One skimmer/intake - can I go automatic for the pool cleaner?

[DanDanThePoolMan]

Hi everyone,

I'm new here. I'm taking over pool care for my SoCal pool and am feeling a little overwhelmed.

After some great responses in the chemistry forum, I think I'll likely be at least partially draining my pool. My CYA is crazy high, pH is out of whack, etc.

But I wanted to ask about pool cleaning here. My pool has one skimmer / intake area. Due to recent rains, I have about 200 dead worms at the bottom of the pool. Luckily not much leaves or anything, thankfully, but there is a thin layer of dirt too.

I'd love to buy an automatic pool cleaning device, but is it safe to leave this connected full time to the skimmer? I worry about it straining the pump too much, given that it's the only water intake.

If it's not going to mess up my system, I think I'll go for the Pentair Kreepy Krauly Sandshark from Amazon. Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Dan

 

[wjr75]

Better off going with a robot verses using the skimmer. I have a pressure side cleaner but a lot of members on here can give you advice on a robot.

 

[Oly]

My pool also has one intake at the skimmer. I started with a Pentair Rebel suction side cleaner and overall it worked well for vacuuming the pool and sure beat doing it by hand. The downsides were it stayed in the pool, I had to disconnect it to activate my skimmer, my pool pump had to be running for it to work and although I did have an inline leaf trap my pool filter was catching a lot of material and had to be cleaned often.

After following along the experience and advice of robot owners here and researching this cleaning device myself I bought a Maytronics S200 and will never go back.

 

[DanDanThePoolMan]

Thanks for the thoughts, everyone. I'll do some reading on the robot option. It does seem like a better bet with only one intake.

Dan

 

[wireform]

I say robot all the way and keep the pool filter system separate