Remedy for a filthy waterline

[Charlie Bezzina]

Hello tfpers

I'm at a loss as to how I can keep my waterline clean. The nearby trees are constantly dropping their parts and all the flowers and pollen clinging to the walls are staining the grout.

Scrubbing with a brush does loosen some of it but the flowers and pollen are too fine for the pool net to pick up and it just travels straight back on to the wall before the skimmer can do anything about it.

Does anyone have any recommendations for getting this rubbish out of my pool easily?

 

[wireform]

Here in the states we have robotic cleaners made by Matornics and others that have a "clean waterline" only setting, that keeps the robot climbing and maintaining the waterline without the pool floor.

 

[Charlie Bezzina]

Thanks wireform.

I have a robot and It does not perform as well as I would have expected given how much it cost.

First problem is that it can't manage to climb all the way up to my waterline, or even climb the stairs to seating and shelf areas.

Second problem is that it does not capture the fine stuff like dirt or pollen, so even cleaning the bottom of the pool is less than satisfactory.

Unfortunately I need to find another way.

 

[Cena_sea]

Can you adjust your robot? Our vacuum robot started out always climbing the walls and staying at the waterline tile. Less on the ground. I adjusted a nozzle near where it’s plugged to slow it down and spend more time on the ground.

Ours is left in the pool and programmed to run once daily but can be run at multiple times. So far I really like it’s cleaning ability. Yours should be able to pick up dirt. I also like the paint can skimmer socks to use in the skimmer for debris.

For the spa I bought a rechargeable wand vacuum I don’t really recommend because to me it seems pretty weak but I guess it works because it does pick up dirt and all the debris I want it to. Its battery life is short which is ok for a spa but not a pool.

 

[Charlie Bezzina]

Hi Cena, I do wish there were a way to get the robot to do a reasonable job but there are no adjustable ports or anything.

You say you would not recommend that wand vacuum to clean a pool, but do you think it could manage just the waterline?

 

[Cena_sea]

Looking at your pic, this would bother me too.

I’ve never tried to clean at the waterline with the wand vacuum. It can be completely submerged but it would need to be tilted upwards as the main section needs to be kept underwater. It might be sucking in air vs water.

I was initially directed to a manual spa pump wand cleaner without any electric option (was looking at Polaris brand) and those might work better for you.

I too was looking for handheld skimming nets with smaller mesh but the ones I bought online based on reviews have the same size mesh netting. I did think about double netting to try and make it catch finer particles but haven’t tried yet. Or I can try fitting a paint skimmer bag over the skimming net. That might help with catching particles.

 

[Charlie Bezzina]

I called a local pool shop today to see if they could help. The lady suggested that I mix some chlorine powder with water to make a paste, paint that over the stained grout and leave it for 24 hours to do it's work.

Does this sound reasonable?

Now that I think about it, I'm not quite sure what kind of chlorine powder she was referring to, I simply assumed she meant 65% Cal hypo which I already have.

 

[Charlie Bezzina]

Cena, thanks for info about the hand vac. I was looking around to buy one, but it sounds like it won't work well in this situation. You've saved me wasting quite a few dollars.

I may need to buy some fine mesh fabric and make my own custom net for my leaf rake.

 

[BowserB]

Charles, I'm not familiar with your robot model, but my Maytronics has two different filter types available. The finer one is like the material in a cartridge pool filter and seems to catch everything including the fine Sahara dust that flies over the Atlantic Ocean and falls in the coastal southern U.S. My robot has a wall cleaning feature but barely hits the water line. I run it once a week--never left in the pool--and before each run I walk around the pool and brush the water line (also the steps and ledge) to give it a head start. Of course, that's just once a week and would do well for an ongoing deposit issue.

 

[Darin]

I put iron-out in an old sock and scrub my water line. Works good. A little elbow grease usually works better, and is a lot cheaper, and probably faster.

 

[Cena_sea]

Hi.

I did put a paint strainer bag (one gallon) over a handheld skimmer net and it seems to work so that could to create a more finer net.

This would be easier than a handheld wand vac because cleaning the mesh filter inside can be a pain etc…you could easily dispose of the paint bags when done. Or clean and reuse.

The vacuum wand is fine for cleaning debris and dirt off of the spa floor and benches but mine could not do waterline easily.

 

[Mike1162]

Does anyone have any recommendations for getting this rubbish out of my pool easily?

Try using a garden hose & nozzle to spray the rubbish off the water line & then towards the skimmer. It should work well if the rubbish is buoyant enough to stay on the surface of the water.