve for the way your skimmers are plumbed. Not for the skimmers, that water still wouldn't get filtered, but the water flowing through the suction vac heads would get filtered. Like this guy:

It's a leaf catcher, designed to keep large debris out of the pump basket, but I've read here how users add a fine-mesh filter to the basket to catch smaller stuff. @JoyfulNoise can weigh in on how well this might work (or not) as a self-contained loop that doesn't go through the main filter.

As I mentioned before, it might be worth the trouble to replumb your pad such that the main drain(s) and the skimmer(s) all flow to the same suction manifold at your pad, then into your main pump and main filter (like most pools do). The amount of trouble would be determined by how all your plumbing and pipes are routed.

I realize this is beyond the scope of your original post. Like I said, I'm just brainstorming with you before you invest too much into fixing your vac or adding parts or a booster pump to your system. Figuring out now what you should best end up with, before buying anything, might be one approach to your project.

 

[sktn77a]

If the wheels aren't turning, the most common cause is broken belts. The single side wheel should turn, however, even if both belts are broken.

 

[Gary Davis]

If the wheels aren't turning, the most common cause is broken belts. The single side wheel should turn, however, even if both belts are broken.

Apologies for not having responded in a while, as I had two more stints in the hospital, and am just getting back on my feet again.
I appreciate all the help from everyone who was so kind to assist me - where I've learned a lot about the Polaris 380 in the interim.

I don't know where to start in terms of responding to all your kind help, so I'll take each post on its own merits.
The problem with the Polaris 380 pool vacuum has been (mostly) resolved but I'm not quite sure which of the things I changed was the major culprit.

Probably the main "fix" was I had cleaned out the mechanism and I had replaced the main gear and its bearing (which had been destroyed) and I replaced all the wheel gears. I ordered the belts but the order had a problem (credit card issue) so I cancelled it so the belts are the original belts at the moment.

When I took the old Polaris 380 apart, the "blue" plastic casing broken in my hands, so the photos below show it removed.
The inevitable loss of the brittle blue plastic shields doesn't seem to have any effect on the function, does it?

 

[Gary Davis]

Single wheel is driven by paddle wheel through the drive shaft that also drives a cogged wheel on the other side that then transfers power to the other wheels by belts. All three should move simultaneously. You can loosen the cap with the black pressure relief to get less pressure to the cleaner and slow the RPM.

Thanks for the explanation of how it works as I have never owned a pool vacuum before so I am unaware of how it's supposed to work.
Once I replaced the faulty main bearing and gears and the sticky wheel bearings, the Polaris 380 pool vacuum still did not work on the sump pump output.

But then I brought it to a neighbor's pool and it worked just fine connected to his booster pump port on the side of his pool.

That instantly told me that my sump pump poor-man's booster pump, didn't provide enough pressure to operate the Polaris 380 pool vacuum!

 

[Gary Davis]

The foam tail and the tail ring weights are sacrificial and run along the pool surfaces brushing them. The foam tail wears smooth and should be replaced before the tail end rubs in the pool.

And the round ring weights will get worn flat from rubbing on the pool surface. The ring weights close to the tail end will wear while those higher on the tail will stay round. You can rotate the weights on the tail like you rotate tires in a car to even out the wear. When most of the weights are flat they should be replaced.

There should be 6 or 7 weights on the tail.

The Polaris pressure cleaners are finely balanced machines. The engineers who designed them gave a lot of thought to friction and weights to maximize performance. When new they work superbly climbing walls and steps cleaning a pool. As they age the cleaner loses its balance like an old person, slows down, becomes tipsy, and can’t climb the way it used to.

Unlike an old person you can give a Polaris cleaner periodic maintenance and restore its performance to like almost new if you understand how the engineers tuned and balanced it.

Few people maintain the tail of their Polaris pressure cleaners with the foam scrubber and tail weights. Which leads to disappointment in the cleaners performance over time.

Thanks for the clear and actionable advice on what to check for the tail scrubber, which, as far as I can tell, seems to be in order.

I was surprised, in fact, at how many places the pool vacuum spits out water, e.g., this appears to be a backup spitter reverse gear of sorts.

 

[Gary Davis]

Sorry, I don't have the wherewithal to sort out your plumbing from a text description. It sounds like your pool is plumbed in a non-standard way, or you're misunderstanding the plumbing, or both. I'll focus on what I don't know about vacs instead of what I don't know about plumbing!! But there are folks here that can help you sort out the plumbing, if you ever want to tackle that topic.

Thanks for trying to sort out the non-standard self-cleaning-pool plumbing - but it is what it is - so there's nothing any of us can easily do about it now.

The plumbing, as far as I know, is "standard" for a specific type of pool, which is a specific type of "self cleaning" pool.
The reason that is important is that if people have a "normal" pool - they can't apply the way their plumbing works to the way mine does.

Mine has three pumps - one for the spa which we'll ignore; and one for the filter which pulls NOT from the skimmers but from the floor drains, and one, which is unfiltered, for the combination of the popup jets & the skimmers.

Each of the skimmers has two ports on the bottom, but both skimmers have only the far port active - the inside port is permanently plugged.
There is also a debris canister which is NOT directly tied to the unfiltered skimmer pump (although there is a side pipe between them).

The only real thing to keep in mind in terms of using these ports for a vacuum are the following, I think:

1. The only "strong" vacuum is in the one working port of the debris canister (which is connected to the filtered main pool pump).
2. There is "weak" vacuum at the one working port in each of the skimmers (but this weak vacuum is NOT filtered!).

Hence, the only place to get a strong vacuum, is in the debris canister port (which is the one at left in the photo above, at the top, with the fitting that I put into the port so that a pool vacuum hose fits tightly in place to get and keep suction).

 

[Gary Davis]

UPDATE:

I've tested the Polaris 380 now for a few days hooked to a garden hose and it has been collecting all the leaves and detritus on the floor which had collected while I was in hospital (which, since I always recycle, I added to the compost bin for the plants - to save the nitrogen from being made industrially which is a greenhouse-gas-rich process).

What I've realized is I needed a tiny bit of weight to get the vacuum to stay on the floor (otherwise it floated upward), which I attribute to the loss of the blue plastic covering on the outside, which shattered in the repair process.

It took a bit of weight experimentation until I figured out that I could hang a steel weight to the back bulb of the Polaris 380 which keeps the back end on the floor so all three wheels touch for the most part; otherwise it was rotating in circles on the big wheel. (What is the purpose of that big white bulb anyway?)

In addition, the adjustable-direction water jet nozzle seems to be loose - maybe it should be tight?

I think the reason the back end was floating on the garden hose might be that the nozzle was flopping around (although it could just be there isn't enough pressure from the garden hose). Just in case it was the nozzle, I couldn't' figure out how to make it stay on one spot (maybe it's broken?) so I bubble-gummed it in place which seems to have worked until I take it apart again in the future to see why it's flopping around. Here's a photo of the garden hose adaptor to the Polaris 380 pool vacuum.

The good news is that, hooked to a garden hose, it runs around the pool like it should, although it won't climb the walls, and I can't run the garden hose forever so I have to find an inexpensive portable booster pump (preferably solar) to run the polaris 380 pool vacuum.

 

[ajw22]

 

[ajw22]

Head float adjusts the balance and buoyancy of the cleaner.

 

[Gary Davis]

Thrust jet, 11 o'clock

Thanks for the diagram where I've set the thrust jet with the hardened bubble gum to the 11 o'clock (up and to the left) position.