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(More customer reviews)After reading a number of reviews on many different competing varieties of pool cleaner, I thought I'd give this one a try. The reviews for products made by Pentair generally seemed better than those for the competition's products, and when I was younger my family had a single Kreepy Krauly that was around as far back as I can remember. As for why I chose this model over the Kreepy Krauly Classic, I honestly can't really say. I can't find much information on the Pentair website regarding which of their suction-side cleaners is the "best" model, so I kind of took a guess. Price doesn't even help much, since I've found that some places charge more for the Classic, and some charge more for the Kruiser.
One thing that I did notice in the reviews for the Classic is that a number of people have complained about having to replace several parts every year. The good thing about the Kruiser is that there are really only a couple of things that look like they'll need eventual replacement -- two pieces that touch the pool surface (eventually they will wear down and need to be replaced when the 'tread pattern' disappears), and maybe the flapper since it's a moving part, although looking at it I'd be surprised if anything happened to it since it's tucked away and pretty sturdy.
The Kruiser comes with a LOT of stuff. I was surprised at how thorough the company is when including parts. In addition to the cleaner head, the rubber vacuum seal/sweeper disc thingy, and the hoses, you'll also get a couple of hose weights and a bag full of extra goodies.
The cleaner head is already assembled. All you have to do is slip on the big blue rubber disc and attach the hoses. That's it, your pool cleaner has been completed! After that, you can add hose weights to the hose, depending on how deep your pool is. They help to counter the buoyancy of the hose in deep water.
And then there's the bag full of extra parts. If you have a vacuum port in your pool but don't have a vac-loc safety valve on it, don't worry because they included one. Don't have any eyeball diverters on your return ports, or they don't work as well as you want? Don't worry, they included a couple of replacements for you. Need an elbow joint for some reason even though it's never mentioned in the manual and I can't figure out what it might be needed for? Well it's in the bag. There's also some other fittings and an adjustable suction valve for the skimmer. There's even a suction-measuring tool that you can use to determine if you need to make adjustments.
The fun part comes from making the adjustments. I'm pretty sure that at least 75% of the bad reviews of any pool cleaner are related to user error in some way. I feel this way because the amount of time required to get this one working perfectly was not trivial. And that's not an issue with the cleaner itself -- it's just the nature of the beast. And someone who is impatient or doesn't understand that adjustment is required... well they're not going to be too happy. So here's a brief description of what you may need to do so you're aware of it. Regardless of the model of suction-side cleaner you go with, you will probably need to do some of this.
Initial Installation: If you have a dedicated vacuum port, just plug it in there. Optionally, you can plug a speed adjustment valve into the skimmer. More on that later. That's it for installation. If you don't have a vacuum port, you can plug it directly into the skimmer, again optionally adding the adjustment valve.
Return Ports: If you're not replacing an existing cleaner (meaning if, like me, you were previously using just the skimmer and main drain), chances are your return jets are pointing more or less toward the surface. That increases the movement on the surface and helps the skimmer do its job better. With a pool cleaner, they should be pointed more downward because jets pointed toward the surface tend to interfere with hose, potentially pushing it away from areas that need cleaning. After your initial adjustment, you may need to dial them in a little more if you see that the vacuum is still favoring one part of the pool. Before I did this, my cleaner absolutely refused to enter the shallow half of my pool under any circumstances. After the adjustment it was able to go anywhere.
Hose Weight(s): It's possible that you will need to move the hose weight toward or away from the vacuum head in order to get the ideal amount of buoyancy. It will also help the vacuum to stay on walls without falling off and keep the head from tilting back too far in shallow areas, causing it to lose suction. The best place for the weight will depend on the depth and shape of your pool, but for me it was about 6 inches behind the head.
Hose Length: The manual states that you'll want a hose that it at least the longest length it will ever have to travel, plus one hose length. However, depending on your pool's shape, it may be beneficial to add another segment beyond that, if you find that not all areas are getting cleaned. This seems to be another one of those "mess with it until you find something that works, even if you're not sure why" adjustments.
Suction (no vacuum port): I have a vacuum port in my pool, but I imagine that if I didn't there would just be the one intake valve by the pump that splits between the main drain and the skimmer. In this case you'll want to turn that valve to shut off the main drain entirely. You'll then want to install the included speed adjustment valve into the skimmer and plug the hose into that. Turning the knob on the adjustment valve as indicated will increase or decrease the amount of suction going to the vacuum. Too much suction will affect the vacuum's ability to travel a random pattern, and not enough will be just plain ineffective, causing it to fall off of walls or have trouble staying adhered to the pool floor. If there is still too much suction after the adjustment valve has been turned all the way down, you can turn on the main drain *slightly*, but you have to be careful that it's not strong enough to cause the vacuum to get stuck when it travels over the drain.
Suction (with vacuum port): This setup will probably have two intake valves by the pump. You'll want to shut off the main drain completely, while adjusting the skimmer and vacuum port to give the skimmer as much power as possible without taking too much from the vacuum. Personally, I just started at the halfway mark, giving each 50% of the power. Then I added more power to the vacuum in small increments until it was operating perfectly, while still leaving some power for the skimmer to work. The instruction manual suggests that you install the adjustment valve, but in my case it interfered slightly with the skimmer basket and was completely unnecessary anyway, since the same adjustment can be made by using the intake valves at the pump.
After some time spent on getting it up and running correctly, I have a pool cleaner that works beautifully. I highly recommend it. Just be sure to spend enough time to set it up correctly, and don't expect it to work immediately with no changes!
=== Update 05/08/2010 ===
Started messing with the setup a little again, after I noticed that sometimes the front of the sweeper loses contact with the ground when moving from the deep end to the shallow end of the pool (my pool has a steep transition). Removing the hose weight fixed the problem. Now I can say for sure that 6-7 foot deep pools do not need a hose weight to hold suction at the deep end.
Oh, and it's still working great! I've also added a couple of photos of it, just because.
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Pentair K60400 Kreepy Krauly Kruiser Automatic In-Ground Pool Cleaner, BlueK60400 CLEANER
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