Vacuum 101

[floridaswimming]

Hi! I’m new here. I tried searching but didn’t see an appropriate answer within the first few pages of results, though I imagine this has been answered countless times.

I bought a house two years ago and a Polaris 360 pressure-side cleaner came with the pool. When it works, it works. However, we have had to make numerous repairs on it - hoses, belts, etc, etc... Now it’s not moving again, even though the water pressure is fine.

Is it common to have to make several repairs over the course of two years? We’d assumed, since there is no motor to actually die, etc, that it made sense to just replace the parts. Now we aren’t so sure... Is this normal? Is it time to get a new vacuum? I don’t know how old this particular model is. Any personal experience appreciated.

 

[Newdude]

Technology has made it all obsolete. Sure you can repair away all you like, but at some point its just throwing good money at bad equipment. Or then the booster pump goes. About $700 gets the best bang for the buck robot (Dolphin S200). You can spend alot more to get bells and whistles like Bluetooth controls to drive it like an RC car, but the whole purpose of any cleaner is to throw it in the pool and walk away.

 

[Homebrewale]

There is a rebuild kit for the 360 that replaces everything but the frame. I rebuilt my 360 once. When it was not functioning very well to start this season, I decided to get the Pentair Warrior SI which is the same as the Dolphin S200 that Newdude recommended. It works so much better than the 360. I'm holding on to the 360 as a backup but I doubt it will be used again.