Whether it’s winter or summer, your pool has to be maintained year round. But if you’ve ventured to any pool supplies shop or browsed our online Pool Cleaners products, you’ll have seen there’s a lot of different kinds of pool cleaners around. And if you know little about these contraptions you might be wondering: which type is best for you?
If you’re trying to get your head around a pool cleaner, here’s our review of manual, automatic, and robotic cleaners. Hopefully after going through each option you’ll have a much better understanding of which gadget best suits your pool.
MANUAL POOL CLEANERS
Manual vacuum cleaners are your first option. They’re effective and the least expensive. But there’s one huge downside: they’re time-consuming. A manual cleaner translates to you doing the work. There’s absolutely no self-cleaning so you have to take care of everything, including guiding the machine around the pool.
The cleaner comprises a vacuum head fitted to a telepole. The whole contraption then connects to a skimmer box. It’s efficient and affordable – but you’ll have to expect to put in some elbow grease to get the job done.
AUTOMATIC POOL CLEANERS
Automatic pool cleaning is all about convenience. When you use automatic cleaners, you won’t need to brush, vacuum and skim the pool all that much yourself. That doesn’t mean you’ll never have to lift a finger: you’ll need to fit the device up to the pool yourself. But you can expect to spend less time cleaning and more time swimming.
There are two types of automatic pool cleaners;
Suction-side cleaners
Suction cleaners are attached with a hose to the pool’s circulation system and strain the water through the pool’s skimmer basket and filter. The machine moves around the bottom of the pool and sometimes up the walls vacuuming up debris and dirt.
Pools that receive dust and smaller particles are most suited for suction-side cleaning. You may need a leaf canister if you have to deal with branches, gumnuts, or eucalyptus leaves.
Pressure-side cleaners
These cleaners use pressure to move around the pool’s bottom and walls. Since they have their own filter bag, they reduce wear and tear on your pool filter.
The pressure-side cleaner will be most valuable in pools that receive larger debris such as twigs, gumnuts, and eucalyptus leaves. Although some pressure-side cleaners operate on their own, others require a separate booster pump to work better.
ROBOTIC POOL CLEANERS
Do you love seeing all the work done for you while you just sit poolside with an iced tea and soak up the sun? These days nobody would even consider having a pool without an Automatic Pool Cleaner. They are simply affordable and take a tedious and repetitive work off your hands.
However, many pool owners don't realize that there is an even better solution: Robotic Pool Cleaners. Simply put, robotic pool cleaners are the next level. If you owned one, you wouldn't go back to an Automatic or Suction Cleaner. You would ask yourself why you had not purchased one sooner.
Robotic Pool Cleaners not only look very impressive, but they do a better job and require even less attention. They are intelligent, diligent and work independently.
Given their durability and efficiency, they are an excellent value for money as they deliver savings on the energy, water and pool chemical bills. There might be a bigger investment at first - when compared to a suction or an automatic pool cleaner - but the benefits outweight the extra investment.
Save on power: Robots work independently from the pools filtration system, eliminating the need to pump water through meters of piping for filtering.
Save on water: Robots filter the water themselves, reducing clogging in the pool filtration system which translates in less backwashes.
Save on chemicals: Robots remove the dirt and debris rather than storing in the pools filtration system which otherwise produces cloudier water that requires chemicals to control.
· They are by far the most efficient and effective pool cleaners. They can handle any kind of debris, vacuuming it directly into its own filter.
· Plus they have their own smart technology that helps them master any shape or sized pool. Their movements can be programmed so they manoeuvre over all areas of the pool, leaving no surface untouched.
· Not only does this robotic cleaner help you with pool cleanliness, it also helps circulate water, guaranteeing a fresher swim.
· But for these extra benefits, there is of course a price. Robotic cleaners are the highest end pool cleaner there is, popular for commercial pools, larger private swimming pools or for customers who just want the best of the best. And that does mean a higher price tag.
Happy Swimming!