Hayward TigerShark QC issues

[Sloth911]

I have an L shaped salt water pool. This is my 3rd (or 4th) season with a Hayward TigerShark QC. For the last few years it has worked great getting stuck on the ladder/drains every now and again, but that seems to be normal.

This summer it has started giving me problems. It will get stuck in the slanted corners of the deep-end, spin in place for a few minutes, stop for a few minutes (still pumping water), and spin some more and repeat.

It will also do the same pattern on the steps. (I have video).
I have tried everything. Switched the handle, added/removed the plate in the bottom that helps keep it off the drain, run it with/without the filter, run it with/without the pressure plate on top of the jet and I still have this problem.

Any thoughts?

 

[djw]

Former TigerShark QC owner and maintainer here...

Just a guess, but the TigerShark at that age may be having trouble with the drive mechanism - either one or several plastic bearings or it's beginning to lose some "teeth" from the drive belts (treads). This will cause it to periodically get stuck and then after a while get unstuck.

This is easy to repair but the $ add up. (don't ask me how I know). My TigerShark was under the 3 year warranty but I never could get Hayward to pay for the replacement parts and finding a repair shop was nigh impossible in less than 100 miles - what a pita.

So repairing it yourself if you are handy is not a major deal and the parts (if it is one of these problems) are readily available on Amazon. I have done this many times and there are some tricks to make it easier to do.

You can pull it out of the water and sort of look around at the inside of the treads while rotating the brushes to see if any of the treads are missing the little rubber nubs that fit into the drive cogs.

You can also look closely at the white plastic bearings/wheels to see if they have broken inside, spewing little grey bb's into the pool. You might find evidence in the debris chamber if this has happened. There are several different drive bearings, wheel bearings, and idler bearings all having this same design where they will shear off and not function smoothly anymore.

If any of this is the case let me know and I can walk you through how to fix them. If it is not this, then I have no other idea. I wrestled with my TigerShark for a few years and finally gave up and went with a maytronics robot without the prone-to-fail design issues of the TigerShark.

 

[djw]

You can look here for some idea of what the bearings look like when working and not, causing drive problems. If it is something like this I would not run it much for fear of breaking more of the drive parts if they are jamming.

Anyone have experience with Tiger Shark In-ground Pool Cleaner?

Thoughts? I have the options to purchase the Tiger Shark In-ground robotic cleaner for around 800 bucks. I am a complete newbie and while this looks cool, trying to justify purchasing one. FYI, I'm the type of person who has plenty of down time over the summer and don't mind doing daily...

www.troublefreepool.com

Also worth checking that the little "fan blade" at the top is intact.

Make sure you have a parts diagram and fwiw, here is the link to the troubleshooting guide.

http://www.haywardnet.com/pdfs/TigerShark-Plus-SharkVAC-Troubleshooting-Guide.pdf

 

[Sloth911]

I have read the troubleshooting guide already and didn’t really find my issue.

Both tracks are turning, there does not appear to be any missing teeth, and I have not found any bearings in the pool.

I wonder if it is possible for one track to be looser than the other track?

I uploaded a video to YouTube of the behavior:

It seems like it tries to go somewhere, gets stuck, stops, takes a break, tries some more, repeats. It also appears to does this in two minute increments.

When it is “stuck” the belts are still spinning and the jet is still blowing. After watching it for quite a bit this morning, I can’t help but think that the jet is not making enough pressure (fan has all the blades, and the thrust plate has been removed) to push it hard enough against the pool.

But I don’t really know, if that was the problem, what could be the fix?

 

[djw]

Puzzling, you're right of all of the obvious faults have been checked. Looks like a "traction" problem in the video. But I really don't know.

The only thing I can guess is that, after 3-4 years, your rubber treads are pretty hard and lack the traction of fresh ones. Maybe time to replace the treads (drive belts) with Hayward parts, about $22 each. They are a wear part so they will need to be replaced over time anyway.

One joy of doing this is that you will get to examine all the drive bearings and pulleys in the process, whether you want to or not It is not a particularly difficult job but it is quite fiddly. You might find a bearing that needs to be replaced. I think there are some youtube videos around on replacing the belts.

 

[Sloth911]

I ordered new tracks today. Is there a way to check that both track motors are working?

This just dawned on me. One of the louvers (sp/name?) fell of the bottom of the vac, and actually got stuck in the track of the one side, I am just realizing that perhaps it got stuck in the track and burnt out the motor on the one side. Is that a possibility? How can I check that?

 

[djw]

There is only one drive motor. The drive shaft comes out the center of the side without the cord and the tracks carry the energy through the rollers to the other side. As long as the bearings haven't failed and the tracks have "nubs" that fit in the roller cogs, power gets to the other side. If the tracks slip when you move them by hand you know you have a problem.

A jam is how you'll destroy bearings and prematurely wear the nubs off the drive belts, so if the flap got stuck in one track, eyeball those parts on both sides since they're all connected.

Changing the drive belts and bearings is sort of a pitb, it is made much easier with a very small power screwdriver.