Polaris 360, No Booster Pump

[jsridley]

Purchased a house with a pool in Jan, first time owner. Learning up about the chemistry, bleach, etc. but I have another question that's been bugging me.

The previous owner left a Polaris 360 cleaner. There is no booster pump so all of the returns have reducers (blocked except for a small hole) except for 1, which is where the cleaner plugs in. The pool is quite large (~42' x 18' with 8' deep end) and there is only 4 returns total. 3 are on the shallow side of the pool and one is actually in the attached spa on the other side of the pool. To be clear the spa has 3 returns, the one I mentioned which is part of the pool return, and 2 separate which only come on when you throw a valve from pool return to spa return.

It appears like this cleaner is sold with this non-booster pump setup in mind, however, I can't help but think my water circulation has to be severely affected. The cleaner mostly does a good job of cleaning the bottom of the pool, but is this a wise set up. It doesn't appear surface debris makes it to the 1 skimmer very well, however, it sounds like this is an issue for lots of pools. I'm also concerned that the spa isn't normally seeing much circulation as there's just the one reduced return pushing water into it. All that said, I haven't had any issues with algae or cloudiness since I've had the pool.

Another question is if I keep this setup, I don't have an open return to pour bleach in front of daily unless I remove the cleaner. Is it ok to just pour bleach around the pool? I do know to remove the cleaner when adding acid, but I'm not sure if I should be doing that every time I add bleach as well.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Mindflux]

Not sure why you have to remove the cleaner when adding acid. I never have.

That said, with the situation you are in perhaps you should get regular sized 'eyeballs' for the return jets and go with an electronic pool robot so you can have good circulation in the pool and a way to auto clean it.

 

[jblizzle]

Cloudiness and algae is a result of insufficient chlorine as a function of your CYA (see the [FC/CYA][/FC/CYA]). Has little to do with the type of cleaner you use.

There should be no need to remove the cleaner when adding acid. But both the acid and bleach need to be added at a return jet to help mix the chemical. You do not want it to pool on the the bottom. I suppose you could brush to help mix it if needed.

I am not a huge fan of pressure side cleaners, especially the boosted variety which require you to run 2 pumps. You might find better circulation and skimming by opening up the return lines and switching to a robot for cleaning.

 

[George Whitzel]

I turn on my water fill line to full force and pour the LC in front of it to help mix

 

[Mayorb]

Just an fyi to all reading, always verify that your skimmers have their weir gates installed. That's the flappy thingy that keeps debris from floating from the basket back into the pool. However, its main function is to draw debris to the skimmer through surface tension.
Whenever I start service on a new pool, these are the first things I look for to be in place. They make a HUGE difference.