I have a polaris 65 pool cleaner.. It has stopped changing direction and only goes around in circles. There is water shooting out of only one of the four ports.. Is there any suggestions on how to fix it myself or is it hopeless..
polaris 65.. need help.
- Thread starter klkjck26
- Start date
The ports are divided into front and back pairs.
Only one of the pairs will be active at any time, and sometimes only one port in a pair will be active.
There is a little ball inside the port chamber that randomly blocks one of the ports, causing the "random" turning motion your polaris does to make sure it covers the entire pool.
When it stops changing directions like yours has, your piston has stopped spinning.
This can be caused by a number of issues.
The first thing to check is take out the little screen filter in the end of the hose that connects to your return and clean it. Use some compressed air to blow the screen out in reverse, and give it a good, gentle rinse afterward.
If that doesnt help, youll need to open up the polaris and take out the piston and "flex" the seals and clean the white "valve" really good.
The piston will be a black/clear tube in the middle of the polaris, you cant miss it (its the only thing in there. It has a couple of screws holding the black half to the clear half. Remove them, twist a few degrees and pull it apart.
Inside you will see the piston itself. It should have a clear/smoky flange pointing in both directions. Take a dowel or your finger or something hard (I use a phillips head screwdriver gently) and run it under the flange, flexing it outward.
While you have the assembly out, give the white spinning thing a really good cleaning. I mean realy good. That white thing spinning is what causes the polaris to fill different sides of the piston with water/pressure, like a hydraulic pump.
Let me know if that doesnt clear it up and we can go into more stuff.
Only one of the pairs will be active at any time, and sometimes only one port in a pair will be active.
There is a little ball inside the port chamber that randomly blocks one of the ports, causing the "random" turning motion your polaris does to make sure it covers the entire pool.
When it stops changing directions like yours has, your piston has stopped spinning.
This can be caused by a number of issues.
The first thing to check is take out the little screen filter in the end of the hose that connects to your return and clean it. Use some compressed air to blow the screen out in reverse, and give it a good, gentle rinse afterward.
If that doesnt help, youll need to open up the polaris and take out the piston and "flex" the seals and clean the white "valve" really good.
The piston will be a black/clear tube in the middle of the polaris, you cant miss it (its the only thing in there. It has a couple of screws holding the black half to the clear half. Remove them, twist a few degrees and pull it apart.
Inside you will see the piston itself. It should have a clear/smoky flange pointing in both directions. Take a dowel or your finger or something hard (I use a phillips head screwdriver gently) and run it under the flange, flexing it outward.
While you have the assembly out, give the white spinning thing a really good cleaning. I mean realy good. That white thing spinning is what causes the polaris to fill different sides of the piston with water/pressure, like a hydraulic pump.
Let me know if that doesnt clear it up and we can go into more stuff.
Hope it's OK to tag onto a thread from last year (and that it will be seen).
My Polaris 65 is also going in circles. Took it apart following Wolfmarsh's directions. It had some tiny black ants inside (dead). I can get them out but piston shaft doesn't spin very freely, plus there are fairly deep scratches lengthwise along the part of the shaft that runs in and out of the clear part of the chamber. Is this normal? Can it be disassembled further to replace the shaft?
I've only had this one for 2 seasons. It replaced a Model 60 that was about 15 years old. It had a crack near the drain plug, but worked fine other than taking on water. Guess they don't make 'em like they used to.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer advice.
My Polaris 65 is also going in circles. Took it apart following Wolfmarsh's directions. It had some tiny black ants inside (dead). I can get them out but piston shaft doesn't spin very freely, plus there are fairly deep scratches lengthwise along the part of the shaft that runs in and out of the clear part of the chamber. Is this normal? Can it be disassembled further to replace the shaft?
I've only had this one for 2 seasons. It replaced a Model 60 that was about 15 years old. It had a crack near the drain plug, but worked fine other than taking on water. Guess they don't make 'em like they used to.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer advice.
