Robotic pool cleaner for large debris

[look30]

Hi TFP , firstly thank you for the wealth of knowledge everybody is adding to this great site, it allowed me to save my "green monster" pool last year and taking over the pool maintenance without any issues .
Now I have a new challenge, just bought the house with pool and in the backyard I have a lot of treen with large leaves and also seed pods , three is called American sweet gum Tree and produces large quantity of seed pods , brown spiky spheres, which are clogging the current pool robot and requires me to constantly take it out of the water to unclog. My current cleaner is Zodiac Automatic In Ground Pool Cleaner | MX6 and it's completely useless unless I pretty much take all debris out by hand.
Is there a better robot who can deal with this kind of issues ?

Attached is an article about the seed pods : Fish Out of Water: Day 11: Evil Tree Seed Pods

 

[duraleigh]

Your best bet is to cut down that worthless gum tree.

I don't think you can find a cleaner capable of keeping up with the mess they can make.....experience speaking and I am serious.

 

[Jimrahbe]

30,

Welcome to TFP... A great place to find the answers to all of your "Firstly" pool maintenance questions...

Pools and trees don't mix well in general, and gum trees in particular.

I agree with Dave, you will not be able to find a cleaner that will solve your gum tree problem.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Sweet gum trees are great for making hardwood lumber....find a local saw mill and ask if anyone would like to come by and give their chainsaw skills some practice...

 

[look30]

Unfortunately the trees are on city property and cutting them is a no go.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Mesh pool cover during the heavy leaf-fall periods. Catch the leaves, and drag them out of the pool before they drop to the bottom.

There’s also a great picture of a modified, garden hose driven leaf bagger by @PoolguyinCT ... maybe he can drop in with a picture....

The downside of all proposals - back to manual leaf cleaning.

 

[PoolguyinCT]

Joyful, is referencing my Zeafzilla !!
It Purées leaves, pine cones branches and squirrels.

It’s a pv2100 , bigger and badder than a hammerhead vac. 35lbs of thrust - pools above were loaded 6” thick wall to wall, debris removed in less than an hour.

Custom debris bag - laundry sack, bungee cord, tennis balls and a few zip ties.

A garden hose leaf toy would have taken a 40 days and 40 nights to clean these pools.

 

[PoolguyinCT]

 

[PoolguyinCT]

 

[JoyfulNoise]

What did you do with all that debris...start a compost pile? $900 new....yeah, that’s a pro tool but it sure looks like fun to play with

 

[PoolguyinCT]

900 is retail public price. The funny thing is it needs a bullet proof pole to the tune of $180.
I’m trying to sweet talk my way to a “try me” stainless steel impeller, but those things look scary. I like having 10 fingers!

Flat rate debris removal - priceless! Everybody is happy.

& you are right it is bizarrely enjoyable, leaf scooping is the most thankless and hardest job to to make money on, once you really consider the man hours with nets and poles the bill adds up too fast!

Normally debris get dumped into a laundry basket & hauled to woods.

At a real high end property, debris get hauled off and tossed in my dumpster.

 

[look30]

Mesh pool cover during the heavy leaf-fall periods. Catch the leaves, and drag them out of the pool before they drop to the bottom.
.

Looks like the only viable option is a net . I tried to vacuum today and almost killed the pump... darn trees.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

If the tree limbs cross your property line, you are legally entitled to trim them back without needing city approval. Typically you’d only be liable if you trimmed the tree so hard that it died and that’s usually only a case of liability between adjacent homeowners. The city might not give a hoot if the tree lives or dies. A licensed arborist could easily tell you how much could be trimmed backed to reduce litter onto your property.

Just a thought, FWIW....

 

[PoolguyinCT]

Sounds like these trees need a copper sulfate suppository.

 

[YippeeSkippy]

Skippy curses the gum ball trees in our land furiously! Makes walking barefoot pure misery. I would definitely trim back anything hanging over my yard if possible.

Maddie

 

[bmoreswim]

I was about to type the "branches above your property" line but Matt beat me to it. Sounds like you would have been happier had the city chosen the fruitless sweetgum tree (Liquidambar styraciflua 'Rotundiloba') instead. That's what I planted in my front yard. Interestingly, the leaves are not pointed but rounded. Though it's not quite as colorful as the prickly version.

Someone down the road had property that bordered another property which had old white pines very close to their joint property border. He had a tree service go right up the entire row of trees and make them practically one-sided.

 

[jdlangley1]

Depending on where you live, check out katchakid leaf covers. We have one and it is amazing. They measure and custom make on site.

 

[keene3b07]

are the seeds bigger than the mouth on an dolphin?

 

[look30]

are the seeds bigger than the mouth on an dolphin?

Yup , dunno about dolphin but they're just enough to mess up everything.

 

[Rancho Cost-a-Lotta]

A leaf bagger might work. Nothing like a Leaf-zilla or whatever that thing is, but it does get the job done. It hooks up to a regular garden hose and uses water pressure to push debris into the bag. It works well for me.