Old Pool Needs A New Cleaner

[DJ TonyT]

Hi there....I am new so please be patient with me.

I have an old in ground pool built about 1969...the pool is in really good shape to be the age it is. I want to add a cleaner now that the kids a grown, no one really wants to keep it clean. I have been looking the Polaris 360 which is the model that works off of the return without a booster pump. My pool has three returns. Each return is kinda small I guess they all three are 1/2 inch inside the hole. From what I can tell looking at the Polaris website I need a return that is at least 1 inch inside the hole or pipe.

Can someone help me understand how I can make this work or is it impossible and I should be looking at a different cleaner.

Thanks for your time and I look forward to some advice......

[drip]

The 360 would not be a good idea, it would probably not work very well on a 1/2 inch line and they need all the help they can get anyway. My recommendation would be a "robotic" cleaner, it just plugs into 110 gets dropped down to 24 volts at the control box for it and most of them do a really good job of cleaning the pool. I've only had experience with the Dolphin and it works very good.

[muss51]

I would personally recommend a polaris 380 or 180. Both are great but require a booster pump. I have nothing against robots but I have found that repairing them can be costly. Also, this is only a personal preference, I dont want anything in my pool that plugs into a wall. Makes me nervous.

[Discountpoolspa]

Any return side cleaner will require a single, dedicated return line in the pool. They are not going to work properly if they are sharing water flow with other pool returns. The polaris 360 does not require a booster pump, and works well, but it will still need a dedicated line coming from the equipment. The 280 and 380 work excellent, but will need that dedicated line plus a booster pump at the equipment.

If you don't have large debris, such as large leaves, a suction side cleaner could be connected to the skimmer, or to a dedicated suction line (if there is one). Otherwise, without major work, the robotic cleaner will be your best option, as it doesn't require any plumbing at all.