20 Best Above Ground Pool Vacuum For Algae (2022 Updated)

I had an earlier version of the Aquadroid. I have used it for probably more than 10 years (I forget). Before that, I used a SIMILAR product for a similar amount of time. That oldest one used a slightly different pattern than the Aquadroid that I am replacing and was more effective at covering 90% of my pool in a shorter amount of time.

Parts are available to renew/repair the Droid. I have replaced worn feet a couple of times. There now seemed to be enough of the parts that were worn on my old Droid, and the part costs were high enough that I decided to just replace it.

I have not tried this new Aquadroid. It looks almost identical to the one that I just wore out. Maybe the path programming is more effective, like my first robot? For reference, my pool has a flat bottom and has a vinyl liner.

At first I was skeptical about the Aqua Bug doing what it claimed, but after assembling it and putting the big in the pool, my worries were put to rest in the first couple of minutes s I watched the buy pick up sand, dirt, bugs and leaves from the bottom of the pool.

This cut my pool cleaning by at least 80%. We gave a 15 foot round above ground pool. We also have the steps that go into the pool and so far no issue with it doing its job. Once in a great while, the bug will float half way to the top, but very rare, We just dunk it back down to the bottom.

One thing they don’t tell you is that when you are done cleaning, you have to disassemble the hoses and lay them flat. If you stare them coiled, or they start to bend, it could cause the Aqua Bug to not work and do it’s job.

I have one of those long plastic bins you can get at Walmart. You can disassemble them and place them in the bin for storage. Very happy with my purchase. You will be very happy.

This is my second aqua critter (bug). The first is ten years old and still running, just needed new hoses, and figured since the cost wasn’t that much more, would just buy the whole thing. The new vacs include a regulator and flow meter, to help with setup.

The vac does a great job, and will completely clean the pool in about an hour. Be sure to not coil the hose up when storing. It will give the vac a “memory”. Just store the hose alongside the pool. I’ll probably still use my old red vac for sentimental value.

She’s worn (had to replace feet about five years ago), but still works. Replacement parts are readily available, as is the leaf container, which works well in the fall. Contains enough hose for a 24′ round pool.

For the price you can’t beat it. Needs better instructions for adjustment. I would not suggest using the wall fitting that comes with it if you are replacing a Polaris. Use the Polaris fitting and attach the hose to it.

This gives you the option to use restrictor plates and the overall wall fitting is better. The hose is almost reason enough to buy this unit. It is an excellent hose and contains all the floats and swivels you need.

That is worth at least 1/2 of the cost of this unit in itself. The first drawback though does start with the hose and is not limited to this hose as I have had some Polaris hoses act the same way when new.

When you try to attach the hose to the top of the unit you might find it near impossible to actually cut a thread into the hose so until the hose loses it’s sheen due to chemicals you will likely need to leave it on there buy force of friction.

Maybe a good wire tie. That leads me to the 2nd issue. The tail. This comes with a nice perfectly good tail and an apparently week clip. The clip disappeared never to be seen again within a week. Had to wire tie it on.

Unit also seems to be overly hungry for it’s own tail. Have had to rescue the tail from throat and bag a couple of times. Probably means they used a hose that is too supple fora tail. Not sure how to fix that other than maybe replacing it with an actual Polaris tail.

Don’t worry about the Polaris backup. Drain it and put it away. This unit has backup built in. Sometimes spends too much time in backup mode. Performance is a bit subpar compared to a Polaris 180 in terms of wall climbing.

My unit won’t come all the way up a wall. I guess the good side of that though is it’s not spraying everyone randomly. I don’t like the double wall bag as it’s hard to empty. Only a moderate improvement on a 180 bag in catch rate.

Still prefer panty hose over any Polaris bag. Overall I do recommend it just be aware of it’s quirks.

After 5 years with the Aquabot Pool Rover Jr. , I replaced it with the Dolphin Escape for my above ground 18×33 oval pool. After one season, I could not be happier. In my opinion, a much better product for the following reasons: it brushes the bottom of the pool, removing stubborn algae, does a much better job cleaning the corners of the pool walls and even slightly climbs them, the cord does not twist up, emptying the bag and cleaning it is a breeze, much faster than the pool rover and you don’t have to worry about remembering to switch the swivel pin from side to side, it has a larger handle making it easier to hook and lift out of the pool.

