Welcome to the forum danjaymor!
Glad you were able to aquire one locally and that is "kinda" what I will be doing. I know some of this has been fleshed out, but thought a re-hash might be helpful to those catching up. Please bare with me...
I talked with Maytronics on the phone a good long time yesterday and found out a few things. This was after I spoke with Epic Pool Supply as they came up on a search for the M5. When I spoke with them, I knew nothing except that I was interested in the M5, and where to find one. Epic is out of them and will not have any more M5 models as they are getting their own private label machine. Whether it is a full fledged M5 is in question, but the rep I spoke too seemed to think it would be. However, after talking with Maytronics, I'm not so sure, as the other "Exclusive" product lines from Leslie's, and Pool Express etc... do not include it. The bottom line is that they keep this line away from internet sales so that Mom and Pop stores don't get undersold online. Hence the no warranty policy for getting the M3, 4, and 5 if you find one there. If you get a warranty, it will be through the seller only, not from Maytronics. The rep told me it was their "IPP" (internet protection policy). I kind of like that to be honest, and I am getting mine from one in Abeline TX.
So, Leslie's has the "Deluxe" models, and although they have many of the same features, they are not the same at all. Mainly because none of them have top access cart filters. In fact, the only models that do are the M4, M5, and Liberty models. To me, this looks like a very desirable feature. Of course the price of the Deluxe 5 is the same as M5. Leslies local and the Leslie's commercial in Arlington knew nothing about the M5 and little about the others. In fairness to them both, they aren't allowed to carry the other models. However, local Leslie's knew nothing at all about any of them as usual, but called me back after speaking with "corporate" and tried to sell me the Deluxe 5. :blah: Of course, they said it was identical. :blah: Not so, but until I dug in I thought it might be a viable option. Perhaps interestingly, Leslie's local does sell the commercial versions of these, some ranging way up to $6500.00
After a cram research on all these, I decided for sure on the M5, and will explain. The M5 has everything you can get on one of these residential models and comes with everything. It is also a "Dynamic" unit versus a "Diagnostic" unit. Dynamic units have a split drive motor, where the brushes are split in two, front and back. This allows the machine to turn 90 degrees like a tank instead of making an arc to turn. How important this is, I don't know, but according to the Maytronics rep, it is very useful in a free form pool. In addition, the top load filter seems nice and I was told it comes with the different media carts. Fine, and coarse "screen" type included. I don't know how much I will use it, but the remote option seems like a desirable feature too. All in all, I might as well get it as my builder quoted me $1495.00 on the complete package for installing a Polaris 380 system. So... the money is already spent. That said, I would likely spend and extra 300-500 because I love top of the line, and looking at this in the big picture, it wouldn't be much extra for a pool build. The only down side is that the closest dealer is about two hours away, but I travel out there fairly often. If I need warranty work, stopping off on a trip in one or two directions I travel won't be a big deal. I really am glad duraleigh brought this up because the more I think about it the more I like the idea of an independent cleaner. I hadn't researched this well at all, and in retrospect the idea of a pressure side cleaner just seems silly in comparison. I also love the fact that these unit will "scrub" the pool where a pressure cleaner will not. Also, being able to jerk it out of the pool and put it away pretty easily is also very appealing. With all that, I've firmly made up my mind on this and silly as it is, I'm itching for a pool now just to see this thing in action. With the amount of junk I will get in my pool it will be pushed to it's absolute limit, so we'll find out how good these things are. Hope some of this was helpful, but I'll report back after I've used this a while.
