Owning a pool comes with several responsibilities, and many pool owners have a lot of questions in the beginning. From everything to do with water balance and chemicals, to which maintenance products to use. However, there is one question that almost every customer asks.
The short answer – it depends on your situation. It’s all going to boil down to which features you want, what your current pool set up is, how much you are willing to spend now and in the future, and how much of an effort you want to put in to using the cleaner. There are 3 main types of automatic pool cleaners: Pressure Pool Cleaner, Suction Side, and Robotic. Let’s go deeper into each one.
There are two types of pressure side pool cleaners, one requires a booster pump in order to work, the other runs strictly off of your main circulation pump. There are many different manufacturers of pressure side cleaners, the most common ones being Polaris and Pentair. Hayward recently released their pressure side cleaner the Trivac, and a company called Red Leopard makes the Mercury pressure side cleaner.
Polaris has a full range of pressure side cleaners, from entry level to top of the line. Most manufacturers will offer pretty significant rebates during the summer season, and will sometimes offer extended manufacturer's warranties (Standard warranty 1yr) when purchased through a local brick & mortar pool supply store, like The Pool Boys in League City, TX.
All cleaners should be taken out of the pool when shocking, as well as periodically to rinse off chemical water. The reality is that no one takes these steps and generally leave them in the pool 24/7 to run their daily schedules. This means you aren’t messing with the cleaner very often, other than to empty debris out of the bag.
Pressure side cleaner parts are usually less expensive when it comes to repairs. If you take care of your cleaner and get things repaired when needed the upkeep is fairly inexpensive. If you let problems go unattended it will generally lead to more problems and costly repairs.
Parts are widely available.
Some manufacturers offer large rebates and extended warranties.
Cost of a pressure side cleaner is usually less expensive than a robotic cleaner. (Although, when you add in the cost of a pressure pump to run it, they start to compare to robotic cleaner costs).