It has done an excellent job cleaning my pool. I’ve read some reviews by some who are not happy with the supplied basket and they end up purchasing an accessory finer basket for very small debris. I think the supplied debris basket is fine.

I do not know how reliable and how long the product will last but it seems to be sturdy and well built.

We received our pool cleaner quickly! It was easy to assemble and we put it to work immediately. It replaced our old dolphin that was 15 years old. It was night and day difference, the pool is now super clean! It even safely picks up small toys.

Felt like this was a good deal, very happy about.

I’ve had this pool bug for more than two years now, inn the same pool, which I think will make this an honest review. When it decides to work, it works ***. but it’s as reliable as a tweeker on Graveyard shift.

At first I found it odd that it hooked up to the exhaust instead of the intake, but then I realized it works like blowing over a ketchup bottle. The exiting water creates a vacuum under it which sucks stuff up, down to the smallest particles of sand.

The other upside of this design is that what it doesn’t suck up, it blows around and suspends it in the water for the skimmer to pick up later. All good. Now the bad. It works ***. but only when it decides to show up and clock in.

I swear my wife’s X-husband is more reliable. I can pick it up out of the water, let it clear itself and drop ***. and it takes of like the Flying Sub (for those who remember). Then, within a few minutes (sometimes seconds) of scooting around, it will stop in its tracks.

Mind you, it’s done this since new. You hear it shift gears but it goes no where. I went online, got You Tube Certified in Intex Bug Repair, took it apart, did all the fixes and it worked great for about an hour.

The problem is the flapper valve which makes it shift from forward to reverse, gets caught in the middle for some unknown reason, even after the fixes and I know dang well everything is moving freely and freshly lubed, internally.

My upgraded pump is more than powerful enough to drive the thing, so that’s not it. They’ve gone to a far lighter hose on the new ones. Maybe this will help????In short, there’s nothing else like it so the choices and other buying options are bleak.

It works well, when it decides to, but if you decide to buy one, do yourself a favor and DON’T WATCH ***. or you may end up going for your 12ga and doing some serious damage to your soft-sided pool. Make sure you’re up on your BP meds, as well.

I hope this reviews helps some folks.

Works well with my above ground pool. One thing to note with this is that it’s not so much a “pool vacuum”, but rather a “pool hoky” if that makes sense. There is no suction involved with this device.

You hook it up to the pump outlet that pushes water out, not the inlet that sucks it in. The pressure pushes it around the pool and the brushes scoop up debris. I like this in that it doesn’t suck all the junk into the pool filter and rather it goes into a little bin in the Intex unit, similar to a Roomba.

This helps from needing to change the pool filter after using it. I let it run for a few hours each week and when I pull it out the bin is full of all kinds of weeds and debris, so it definitely works, but don’t expect it to get every single bit of sand, seed, etc, especially if stuff has collected in a corner of your pool, so you’ll probably still need to use a handheld pool vacuum for the couple of spots it can’t get to.

Ultimately I view this product the same as an indoor Roomba. It doesn’t replace vacuuming, but it severely cuts down the amount of vacuuming you’ll need to do manually. For 1/5 the price of the more expensive and featured pool vacuums, I’m happy with my purchase.

The robot has been easy to use and we’ve used it often for 2 pool seasons. If you are expecting something to suck up leaves at the bottom of your pool, it doesn’t do much of that. It blows leaves and seems to do a great job sucking up algae at the bottom of the pool.

It will suck up some smaller leaves but if you have a good amount of large sized leaves at the bottom of your pool, it does better with small ones. With my rectangular intex pool, it doesn’t like to get the corners well at all.

I like that the movement slows down once it needs emptying. It has definately helped with opening our pool, I just wish it primarily sucked up large leaves.

So I took some of the negative reviews with a grain of salt. sometimes it’s just that! Bad shipping or missing ***. well ***. not everyone has those experiences and that is probably due to the bad shipper NOT THE PRODUCT.

Easy to assemble – READ INSTRUCTIONS of FIRST USE and about Charging!!!After power washing my pool pavers and lanai. I had a huge pile of dirt, laves and inside plants and sand at the bottom of the pool.

