Suction cleaner for low flow

[Jeremy R]

I’m looking to find out which suction cleaner can work on the lowest water flow. Mostly a knowledge gathering exercise but the practical application would be to have cleaning action while running the pump at a lower speed and still allowing the skimmer to function. In a perfect world the cleaner would have some sort of scrubbing action. For the purpose of staying focused I’d like to exclude robots from this discussion.

I’ve noticed that some cleaners publish minimum requirements in their specs and others don’t. I have a suspicion that the ones that don’t publish that information are the ones that need a higher flow. I also recognize that real world performance doesn’t always perfectly match spec sheets.

 

[duraleigh]

On it's face, your idea seems a good one but I think it has a major flaw.

Pool Cleaners rely on flow to be effective......more flow=better cleaning. I don't think it's practical to search for a low-flow cleaner when it is the flow that cleans your pool. So the highest flow you can get in a pool cleaner will give you better results (including efficiency) virtually every time.

Now.......robots. I know you said not to include them but they will eventually dominate the market because they are the best at what they do. It would be difficult for me to suggest any pool cleaner other than a robot.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Jermery,

Since you have a VS pump and an automaton system, it seems to me your best approach would be to schedule a higher RPM, for a few hours a day to run the cleaner and then run at a lower RPM the rest of the time.

I agree with Dave, suction side cleaners need good flow to work, and I doubt the difference in the suction required between different models would amount to much savings in the electrical bill.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I get reasonably good cleaning with my Kreepy Krawly Sandshark and my VSP operating between 1800 and 2000 RPM. I do run a higher speed schedule for 1 hour per day at 2400rpm which really makes the cleaner move around the pool. Suction cleaners can work at low flow, they just work slower. So if you don’t mind leaving the cleaner and hose in the pool, there are several good membrane style cleaners like the sandshark from Pentair and the Barracuda G3 from Zodiac.

 

[Jeremy R]

On it's face, your idea seems a good one but I think it has a major flaw.

Pool Cleaners rely on flow to be effective......more flow=better cleaning. I don't think it's practical to search for a low-flow cleaner when it is the flow that cleans your pool. So the highest flow you can get in a pool cleaner will give you better results (including efficiency) virtually every time.

Now.......robots. I know you said not to include them but they will eventually dominate the market because they are the best at what they do. It would be difficult for me to suggest any pool cleaner other than a robot.

Point taken. The reason I ask is because some of the suction cleaners make it known that they work just as efficiently at lower flow, whereas some seem to completely avoid the subject. For example, I purchased and returned a Dorado. In order to get it to function I had to pretty much close my skimmer down ~80%. I have no problem with running the pump higher but if I have to close the skimmer down so much I basically lose skimming when I lower the pump speed. Unfortunately I don’t have automation on my vac/skimmer lines.

I would love to leave a cleaner in the pool all of the time and automate a higher pump speed for an hour or two a day but I need that skimmer to be effective the rest of the time.

The only reason that I’m holding off on a robot for now is to try to find something that doesn’t require any human interaction first.