Best mobile pool vacuuming setup

[Southern Swimming]

Hi all,

I was wondering if any of you have come across a good mobile setup for vacuuming fine debris in your pool?

Background:
I run a small service company and my employees are running into water level issues while vacuuming. Many of our pools have fine sediments precipitating on the pool floor. 90% or more of my clients use sand filters which typically won’t trap this fine debris while vacuuming through filter so they often vacuum to waste which throws off water chemistry after having to refill every week. This creates repetitive cycle of algae growth as well and seems to be getting my guys stuck in a loop.
Also, water level is often to low to vac to waste so having a standalone system is very useful.
I built a standalone pump and cartridge filter for one of my veteran guys to test and it works great but is clunky and hard to load on trucks. I’m trying to develop an idea for a small cartridge with a leaf canister pre-filter that will be compact and potentially be able to integrate with existing equipment if need via vac hose. Anyone have a compact, and easy to use system for vacuuming fine debris without trying on sand filters?

 

[needsajet]

The poolies down here usually put a robotic cleaner in for a few days, and charge appropriately. You'd need one that can be scheduled to run reasonably often if contamination isn't too bad, or come back and clean it in a couple hours. Nothing cleans dust out of a pool as well as a robotic cleaner with fine mesh or fabric catchment. (well... maybe DE filtration equals or betters a robot). No water loss with a robot other than when you hose out the filter or bag.

I would definitely also do an overnight chlorine loss test though.

 

[Southern Swimming]

The poolies down here usually put a robotic cleaner in for a few days, and charge appropriately. You'd need one that can be scheduled to run reasonably often if contamination isn't too bad, or come back and clean it in a couple hours. Nothing cleans dust out of a pool as well as a robotic cleaner with fine mesh or fabric catchment. (well... maybe DE filtration equals or betters a robot). No water loss with a robot other than when you hose out the filter or bag.

I would definitely also do an overnight chlorine loss test though.

I have two old school dolphins but I’m hesitant to use them at clients houses. Firstly because I wouldn’t want to put on the impression that I’m “not earning the money” or that a robot has the years of experience that I do. Also, it would be fairly expensive to build a robot fleet big enough to be helpful.

will adding DE to a sand filter assist vacuuming filtration of sediment? I know it works decent as a sand filter additive after cleaning a green pool.

 

[needsajet]

Yes, if vacuuming to filtration and not to waste, certainly. Since you're doing that and will be backwashing afterwards, you won't need to worry about the pressure jumping after you're finished. As a one and done sort of thing though, you have to be prepared to monitor the filter a few hours later, and then maybe the next day, until you've been doing it regularly and know the ideal amount.

 

[Cwiggs]

I have two old school dolphins but I’m hesitant to use them at clients houses. Firstly because I wouldn’t want to put on the impression that I’m “not earning the money” or that a robot has the years of experience that I do.

You could talk to them about what you bring to the table other than brushing/vacumming. You should also look at selling them a vacuum, makes your job easier, and you can charge a markup, therefore making you some more money.