I normally do a scrub of my sides and ***. and then push all debris to the deep end and then vacuum it up with the long hose vacuum. That’s the PAIN part. I don’t use an expensive ***. but pulling out the long hose vacuum tube and submerging it takes a lot of work for a pile of sand you made in one spot after scrubbing.

AND you really don’t want that pile of sand going into your main pool filter. especially if you use a Skimmer Sock and if you do both of these ***. you will not have to wash your main pool filter except every 4-6 months! Maybe, if that longer.

Maybe when in a few months. I’m going to wait to open my pool filter to see how bad it is. its going on 5 months with a new filter and skimmer ***. so it will be interesting to update and see how good it looks!!!This simple vacuum I was able to easily and very quickly turn it ***.

expand the pole and get my 6 ft deep pile of sand so easily and quickly. Its suction is great!TECHNIQUE Go slow and use the triangle adapter for the larger piles or for vacuuming larger areas. Make sure its flat because this attachment swivels.

Use the slim attachment for spas and tighter corners. NOTE: It starts the vacuum after it senses its been submerged. You can see the jets start. NOTE: Took 4 hours to fully charge on the first charge.

Be sure to do that as soon as you get it. WARNING: When done ***. and when you twist the filter cap to empty (Clear Dome part) after each use-you MUST be over a garbage can or over your lawn. Don’t do it anywhere you want another mess because all that dirt and sand is inside the sphere part will spill out as soon as you unscrew it.

It was so satisfying how well it picked up every grain as I passed over a thick pile on the floor!!!Did my spa ***. very easily!Probably did it all under 5 min. Using the long vacuum hose would have taken a lot of work and time to set it ***.

use it on the sand pile and then draining and putting it away. BIG TIME SAVER. Takes up no space. I have no CONS at this point. I will probably update on its ***. but so far so good.

So I read the reviews and was very skeptical about buying this but thought its this or my pool becomes a swamp. At opening everything was there including 2 socks black and white. I did not read the directions.

Just plugged it up let it charge put the pieces clearly where they go then out to the pool. Move the gage from 0 to 1 and in it went. Still super skeptical. After 4 swipes I pulled it out of the water.

Green and gray water in the see through chamber. Opened it up and how gross. but after 2 days of sporadic vacuuming. I can see the bottom diamond shapes in the pool liner. So to those who want a good product, and have a little common since,and willing to use a little effort; this is great for the costs.

I have used it 8 times and it still charges. I guess for those who claim it don’t work uhh when charging make sure you get a light to ensure connection and plug the charging port completely. Common since batteries and water don’t mix well and red light means its charging green light means its charged.

Great buy!! Saved me hundreds.

I was worried about this having NiMh batteries instead of LiOn batteries, but I have been using this to clean my Spa for over a month and have not had to recharge yet. I did fully charge it overnight before the first use.

I was also worried about the suction power, because I saw several bad reviews about it. It has great suction power, at least when I leave attachments off (I haven’t tried them because I want a small focus point for small areas).

It pics up all the small particles in all the corners as well as larger leaves. It turns on only when submerged to protect the pump. It is very easy to clean. The telescoping handle makes it easy to reach everywhere in my spa.

In my opinion, I wouldn’t worry about the negative reviews, I find that most negative reviews are operator error, negative Nellies that can never be satisfied, or the rare lemon that might escape a manufacturer.

IšverstiShow in original languageAfter reading all the wonderful reviews of how amazing this product is, I decided to purchase. I have had my pool for 10 years. It does not clean my pool and it hoovers over the dirt with out picking any up.

It tends to only go to certain areas of the pool. Even with me inside the pool maneuvering the cleaner around. This purchase was made and was not eligible for a refund due to my purchase date. I was told to contact the manufacture and they do not offer refunds either, just part warranty.

DO NOT waste your money, one very displeased customer.

IšverstiShow in original languageFinally have a vacuum that works. Bought a different one 2 years ago and never liked it. My last Zodiac Baracuda Ranger lasted approximately 15 years if not longer. Awesome vacuum.

I would definitely recommend this product.

IšverstiShow in original languageUpdate : It works far better and without stopping with a 3000+ GPH pump. At 2100 GPH it’s hit or miss sometimes. —–I got it setup, it worked for an hour and then stopped.

