Pool deck vacuum / sweeper

coolinthepool

Well-known member
May 8, 2019
94
Fishers, IN
Hey, all! Boy is this a hard one to google, because it either brings up pool vacuum results or industrial floor sweepers. :)

Want to be clear that I'm not talking about deep cleaning (power washing), I'm talking about daily maintenance.

I'm looking for recommendations for a walk behind concrete pool deck sweeper / vacuum. Like many, I'm sure, my in ground pool is surrounded by a lot of stamped concrete (more sqft than my house and also wraps around my house and pool house via continuous sidewalks). That stamped concrete is surrounded by landscaped garden beds. Initially when I moved in, those garden beds were in disarray and so I just used a blower to blow everything off the deck. Even this was frustrating to no end, because I have four mature trees on each corner of my pool. When it rains, my deck is covered in stuff, and the blower, as powerful as it is, can't direct everything well enough. Now all of my garden beds are cleaned up and I can't have dirt and debris blowing into them, so I'm on the lookout for a residential outdoor sweeper. Automated would be the dream, but I think I'm a few years early for something that's heavy duty and reliable enough, plus I have kids to do that ;). It does not need to be battery powered, I have plugs everywhere. It can be though. I also see there are powerless ones that just require pushing. I'm open to that, if they actually work.

So what are y'all's experiences? Surely I'm not the only one who doesn't have a bare field around their pool.
 
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outdoor vacuum for leaves

Use that term in your search engine. I got lots of hits.
Ah, So I did that and get a lot of handheld leaf sucker / vacuum type tools. These look great, but I've got one and it doesn't pick up stuff that's a bit stuck to the concrete. One option I have found is a manufacturer called "Karcher". I guess something like this Hoover sweeper as well.
 
Believe it or not, I have actually run my Roomba outside on my deck. I did it for fun a few times and it worked great. Now that I think about it I need to consider putting one there permanantly.

I just need to buy one with the advanced mapping feature. Since there really is only serveral sections that I care about.

But I would love to have a better answer than the broom and dustpan I use now and hate.
 
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Believe it or not, I have actually run my Roomba outside on my deck. I did it for fun a few times and it worked great. Now that I think about it I need to consider putting one there permanantly.

I just need to buy one with the advanced mapping feature. Since there really is only serveral sections that I care about.

But I would love to have a better answer than the broom and dustpan I use now and hate.
I’ve considered the same. I just get so many leaves from my trees, it’d fill up in no time or get clogged. I just spent an hour push brooming and dust panning and covered about a quarter of the space. This is no way to get along.
 

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Get a blower/vacuum combination rather than just a blower. That will suck up and mulch into a bag anything relatively loose on the deck, which it sounds like most of what you are dealing with is.
 
Billy Goat offerings are the only thing I could say are worth the $$.

Dang, that looks really nice. I ordered a $200 option, which I suspect might be underwhelming. If that fails to impress, I may seriously consider one of these bad boys.
 
Update, I’m giving the Karcher S4 Twin a shot. We’ll see how well it does. I’m skeptical. Karcher S 4 Twin Push Sweeper-1.766-361.0 - The Home Depot
Can we get an update on how the Karcher is doing? I have lots of area to clean and using a blower around the pool inevitably gets tons of debris in the pool. The reviews for the Karcher suggest that it is good indoors in a shop area, but not so good outdoors. I am not so much concerned about leaves because I can blow those around but for small stuff, the Karcher looks like it might do the job.
 
I took a chance and bought the Karcher S4 Twin push sweeper from Amazon for $144.00. I am overall very happy with its performance. It works extremely well on smooth surfaces. It picks up all sorts of fine dirt and debris. Capacity is not huge so I would not recommend it for fall leaves or large amounts of debris. It generally takes several passes to clean an area and it is not terribly maneuverable so it works best on open areas without obstructions. It is lightweight and easy to push. The basket is easy to pull off and empty.

I was originally looking for a push vacuum that could be used in place of a blower for cleaning off areas next to the pool to avoid blowing debris into the pool. Such things exist but the only ones I saw are very expensive, big machines. This is not a vacuum but a push-powered sweeper. It only works when pushing straight ahead. I have used it for cleaning off my sidewalk and patio after edging the grass and it does a great job but it does take several passes to get everything. It also has to be emptied several times in the process as it fills up. I still need to use the blower if I want the surface to be super clean, but there is very little left for the blower to do after using this.

Using the blower without using the sweeper first kicks up dust and debris back into my face and is difficult to control. The sweeper is quiet and easy to use and doesn't kick up any dust. Some of the Amazon reviews wished it was heavier duty. The problem is that heavy duty means heavy and more expensive. I'll have to see how this holds up, but I like the lightweight fold-up design that doesn't take up too much space in my garage.
 
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