Automatic Cleaners, Continued

Pressure Side Cleaners


A pressure side cleaner uses either water provided by the pool pump or a smaller booster pump to move about and accomplish it's job.


Arneson Pool Sweep

One of the first pressure side systems that I knew of was called an Arneson Pool Sweep. Anthony Pools in the 1960's and 1970's used this pool cleaner almost exclusively in the pools they built. This cleaner had a floating water propelled head to which several tentacle-like plastic tubes dangled down onto the floor of the pool, which in turn stirred up the dirt on the bottom of the pool, it did clean the pool to a degree, but not as well as the Master Pool system.


Jandy Porpoise

Another pressure side cleaner that was popular during the 1980's and early 1990's was the Jandy Porpoise, this device was usually driven by a ½ horsepower booster pump. This device was attached to a long hose that ran back to a fitting on the side of the pool. This cleaner had the fastest underwater speed of any automatic cleaner, it did indeed move around the pool like a porpoise. A stream of water came out the back of the device to propel it forward. There was a short whip attached, as well as jetted connectors placed every three feet, to hold the sections of the trailing feed hose together, and help stir up the dirt and debris, unfortunately for all of it's high speed activity, it did not do a very good job, but was better than nothing. Because of it's high rate of speed, the outer edges and head ball wore down quickly. Jandy did make a version of the Porpoise that did not have a booster pump, it ran by having a valve just after the pool pump, diverting unfiltered water to the cleaner. This type of Jandy cleaner never had enough pressure to work properly, and just put dirty water back into the pool, like the Paddock Pool's pop-up system did earlier.

A lot of my customers enjoyed watching the Jandy Porpoise move around the pool, and resisted my attempts to change them over to the best pressure side cleaner, the Polaris cleaner.


Polaris

The Polaris line of pressure side cleaners were the first pressure side cleaner that really made a noticeable difference as far as saving time and effort for the pool owner or service professional. Of all the pools that I had on my service route , the pools that I had been able to convert over to the Polaris pressure side cleaner, were always in good shape when I showed up and almost never needed to be vacuumed! Let me tell you I was really happy with that cleaner!

However, even this cleaner had some downsides. It was really finicky to set up. It was driven by a jet of water turning a water wheel type of turbine located near the center of the device. This jet of water picked dirt and debris up off of the pool's floor and deposited it into a net type bag on top of the device. It also had a rear facing jet as well, with three large wheels that were driven by the turbine.

As I have stated before, one of the problems with this cleaner was that was really finicky to initially set up. Getting everything balanced just right so it could climb walls was a pain. There was a float attached that had to be adjusted forward and backward to keep the nose of the device down, otherwise it liked to move forward with it's nose in the upward position.

There was also an adjustable rear jet that had be set just so, in order for the Polaris to be able to climb out of the deep end of the pool, if this jet was not pointing in the right direction then it would make continuous circles and never climb out. Annoyingly, customers would often make their own adjustments, throwing everything out of whack.

Another big problem with the Polaris was the tail whip, in order for it to be able to swing back and forth to deliver a sufficient jet of water to stir up dirt, the tail whip had to be fed a certain amount of water, as the cleaner climbed to the top of the pool wall and reached the line of tile, it would turn itself over to go back down into the pool, spraying water simultaneously into the air, from the tail whip, often times getting the decks wet as well as windows, and Arcadia doors. Sometimes, customers or I would be standing alongside the pool and be startled by the squirt. Polaris tried to address that problem by making a weight for that tail whip, but that slowed down the cleaning action tremendously, I never really found a solution to that problem. The best I could do is to never install a Polaris in a pool that was too close to the house.



Suction Side Cleaners


Kreepy Krauly

The Kreepy Krauly was the first automatic suction side cleaner. It was developed in 1974 by a South African father and son team, an hydraulics engineer by the name of Ferdinand Chauvier and his son, Daniel. Several million of these Kreepys have been sold internationally, Ferdinand Chauvier died in 1985. His son Daniel sold the company to PacFab which later became Pentair Pool Products.

When I saw this device for the first time I thought that it looked like some science fiction, alien type of life form. It still looks weird to me, and the name fits. Kreepy Krauly. The device moves about driven forward by a diaphragm that momentarily shuts of all the water that is flowing through it and snapping or perhaps vibrating the device forward, it does this more than several times a second. This device is big, noisy and ugly, but it does clean a pool and it has only one moving part! However, it will not clean steps, or the love seat area. At times, it will get stuck in a corner, wedge itself somewhere, or it will sometimes adhere to a wall that is uneven. When it adheres to a wall, the pump may be starved for water unless a special valve has been installed at the skimmer.