I spent the next 2 days, approx 6 hours on and off trying to figure out why there was no suction. I assumed it was air, fought the lines over and over and never could get it going again. Then I assumed I was one of the unlucky one’s in reviews that would never see it work as I expected, for more than an hour.

Then, my wife steps in the pool and says, “I think I stepped on a toy”. Which made me wonder, what if. and sure enough a giant blue pirate crystal that I assumed was part of the vacuum (because I had no idea what I was looking at in that tube) when I first checked was lodged inside.

Once I got it out, the vacuum worked perfectly again. So, it works as described. It sucks up anything that will fit inside the tube, so it’s probably best to check for hard small toys prior to vacuuming, if you have kids or wild swinger parties in your pool.

;).

I was very skeptical about this cleaner. Previously I had tried a pool cleaner similar to the Kreepy Krawley and it worked “ok” – but would sometimes just go around in circles and wouldn’t cover the entire 24′ above ground pool.

This one claimed to have a “programmed” drive mechanism – so I thought I’d see if it worked better. The Pros – tubing the comes with it is durable and long enough to reach my entire 24′ pool. It snaps together with “rib-like” connections.

The cleaner itself has two “rocker” type feet with rubber pads. The cleaner seems sturdy. When assembled and put into action, its ‘feet’ propel it forward while a geared drive system steers the cleaner to effectively cover all areas of the pool.

Since it sits low to the ground – it does a great job of picking up debris from the pool bottom. It rarely gets stuck and usually if it does – its because the suction is weak and you need to clean the filter or perform a backwash.

THE CONS: Few cons here – first, I think the steering needs to allow it to travel in longer “straight path” distances instead of various circular patterns. Second – the tail (which is purely aesthetic) does not stay on and pops off often.

And last – the are no brushes, so it does not do anything for wiping algae. Summary: All-in-all its anaffordable, hard-working cleaner that rids your pool floor of any debris. It’s pretty quick and effective.

Make sure your filtration system is running optimum and has good suction – this guy requires good suction to drive the movement pieces AND pick up debris. When I find mine travelling slowly, its usually because my filter needs attention.

Everyone also loves how cute it is – so its not just some weird looking device that looks like a leech crawling around your pool. BTW – my Kreepy Krawly got stuck on a rock that magically made its way into my pool one time and it repeatedly bumped up against it thousands of times – and wore a hole in my liner which caused a leak – this device turns by design, so even if it hits a foreign obstacle – it will turn and go away from it in a short period of time, unlike the other which just aggressively tried to get past it.

So in my opinion, its safer for your pool floor!.

She does a great job overall. A couple of notes. Hoses did not mate with my Intex intake. I had to buy a Blue adapter to screw into the Intex fitting and buy a few adapters at The Hardware store. If your pool is dirty like mine was.

You really have to monitor Wanda and her suction ability. I had to stop Wanda and clean out my filter and unscrew the blue adapter and clean out the intake on the pool wall several times. I then backwashed once.

After that, Wanda kept on going and my pool is as clean as ever. She is slow but does a fantastic job. Tail is worthless and does not fit into the grooves.

The unit is impressive and does a very nice job of cleaning my 26′ above ground pool. On the downside, the intake is rather small and small to medium size acorns clog the hole. Some chestnut oak leaves jam the intake and many are sucked through.

There were some attachments that I still don’t understand with the directions a little vague. I intend to reach out to the company for further advise. I have been a very satisfied Hayward product user for years.

Large bits of debris in your pool are not the problem. It’s the millions of little bits spread throughout the pool (usually settled to the bottom) that are the food for algae. I love the science/engineering behind this product.

Cheap, easy to use, uncomplicated and powered by the pump you already have running. What’s not to love?Unfortunately, this little guy zooms back and forth, jetting around the bottom of the pool like there is no tomorrow.

In the process, it stirs up all those millions of little particles so they float around in the water rather than sitting at the bottom or the pool. It does a great job picking up leaves and such, but it captures relatively few of the little bits and once they are floating around, it can’t suck them in.

Leave it running 24/7 if you want, all it does is keep the water churned up so that they can’t settle to the bottom to be vacuumed. All in all, a complete fail. The only good part is it was much cheaper to buy this useless product than it would be to buy the other ones.