Well I have fixed mine a few times with the same symtoms as above. The scratches are from running pressure too high, I know I did this by cranking it up to get the pool cleaned faster, 
I fixed mine by getting really fine sand paper and sanding the scratches out. Its a pita, But you don't want to take too much off. Get the white piston shaft exterior sanded a little bit at a time by palming the sand paper with one hand and spin the shaft with the other. Keep doing this a little each time till the cleaner starts to go into other directions. I would try to get the deep scratches out mostly, and then put back together and see if it fixes it, If not take a little more off till it works correctly.
You dont wan't gouges in it, This is whats causing the direction issues. I forgot which grit I used but it was really fine. After sanding I cleaned it up with a green scotch brite pad.
Make sure you don't crack any of the plastic parts putting back together.
Once I did this I had to do it every spring for some reason, But it lasted me 9 years in all.
If you call polaris they will have you buy a whole new assembly costing nearly half of what you paid for the thing. I tried this figuring I had nothing to lose.
I fixed mine by getting really fine sand paper and sanding the scratches out. Its a pita, But you don't want to take too much off. Get the white piston shaft exterior sanded a little bit at a time by palming the sand paper with one hand and spin the shaft with the other. Keep doing this a little each time till the cleaner starts to go into other directions. I would try to get the deep scratches out mostly, and then put back together and see if it fixes it, If not take a little more off till it works correctly.
You dont wan't gouges in it, This is whats causing the direction issues. I forgot which grit I used but it was really fine. After sanding I cleaned it up with a green scotch brite pad.
Make sure you don't crack any of the plastic parts putting back together.
Once I did this I had to do it every spring for some reason, But it lasted me 9 years in all.
If you call polaris they will have you buy a whole new assembly costing nearly half of what you paid for the thing. I tried this figuring I had nothing to lose.
I want to add to run it first with the lid off to make sure that the piston is the only problem. Mine eventually died when a plastic part broke and the clear plastic cracked letting air in. Internal replacement parts may be easier to find now, When mine first started it was about 7 years ago and the whole assembly was the only thing I could buy. (Per polaris)
Thanks for the quick reply, Pool-creetin. 
For anyone with the same trouble -- I figured out how to separate the piston from the tube (the part with the impeller on the end). Just pull real hard, duh. Then I almost lost the ball when it washed out one of the holes in the center chamber left by pulling out the tube and piston shaft.
Not having any extra-fine sandpaper on hand, I polished the piston shaft with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser*. That's about the mildest abrasive I know of (and is also great for removing waterline stains, etc). It didn't get out the deepest scratches, but it polished the edges so that they are hard to see. Now it goes in and out very easily. (I also cleaned all the gaskets & seals as recommended by Wolfmarsh, and got all the dead ants out.)
Back in the pool it hung up one time. I shook it a bit while holding it under water. I think that it had air trapped inside as it released a lot of bubbles. It's worked about 10 hours now, but sometime this morning it got trapped on the ladder. I was able to stop that last year by raising the pressure.
For anyone interested in PARTS: :blah:
Parts blowup is in the manual, which you can d/l from polarispool.com. The complete mechanism is almost what the whole shebang costs -- hoses, (Turtle :? and all. The "Center Chamber Rear'y," Part #6-409-00, is the clear plastic chambers with the short hoses with the jet nozzles attached. One site, poolcenter.com, lists the large O-rings and nozzles separately, but they do not list the Center Chamber Rear'y. Apparently, the inside seals that the piston shaft and Filter Connector/Randomizer Tube ride in are made into Center Chamber Rear'y., so if they need replacement, you must buy the whole thing.
On that one commercial site, Part #6-411-00, Piston Assembly is $21.55 and Part #6-406-00, Filter Connector / Randomizer Tube Kit, is $7.53. Not at that site, but Google Shopping showed Part #6-409-00, Center Chamber Rear'y as low as $39. All these prices are as of this post.
For anyone with the same trouble -- I figured out how to separate the piston from the tube (the part with the impeller on the end). Just pull real hard, duh. Then I almost lost the ball when it washed out one of the holes in the center chamber left by pulling out the tube and piston shaft.
