Cleaner questions

[Urbandweller]

Hi guys - I inherited a cleaner with my pool home purchase recently. It's a pressure side with a dedicated booster pump. I have a picture attached. It looks like a polaris 380. Do you agree?
Also - it doesn't work well. The backup valve is stuck in backup mode (which I've removed), the body leaks, the RPMs are 16. It does an OK job but after what I've been reading here it seems that robotic cleaners are the way to go. A couple questions regarding them:
1. Any recs? Dolphin S200 seems to come up a bit. I don't need any bells and whistles
2. Is having a power cord on the pool deck bothersome?
3. What do you do with the existing plumbing/equipment - just disable the booster pump and let it be? Anything else?

Thanks!

 

[cowboycasey]

they do not work very good in normal conditions and when they start breaking they really get bad... Yes, the S200 is a great little bot and everyone loves it... We just had another member go through this and they attached/connected the pressure side plumbing to the return plumbing and now has another return to the pool..

 

[guinness]

I respectfully disagree, my Polaris does a good job and it's been working for a decade - but like everything else YMMV.

Robot longevity vs Polaris 280

I know everyone here loves their robot but I am curious as to the longevity and overall cost of ownership of a robot cleaner. My Polaris 280 has served me faithfully for 9 years. It stays in the pool 24x7x365. It is only removed to swim. Given that, it is giving me issues. at the very least it...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[cowboycasey]

sorry, I should clarify

They do not work as good as robots... robots scrub/brush the pool, the waterline and you name it... A Polaris is like mine and moves around the bottom, sometimes going up the sides and generally not as good... yours like mine has been going great for years and I do love that part

 

[mwemaxxowner]

I inherited a pool with a Polaris 380. It needed some work. I got it running but it still needed bout a full rebuild. I decided to just put that money towards a Pentair Warrior SE, and it was some of the best money I've ever spent!I haven't had to manually vac the pool in months. It's as clean as it has ever been. It's keeping up with leaves and pine needles falling.

As to whether the cord is a problem, my guess is that's largely dependent on where you have a plug. I have an outlet at ground level directly behind the diving board. So I just have cord running from the fence to the pool behind the diving board and that's it.

We just leave it in the pool 24/7. A few times I've removed it to swim but I pretty much quit that too. When I did remove it I just cooked up the cord and placed everything on the patio out of the way in a corner. It's well worth the slight inconvenience. I was needing to manually vac my pool almost daily.

 

[Homebrewale]

I had the Polaris 380 for 13 years before replacing it with the Pentair Warrior SI which is similar to the Dolphin S200. IIRC, I rebuilt the Polaris 380 twice over that time. It worked fine on large debris for several years before degrading into performance until I had to rebuild. The fine dust like pollen went right through the bag. The Pentair Warrior I have now does a much better of vacuuming up the small particles. The robot also brushes the bottom and sides of the pool. The Polaris doesn't unless you count the sponge on the tail.

To answer question #2, the cord isn't bothersome to me because I don't leave the robot in the pool. After each use, I put it away which means the power cord is also stored. It may be different for you if you leave the robot in the pool. To answer question #3, I leave all the equipment in place. I didn't remove the booster pump. I didn't re-pipe the water line going to and from the booster pump. I still have my Polaris 380 so if my robot breaks, I can use the Polaris until the robot is repaired or replaced.