The product name and description is accurate but the stock photo on here is not. After reading mixed reviews I decided to give this bug a try for our pool. So far she buzzes around the pool sucking up all the little pods the trees drop.

I was having to use the leaf bag several times a day to try to keep up and now having this vacuum run every few days handles the bottom and I just skim the top! Has saved me so much time!!. We are new pool owners(trying to learn) and the pool store was trying to push us to buy a $1,000+ robotic vacuum and we only have an 18ft pool.

I’m glad I decided to try this $200 option instead! It took a moment to use the flow gauge for initial set up but once I figured that out all I did was attach the bug and she’s been off and working since!.

The AquaBug is a must have. I have purchased two now (had the first for many years (9, 10?) until the poor thing literally wore out). It makes easy work of keeping a pool clean, and it’s just fun too (guests are fascinated to see it shuffling along the bottom of the pool, and children love it).

Although there seem to be a lot of notations on the Web about not using the device in an Intex pool, we have done so for a long time in a couple of different Intex models, without a hitch (we didn’t use Intex’s pump filters though.

they’re ridiculously small for the larger pools). Have a different type of above ground pool now, and the AquaBug just hums along in it, too. At any rate, this product is ingenious in it’s engineering (have to admit taking the old one apart to help it run a bit longer), and they are very well made.

I wouldn’t do with one.

An excellent, excellent producdt. This is my second Hayward AquaBug pool cleaner. I purchased the first one in 2011 and it has vacuumed my above ground pool until this summer when one of the wheel axles snapped off while I was handling it.

I figured it was time to retire the critter and get a new one. I’ll pick up a wheel and axle kit and keep the old one as a spare. Some additional information. I’m using a 1 HP pump and sand filter in a 21 foot diameter pool.

I would also recommend purchasing the cork shoe kit. The bug seems to move more efficiently with the cork feet instead of the rubber feet that come with the AquaBug.

This 380 replaced the old one that was just over 20 years old. The 380 is a SIMPLE, WELL DESIGNED, HIGHLY EFFECTIVE device that will work hard and last for YEARS! Over the years, I had replaced the tires a couple of times, and the drive belts about every 3 to 4 years.

3 years ago, I replaced the “water management system” and all was fine through the years. This season, the cleaner was moving very slowly. I thought it would be the belt but when I opened it up, the entire insides was literally just falling apart.

After more than 20 years of service, the plastic had just lost its ability to survive. Every part that was still original was beginning to crumble. I thought about ordering a “rebuild kit” but found a great sale at In The Swim where for just a little more, I got an entire new cleaner, hose, wall connection and new bag.

Before the purchase I had done a LOT of research to see if there was something better out there. There are MANY cleaners to choose from. Pressure side, Vacuum side, and even ELECTRIC! When all is said, this is the one that is easy to repair, with reasonably priced parts, WIDELY available at EVERY POOL STORE IN ANY TOWN.

After 20 years there have been NO changes to this FABULOUS design. Why change what is such a great product and great value! The only “negative” is really just a tip. I take the ladder out of the deep end when its running so it doesn’t get stopped when it hits the ladder.

Even that is only a minor problem because the 380 has a back up valve and will “unstick” itself after a couple of minutes and go right back to work. I just remove the ladder so it can clean non stop with no obstacles.

Do you like wasting money and being completely frustrated? Well, this is the automatic pool cleaner for you!I bought this at Leslie’s Pool Supply. It worked great for a week. After that all it would do is go in a circle and wrap itself in its own hose.

After reading up on it, it’s apparently a huge problem among those who buy this product’s latest version. There is a floating ball randomizer chamber and a turning piston with a turbine end inside. The chamber floods, the ball floats to the top, and the ball is supposed to randomly block off one of the jet ports and the cleaner goes either to the left or right.

If the chamber doesn’t seal enough in any way, the ball stays suctioned to the same port. Well, the chamber was leaking completely at the glued seals. It was also failing to seal at the hole where the piston goes into the chamber.

The piston also stops rotating and develops deep grooves preventing a good seal. I wrapped the chamber joints in self sealing hose tape to know avail. I added a ring on the same tape to the end of the turning piston to make it seal the randomizer chamber when the piston is all the way in.