This cleaner has a very bad habit of wanting to come out and above the pool surface to start sucking air, and then not wanting to go back down until the whole hose and pipe running back to the pump is full of air! Once the pump loses its water, then the device sinks back into the pool, and the poor pump churns away trying to pull water from that great distance. Sometimes, it fails to draw water and overheats. At a minimum, there will be distortions in the pump housing or suction side piping causing air suction leaks. So the upshot here is that this is a cleaner that works, however, it will need to be continuously monitored when in use.

Not many pool service professionals install this type cleaner because of the headaches that come along with it. It is just too unwieldy. The majority of these devices are purchased by the pool owners themselves and just placed in the skimmer. My customers from time to time have purchased this cleaner without consulting me. I have had to ask them to take it back. If they refuse, I list for them the problems that will occur. If they still insist on keeping the device I had to let them go. Sometimes, the skimmer is shut down permanently by the customers action, and the pool owners neglect to remove the device once the cleaning job is finished. There are plastic covers that have been developed that cover the skimmer basket to which the 'Kreepy” can be attached, whereby the flow rate from either the Kreepy or the skimmer can be regulated, but they are not commonly seen and don't work very well.

I have complained to the Kreepy Krauly field representative about the device slowing down or stopping the skimming action altogether due to regularly improper installation by pool owners and received the retort: “Well you can't have everything! Which segways into my biggest gripe about all suction side cleaners and that is that they slow down the total circulation of the swimming pool. When you ask the pool pump to drive one of these devices that is the result.

The work around has been to install a dedicated line for these devices that runs back to the pool pump. By installing a Jandy 3-Way valve just in front of the pool's pump, you can easily control the amount of water that is coming from the suction side cleaner and how much water is coming from the skimmer. You can if you wish, turn the skimmer completely off and have all the water pulled from the cleaner or completely shut off the cleaner and have all the water pulled from the skimmer. This is a workable solution for all the suction side cleaners.


Hayward Pool Vac

The other suction side cleaner that I am going to talk about is the Hayward Pool Vac, originally called the Arneson Pool Vac. This is the best of the suction side pool cleaners. It is driven by a turbine located near the center of the device, just above the intake orifice. As the turbine spins the internal mechanism drives toggling foot pads or pods that rock back and forth very quickly and enable the device to move forward. Assuming that you have enough suction from your pump this device really cleans up the pool nicely. I always liked to install a in-line leaf canister with this cleaner, since doing that increased it's ability to clean up a really messy pool. If this device is installed on a pool that has a strong pump and if that pool has a dedicated line for the Hayward Pool Vac, I do not have any reservations in recommending this cleaner. Just be sure to install a in-line leaf canister to catch the leaves and debris before thy get to the pump.

Some things to be aware of here is that small rocks can be sucked up by the Hayward Pool Vac, either plugging or jamming up the turbine. So if the cleaner suddenly stops working, that is the first place you want to look. Also,(and this goes for all the suction side cleaners), if the cleaner stops working or seems to have not a lot of energy, check the hose line for cracks or tears, the pump maybe pulling water from these holes instead of the cleaner.

Also the pipe running back to the pump may have become plugged with debris, this happens frequently when any suction side cleaner is used without a leaf canister attached. What happens in this case is that a twig or something similar gets stuck in the pipe inside of a pipe elbow and then smaller more pliable debris begin to wrap themselves around the twig or more rigid obstruction. This will continue until the flow to the pump has ceased.

I remember one time I got a call from a pool owner who already had a rotor rooter guy out who tried to clear out the skimmer line- to no avail. I brought my tank of carbon dioxide gas to blow out the line. As I blew out the line, quite a bit of garbage came out, but it wasn't completely clear. So, the customer and I resorted to using a toilet plunger, we took turns with it and after a few minutes, out pops a small toy car. It just goes to show you that sometimes a low tech solution works! That was the first and last time I had to use a toilet plunger on a swimming pool!

One last word on suction side cleaners: WARNING: Do not use your cleaner to clean a clean pool! Whew! In other words, don't run the cleaner all of the time. Just run it when the pool is dirty. It won't wear out as quickly.



Robotic Cleaners

Robotic cleaners are the newest thing on the market as far as automatic cleaners are concerned. They are driven by household current that has been converted to low voltage. Because these robotic cleaners have their own built-in filter, the use of the primary filter is reduced. If the pool pump is turned off, and after several hours, any suspended dirt particulates will have settled to the bottom of the pool, and then when the robotic cleaner is turned back on, the effect is enhanced and the primary filter's usage will be reduced further. These cleaners are able to be adjusted so that they can clean tile too.

Some of the robotic cleaners can be steered from poolside controls. The only downside here that I can see is that these cleaners are very expensive, up to $1400. The last point to remember here is that you can't avoid some work when you use any of these automatic cleaners. You will still need to clean and service the cleaner.