Lessons learned - Just did "almost complete" rebuild of Polaris 360 - and a "warning"
Hi,
I've been maintaining our Polaris 360 myself, for years (like > 15 years), changing/fixing things as they break, like the belts, etc., so I guess I'm kind of familiar with it, but it's been slowing down lately, and also we were noticing that when it was running, it was "pausing" intermittently (not because of the backup valve).
So I decided that it was time to do a pretty much complete rebuild of it, so I ordered parts:
- Set of 8 bearings
- New turbine thing with bearing (3 wheels)
- New O-ring for the pipe that goes up (I don't remember what it is called - we had replaced the pipe a couple of years ago so I did not change that).
- New set of 3 tires
So everything went ok, and it seems to be running much better/faster than before. There are Youtube videos about the turbine, so that was easy. A couple of things:
- There is a weight part, that I never noticed before. It fell out when I had the cleaner upside down. The 360 parts pictures show it, but are not real clear about where it goes, so I couldn't tell exactly where it fit, but found that it just sits behind the main inlet (the inlet that is built into the base).
- I found out (the hard way) that there is apparently a "new" 360 and an "old" 360 (which is what we have), and one of the differences is the old 360 has a base (with the big inlet) and two-piece top, whereas the new 360 has a base and a bone piece top with a kind of removable cover at the rear.
Our 360 is an "old" 360 and the top of the inlet was kind of cracked (where the bag hooks in) and I bought a new base, not knowing about the difference, so we could not replace the base. So, I took some JB weld and a small piece of plastic and JB-welded it to the inlet where the crack was - we will see if that holds.
Summary: So everything went pretty smoothly, but I wish that I had noticed about the "new" vs. "old" base. I couldn't find anywhere to buy the "old" base, so I'm kind of thinking that the next time we have to do a rebuild, it may be time to buy a new 360 or replacement.
Anyway I hope that this info helps someone in the future!
Hi,
I've been maintaining our Polaris 360 myself, for years (like > 15 years), changing/fixing things as they break, like the belts, etc., so I guess I'm kind of familiar with it, but it's been slowing down lately, and also we were noticing that when it was running, it was "pausing" intermittently (not because of the backup valve).
So I decided that it was time to do a pretty much complete rebuild of it, so I ordered parts:
- Set of 8 bearings
- New turbine thing with bearing (3 wheels)
- New O-ring for the pipe that goes up (I don't remember what it is called - we had replaced the pipe a couple of years ago so I did not change that).
- New set of 3 tires
So everything went ok, and it seems to be running much better/faster than before. There are Youtube videos about the turbine, so that was easy. A couple of things:
- There is a weight part, that I never noticed before. It fell out when I had the cleaner upside down. The 360 parts pictures show it, but are not real clear about where it goes, so I couldn't tell exactly where it fit, but found that it just sits behind the main inlet (the inlet that is built into the base).
- I found out (the hard way) that there is apparently a "new" 360 and an "old" 360 (which is what we have), and one of the differences is the old 360 has a base (with the big inlet) and two-piece top, whereas the new 360 has a base and a bone piece top with a kind of removable cover at the rear.
Our 360 is an "old" 360 and the top of the inlet was kind of cracked (where the bag hooks in) and I bought a new base, not knowing about the difference, so we could not replace the base. So, I took some JB weld and a small piece of plastic and JB-welded it to the inlet where the crack was - we will see if that holds.
Summary: So everything went pretty smoothly, but I wish that I had noticed about the "new" vs. "old" base. I couldn't find anywhere to buy the "old" base, so I'm kind of thinking that the next time we have to do a rebuild, it may be time to buy a new 360 or replacement.
Anyway I hope that this info helps someone in the future!