That didn’t last long. I tried everything. No luck. When it worked, it was great. Unfortunately, it’s shoddily manufactured and not even remotely durable. I have contacted Polaris Customer Support and received no response.

Don’t bother with this cleaner.

The only non quality thing is the net that catches the dirt when you vacuum. It is contained and if that breaks, you can apply a mesh bag with a rubber band. Mine dry rotted after a few months and broke apart.

Aside from that, it has everything you need to keep the pool clean, and the vacuum works just like a vacuum off a dirt pump.

The net is ok, its the only thing Im able to use. The skimmer is too bulky and big, doesnt stay on my 10feet easy set inter pool, and not really needed. The vacuum is a disaster, not working at all! Its probably meant for large capacity pumps, like full size sand pumps.

I have 1000g/hour filter pump, and it works great with the pool, but would not pick up anything with the vacuum. So no, I wouldnt buy this again.

Doesnt work. Pool doesnt have enough suction. Best way products are 100% NOT worth the money. Wasted money & time.

This skimmer was perfect! It does exactly what it is supposed to do. I was a little bit concerned when I read some of the other reviews and it didn’t work out for them, but so glad mine did. I would recommend that it be removed while having guests over to swim and then replace once there isn’t a lot of activity.

Works great cuts my time of cleaning the pool in half!.

it is made cheep and will not hold up long. buying this is the only way I could get the adapters for my Coleman swim vista pool. the hose is cheep plastic. the vac head does not want to lay flat against the bottom of the pool.

the leaf bag dose not seal well and keeps coming off the vac head as it just slips on and falls off again.

The aquatech cordless vacuum feels pretty strong and does have telescoping option to help reach farther into the water. I was able to pick up pollen and a few small things but most things get pushed to the side.

To me the thing you have to put batteries (8aa) in seemed almost to small but I was able to get them all pushed in. I guess it does have to be a tight fit to be able to go in the top of handle. I have tried a few other pool vacuums in the past and for this price range the vacuum is close to equal.

However, I have had one that you can charge/recharge that worked better but it was not in the same price range but not not a whole lot more either. The aquatech will pick up some stuff but I would recommend putting a little more money in and getting a better one.

The motor is not very strong and I can’t imagine how fast you’d go through 8 batteries (that aren’t cheap) so one you can charge/recharge would be much better. I would not purchase again but if you’re in desperate need and it’s in your price range give it a try for yourself.

Overall this vacuum is a good idea with limited capabilities and limited power. It’s great for a small in ground spa where you can’t empty the water easily. Do not expect it to clear a large pool, the shallower the better this performs.

The head is about the size of my hand fully extended but the small opening prevents any capture of large debris such as big leaves. The compartment feels rather cheap but the pole feels very sturdy however be sure not to overtighten the sections as the plastic adjusters break easily.

I Love the FLOWCLEAR Cordless Vacuum for the Pool So Much. My backyard have a big tree in there. I really don’t like that big tree. When I put the poor in my backyard. The leafs will drop into my pool everywhere.

The FLOWCLEAR Cordless Vacuum makes me so convenient to clean the garbage and the leafs. I highly recommend the FLOWCLEAR Cordless Vacuum.

I’ve been buying and using rechargeable above ground pool vacuums for the past 5 years. I bought the Dolphin E10 about a month ago and realized I should have bought it sooner. I didn’t want to spend the money but it’s well worth it.

It’s absolutely wonderful! I pride myself on keeping my pool clean but since using the Dolphin E10, my pool has been absolutely crystal clean. There are no hoses to connect through the skimmer but it does have a cable that connects to electricity.

I just love it!.

Very nice, even though its not a wall climber, it more than makes up for that with thorough scrubbing of the pool floor. I actually use this for my inground pool(10,000 gallon) clean its spotless in about an hour and a half.

You do need the fine filtration basket though. that, combined with occasional floculant, keeps our pool sparkling clean!.

So far so good. This is my third pool bot this season. I tried two other brands that did not work well. It is quite expensive though. My previous Smartpool cleaner was awesome and only cost $300. This one was $550 but is the closest to my original so far.

It cleans much better than the other two that I tried. It also has a neat bucket that you clean instead of those bags. Hopefully it will keep cleaning well.