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Suction Side Cleaner Pros

Suction pool cleaner do a good job of keeping your pool floor clean, especially since they sit so close to the surface.

They are generally less expensive than pressure side and robotic cleaners, although there are some higher priced models.

These cleaners run off of the suction from your main circulation pump and don’t require additional equipment, which means there is no real increase to your household electricity usage.

Suction cleaners are easy to repair and parts are fairly inexpensive.

As with pressure cleaners, suction 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. This means you aren’t messing with the cleaner very often.

Suction Side Cleaner Cons

This pool cleaner uses the suction from your main circulation pump to run. This means that you are taking suction away from your pool skimmers and main drain that is necessary to keep your pool water clear.

Your pool needs to have a dedicated line for suction cleaners. I have been to many pools where the customer previously purchased a suction cleaner because of the lower price, but did not have a dedicated line in their pool. Instead they plug the cleaner into the pool skimmer line, completely eliminating the skimmer from the pool circulation. Skimmers are important due to the fact that they circulate water efficiently and skim debris off of the pool surface.

They require A LOT of suction to work. This means that most customers are cutting off 75% of the suction from the skimmer/s and main drain to make their suction cleaner work well.

You should always use a leaf canister to catch debris before it enters the underground plumbing. Without a leaf canister you increase your chances of clogging an underground line. These canisters usually have to be purchased separately, increasing the cost of your cleaner setup.

Robotic Pool Cleaners

If you ask me, these are the best pool cleaner you can buy, especially in regard to the job they do cleaning your pool. Robotic cleaners come with a high price tag, but do they really? When you factor in the additional pump for a pressure cleaner, the necessary leaf canister of a suction cleaner, and the more frequent repairs that are needed for both suction and pressure cleaners you really start to close the gap on pricing.

These cleaners do the best job of cleaning the pool due to the fact that they climb walls, clean the tile line, usually have brushes built into them, are stand alone and don’t use your pool system to work, etc. There is a wide range of brands and prices for robotic cleaners. For this article I am going to focus on the Maytronics S Series and M Series Robotics.

Robotic Cleaner Pros

Your top manufacturers of robotic cleaners generally have longer manufacturer warranties, sometimes as long as 3 years.

Robotics do not use suction or pressure from your pool system, they are standalone cleaners. This means your pool system can still function to the best of its ability.

They clean the floor, walls, and tile line.

Some models have Bluetooth app capabilities where you can navigate the cleaner as well as set the cycle times

Most models have brushes that simply spin with the movement of the cleaner. Some Maytronics models have an “active brush” which is motor driven, spinning the brush at a faster rate than the cleaner is moving. This means that the cleaner is actively scrubbing your pool surface, opposed to just vacuuming.

A lot of models come with a caddy that you can coil the power cable on, mount the cleaner, and holds the power supply, allowing you to easily move and store the cleaner in a cool shaded area.

There are models of robotic cleaners that have top-loading canisters or cartridges. This may not sound like much, but after a few times of flipping a robotic cleaner upside down to empty it you will understand the beauty of it.

There are just 3 pool cleaner accessories that can have problems – Power Supply, Cable, and Motor. That being said, there are other parts on the cleaner that may need to be replaced, usually do to old age or lack of maintenance.

You can run them as long as your house has power, even if your pool system goes down.

Save on energy cost over pressure cleaner and pump setup.