Swimming Pool Cleaners – the different types and pros and cons

Pool maintenance is an important part of ensuring safe swimming, and protecting your investment. At times, pool maintenance can seem like a chore and can take away fun of having a swimming pool. Lately, homeowners are spoilt for choice when it comes to cleaning their swimming pools. They can hire a professional, can clean manually by themselves or use an in-floor automatic cleaning system. Manually cleaning the pool can be laborious and time consuming thus, investing in an automatic pool cleaner is a good idea. Invest in automatic swimming pool cleaners that filter away dirty water and steadily clean and remove debris from the pool throughout the day.

Various automatic pool cleaners are designed with pool filters, vacuum pumps and other features to remove leaves, insects, dirt and debris in the water. Though these cleaners have been around for decades, the recent technological advancements make them very efficient cleaners by helping pool owners spend more time enjoying their pool and less time cleaning.

Types Of Swimming Pool Cleaners, And How They Are Different

There are three types of automatic pool cleaners:
• Robotic pool cleaners;
• Pressure pool cleaners; and
• Suction cleaners

Automatic Pressure – Side Cleaners

This type is powered by water pressure coming from a pump that drives the cleaner around the pool, at the same time forcing the debris into the bag. You can use your main pool circulation pump or you can use a dedicated (booster) pump. Unlike robotic pool cleaners, Pressure Pool Cleaners use water pressure to pick up dirt and debris.

This cleaner is connected through a hose to the pool’s return line; it creates a circulation effect by pressurizing the water to flush dirt upwards into the cleaner, where debris is filtered. The most beneficial thing about this type of cleaner is that it doesn't suck debris and other stuff into your pools’ pump basket or filter thus allowing more cleaning time. These pressure cleaners have random cleaning patterns and have better ground cover than suction side cleaners – so potential obstacles such as slightly inclined areas and steps are easily cleaned.

Advantages:

• Has its own filtration bag, thus there is less stress on your filter
• Booster pump facilitates more powerful cleaning
• Suitable for pools where cleaning large debris is needed
• Facilitates more filtration because the cleaner tail stirs up fine debris

Disadvantages:

• Increased overall costs when you use a separate booster pump system
• Some cleaners cannot filter tiny debris in the built in bag
• Not very effective in cleaning the walls of the pool

If your pool is situated in an area where a lot of debris gets into your swimming pool, then a pressure-side pool cleaner is a good option.

Automatic Suction Cleaners

They are the most reliable and the “least work” types of cleaners. These cleaners rely on suction to move around and vacuum the floor of the pool. This has several advantages; when the cleaner is underwater sucking debris it is also draining the pool’s water through your filtration system allowing more water to be turned over in a short time. This type of swimming pool cleaner mainly cleans the bottom of your pool, however some suction cleaners can "scrub" or clean your pool walls by agitating themselves as they move around the pool. This can significantly reduce the number of times you need to brush your pool. Moreover, it can remove much finer particles than a Pressure Pool Cleaner (with a bag) since it sucks debris right into your filter. It is also a lot cheaper to install since you do not need to install any extra pumps or plumbing.

Advantages:

• Facilitates more circulation of water in the pool
• They act as scrubbers as they move around the pool walls and floor
• Easy to install: this cleaner doesn’t require extra parts to connect to your existing system, thus saving you cash
• The unit is generally lower cost

Disadvantages:

• All debris is passed directly to the filter, thus the pool pump needs to perform optimally well.
• You will need to clean the filter  (ie backwash it)
• It is not as suitable an option if your filter or pump is not very efficient.

Robotic Pool Cleaners

These pool cleaners run under their own power i.e. independent of your pool's filtration or pumping system. They are compact and self-contained robots that move around the pool sucking up debris and dirt at the same time also rotating rollers or brushes to scrub surfaces. They require electricity because they have an internal motor to power the suction and locomotion. Robotic swimming pool cleaners use a water-safe electrical cord which is plugged into to a transformer that converts the electricity to low voltage. Others operate on a rechargeable battery.

A unique feature about these swimming pool cleaners is that they have the ability to learn the pool shape and clean or cover the entire interior pool surface. Some even have can be remotely controlled. This gives you a chance to manoeuvre the cleaner to a specific spot for more detailed cleaning.

These pool cleaners are most suitable for cleaning small debris and silt or sand. It’s the only type of pool cleaner that not only scrubs the tile line but also the walls. It also plays a supplemental role water circulation in your pool because it has a powerful in-built pump. Though it is the most expensive type of swimming pool cleaner currently available on the market, it can be a great investment in the right circumstances.

Advantages:

• Extremely efficient at cleaning small debris and leaves
• Can clean the waterline tile
• Comes with a self contained filter
• Relieves your current filter system from extra stress

Disadvantages:

• More expensive than both suction and pressure-side cleaners
• You need to remove and insert the cleaner in/out of the pool

Choosing the right pool cleaner for your pool and requirements can be a bit daunting.  Please ask us if you need any assistance at all.