Last week, I thought I was a genius for a second. With the pool finally holding water like a champ, I decided I should treat it and so I went and bought a Polaris cleaner. I have always wanted one of these automated cleaners, they run around the pool and help clean the pool by agitating and sucking stuff up from the bottom (theoretically, they will also climb up walls). Once I saw them in the store, I was a bit hesitant, they had a limited selection and basically, they started at $500. The did have a really cheap one for $200, but I had bought one of those years ago for an above ground pool we had, and it was dinky and more like a toy.
This Polaris unit I chose is the real deal. It has the little wheels and works on the return side of the pump, meaning it gets connected where the water returns to the pool, so it is driven by water pressure. I did not take into account that our pump is as strong as it is, the little unit was hauling butt once I got it connected. It wasn't too hard to connect, right now, with my thought that I had a leak in the pool, I have been running the water to and from the pump and filter with big PVC pipes on top of the deck. I just connected a fitting that matched the one on the Polaris hose and it was ready to go. Instantly, the filter unit has a pressure gauge that I didn't even think worked because the needle had never moved, but it quickly went up and over to almost the max when I turned it on.
The set up initially was I had 1.5inch pipes just open at both ends going to and from the pool, so nothing was constricting the flow. Now, with the Polaris unit, it is severely constricting the water coming back into the pool and the pump and filter unit are feeling the effects. After a few hours running Friday, I didn't get a chance to run it Saturday or Sunday, I was beat and too tired to be out there after the banquet. I went outside yesterday to turn it on, my hesitation from running it and not being there is that it keeps getting tied up with the pipes that I added, which is making me think about trying to remove them and see if I can run the water back through the skimmer box and return lines in the wall, it now seems that the leak was in the wall cracks, not the plumbing.
Either way, I now also have to figure out where to get new O-rings for all my fittings where the pool connects to the PVC pipes. The increased pressure developed a few leaks I had not noticed before. I took apart those quick disconnect, they are designed to be easy to open, if the pump needs to be replaced, and I noticed the O-rings were full of cracks, one of the hot tubs O-rings even broke in half, it really needed to be replaced.
This may all seem like a lot of work, but if the water is going to hold, I still feel it is all worth it, I'll do whatever I have to if it means my pool will not look shitty.
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