Purchased home, got free pool... need a new pool cleaner

reubjames

Member
Feb 5, 2025
8
Mountain City Texas
Pool Size
15000
Surface
Plaster
Chlorine
Liquid Chlorine
We purchased a new (to us, 1984 build) home this month in Central Texas (just south of Austin). I wasn't looking for a pool but the right home came along and it happened to include a pool so now we are first-time pool owners. I'm what I would consider a fairly well capable DIYer so I certainly plan on doing the pool upkeep, repairs, etc. myself.

The pool is a 15,000 gal plaster in-ground kidney with a Pentair FNSP 60 DE filter, Pentair 320 Chlorine tablet dispenser (I plan on going to liquid chlorine asap), and 1HP Sta-Rite circulation pump on an old-school mechanical timer (currently broken so the pump is running 24/7 until I can fix that). Water is clear and chemistry levels are in range for the time being. In addition to the circulation equipment, the pool is plumbed for a cleaner system. It has the port at the water line for a pressure side cleaner. There is a dead Pentair Boost-Rite 1hp booster pump in the pump room as well as an equally dead 3 wheeled Polaris pool cleaner (model Uknown since the decals are long worn off). The Polaris clearly lived a long hard life. It's body is full of holes from repeated scraping the plaster and it's got loose parts. Not even sure it's complete so I don't expect it's worth salvaging.

I'm getting a lot of dirt settling at the bottom. I expect from the dust in the air in Texas this year. I've been sweeping it into the main drain and it seems to be slowly filtering it out although it appears to be redistributing into the pool overnight. Could be more dust, or could be the filter isn't working properly and the dust I sweep into the main drain is recirculating back to the pool. Filter is reading about 10psi currently so it's either clean or not working. I have not opened the filter housing yet. It's on my list to open the housing, clean the DE screens, and reapply DE to the filter then I know the status of the filter.

So here is my question. I'd like to get the cleaner system working on the pool to assist me in removing this dirt. Is it worth replacing both the booster pump and Polaris with the same products or should I be considering some other options for the pool since the entire cleaner system is toast? Electrical, pressure side, suction side, cordless, wifi... so many options.

Thanks for the advice.

Reuben.
 
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😂🤣😂 Sorry, “free pool”, couldn’t help myself. I am by no means an expert”expert” but grew up w a pool and have built, installed and maintain my current pooo for the last 5 years. My research has lead me to this informstion… opinions may vary:

1. When building it is good/helpful to have the plumbing and hardware for a pressure side cleaner as it provides options.

2. It seems as if MOST people are happier w their “bots”. I just switched from a pressure side to a bot myself.

3. If u already have the plumbing, but the hardware doesn’t work, and ur looking at a $1,000 investment anyway… MY recommendation would be go Bot.

Be careful with the high density cleaning. Maybe manually suction out the majority of any dirt debris so u don’t overload ur brand new toy.
 
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😂🤣😂 Sorry, “free pool”, couldn’t help myself. I am by no means an expert”expert” but grew up w a pool and have built, installed and maintain my current pooo for the last 5 years. My research has lead me to this informstion… opinions may vary:

1. When building it is good/helpful to have the plumbing and hardware for a pressure side cleaner as it provides options.

2. It seems as if MOST people are happier w their “bots”. I just switched from a pressure side to a bot myself.

3. If u already have the plumbing, but the hardware doesn’t work, and ur looking at a $1,000 investment anyway… MY recommendation would be go Bot.

Be careful with the high density cleaning. Maybe manually suction out the majority of any dirt debris so u don’t overload ur brand new toy.
Oh yeah I figured that might get some laughs. I'm under no delusion that it will be cheap to maintain and operate. Although we weren't specifically shopping for a house with a pool, I'm always up for a challenge and we're really looking forward to using it this summer.

Opinons certainly seem to vary. After reading all the links PoolStored posted it's clear that there are strong opinions both ways. I'm leaning towards a bot at this point, since as you mentioned, I'd be looking at around $1k to replace both the booster pump and cleaner anyway. I can always fall back on a system like that in a few years if I just hate the bot.

The previous owner didn't leave anything besides the bolted down equipment, so I've been buying nets, brushes, poles, etc. I'll look at a manual vacuum attachment for my pole that goes into the skimmer port to help with the initial cleanout so I don't overload the bot.

Sounds like my next priority is to make sure that DE filter is working properly.
 
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