New cleaner questions

[Jbthompson]

Hi everyone. I am going in to year 3 as a pool owner with an in ground pool in north Texas. My pentair boostrite pump is on its last leg, and my pentair racer is in need of a rebuild.

With the cost of a new pump and parts for the racer, I am close to a robot in price. However I am very disappointed that this pentair pump has barely last three years with very normal usage.

The robot is for sure fun, however I am constantly surprised how pool gear breaks down quickly. The costs is high, I can afford it but I’m a bit hesitant.

I was searching Amazon last night and was reading about suction line vaccums. I can get a professional vaccum head and hose for about 200 bucks. I don’t mind doing the work, and in the summer there isn’t much debris in my pool so it’s more spot cleaning than full pool cleaning.

Is this a viable option or should it look at something else?

 

[JoyfulNoise]

If you don’t have a dedicated suction port, then running a suction side cleaner is a pain. Vacuuming manually is doable but it’s just not fun after a while and there will always be something more urgent to do than you standing by the poolside for 30mins vacuuming. Robots are great but expensive and the repairs costs suck when they do eventually break.

You might try a Polaris pressure cleaner and see if that works better for you. Repairing a failed booster pump sucks but they too are very fickle pieces of equipment.

There’s really no perfect choice … they’re all going to cost you an arm and a leg at some point.

 

[Jbthompson]

Thank you. Yeah the hose seems cumbersome. I’ve hated the pentair racer, it breaks constantly and never gets the debris needed. That makes me think a more focused vaccum while labor intensive might be quicker. Hmmm.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Robots are great cleaners. You just have to be willing to stomach a possible $500 motor replacement every 5th year or so …

 

[tstex]

Robots are great cleaners. You just have to be willing to stomach a possible $500 motor replacement every 5th year or so …

Matt is correct. Fortunately [and unfortunately as well] my shark motor cratered w in 3 yrs so my $425 motor [in 2018] was replaced, along w a lot of other things. I had almost everything replaced except the 2 pieces of plastic holding it together, but have used JB Weld to repair those 2-3 diff times.

pool ownership is expensive when it comes to maintenance budget at least a $1000/yr. if you add up everything annually 5-7 yrs, it's that or more. It would be a lot more if you took out the 3 yr warranty period after install...this is all phase one of maintenance. when you get to phase 2 of replastering and deck redo's, then the costs really go up...

 

[Jerz]

I'm on the fence about getting the Alpha IQ+ but went to Leslies and the girl told me I would still have to brush the pool so I thought well... what's the point exactly? The polaris 280 I have seems to work good and I have no trees near the pool so no leaves or acorns to worry about.... so do these things brush the pool or not? Seems I get mixed reviews.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

The S series Dolphin robots definitely brush the pool as they clean. Is it as effective as the steel/nylon bristle brush powered by good old elbow grease … probably not.

 

[GMTK]

I noticed a massive difference when we got our robot - but as said above, get ready to replace major parts in 3-5 years. My Nautilus CC Cleaner made it 33 months before the motor went (and every year I spent about $40 on misc parts for it).

 

[Jerz]

The S series Dolphin robots definitely brush the pool as they clean. Is it as effective as the steel/nylon bristle brush powered by good old elbow grease … probably not.

Thanks... I guess maybe I'll try the vacuum (haven't used it yet) that came with the pool and do some brushing this weekend. I'm wanting to buy a robot but I need to be able to justify it to the wife a little... lol... The Polaris 280 doesn't get on top of the swimouts or sunshelf so I'm assuming the robot wouldn't either which mean I'd still have to brush off those areas.

 

[GMTK]

Yes. I still have to brush the steps and shelf often. And I still brush the entire pool weekly as the robot is very good, but not perfect.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Thanks... I guess maybe I'll try the vacuum (haven't used it yet) that came with the pool and do some brushing this weekend. I'm wanting to buy a robot but I need to be able to justify it to the wife a little... lol... The Polaris 280 doesn't get on top of the swimouts or sunshelf so I'm assuming the robot wouldn't either which mean I'd still have to brush off those areas.

Have the wife do the vacuuming and brushing a few times. Then leave brochures for the Dolphin cleaners around. There will be a big boxed package at the door in less than a week …