Not having any extra-fine sandpaper on hand, I polished the piston shaft with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser*. That's about the mildest abrasive I know of (and is also great for removing waterline stains, etc). It didn't get out the deepest scratches, but it polished the edges so that they are hard to see. Now it goes in and out very easily. (I also cleaned all the gaskets & seals as recommended by Wolfmarsh, and got all the dead ants out.)
Back in the pool it hung up one time. I shook it a bit while holding it under water. I think that it had air trapped inside as it released a lot of bubbles. It's worked about 10 hours now, but sometime this morning it got trapped on the ladder. I was able to stop that last year by raising the pressure.
For anyone interested in PARTS: :blah:
Parts blowup is in the manual, which you can d/l from polarispool.com. The complete mechanism is almost what the whole shebang costs -- hoses, (Turtle :?
and all. The "Center Chamber Rear'y," Part #6-409-00, is the clear plastic chambers with the short hoses with the jet nozzles attached. One site, poolcenter.com, lists the large O-rings and nozzles separately, but they do not list the Center Chamber Rear'y. Apparently, the inside seals that the piston shaft and Filter Connector/Randomizer Tube ride in are made into Center Chamber Rear'y., so if they need replacement, you must buy the whole thing.On that one commercial site, Part #6-411-00, Piston Assembly is $21.55 and Part #6-406-00, Filter Connector / Randomizer Tube Kit, is $7.53. Not at that site, but Google Shopping showed Part #6-409-00, Center Chamber Rear'y as low as $39. All these prices are as of this post.
Ahh didnt think of the magic eraser. You are correct about it being the least abbrasive. I use it for fine scratches on my truck, Glad to hear you got her going again.
Thanks for the parts tips.
Glad to hear you got her going again. Thanks for the parts tips.
It may be the hose (if you've stored it coiled for the winter). I stored mine tightly coiled up in a garbage can, and next spring it would do nothing but coil itself up in the pool. After much dorking with the robot's internals, pistons, randomizer ball and the like, I gave up in disgust and bought a new one. Put in the new robot with the old hoses and it did the same thing. I had wondered if the prob might be the hose originally, but everyone here was so fixed on it being the robot, that I hadn't thought much on it. So now I put in the new hose and voila, things worked, no more coiling in circles. Apparently, some people have that problem with the hose when everything is new and the hose is coiled in the box. If you suspect this, the cure apparently is to leave the hose stretched out straight on a warm/hot day.
Our polaris 65 is squirting out 3 holes instead 2. It is sitting idle in the pool. We have done all that was listed above in the posts. Any other suggestions?
thankyou to wolfmarsh...after taking the top off the polaris it was an obvious fix, the feed hose had come off the water inlet to the direction control piston.....NOT A PENNY SPENT!!!! thanks! just put a couple of stainless steel clamps on both ends(one side had plastic tie) and it's swimming and turning...great site glad i joined never had a pool....great fun...
doglover said:
Sounds like that little plastic ball is not going into position. Run it with the cover off to see if it works correctly. My bet the ball gets stuck causing your problem. Could be a obstruction in the chamber. Check to see if all parts are back together correctly. Hope this helps, Might want to try giving it another quick sanding while you have it opened up. The white plastic plunger that spins should spin freely. Look for it intermittantly stopping as well.
First off, it's great this forum exists! Thanks to all the "fixers" who take the time to share their experience with the rest of us. My Polaris 65 is also going in circles. When I opened it, I saw the "white plastic plunger" IS NOT spinning all the time. It stops when going away from the input, and starts again after it has gone all the way "in" and gets back out a few inches. Judging from the last part of Pool creetin's comments in March, 2010, the plunger should spin at ALL times. Earlier posts suggested using very light sandpaper until it spins freely. My question is whether or not I can use a silicone (or similar) lubricant on the plunger and the seals. Thanks!
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When I hook up the Polaris the pressure is causing my filter to leak. Any suggestions? Thank you!
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