Polaris or Paramount?--which keeps your pool cleaner with less hassle?

[ChadH]

There is some good and very interesting information in this thread. I am interested in any further progression of the discussion of in-floor systems and particularly with regards to adding solar to the mix.

I am in this category exactly. We have the Paramount in-floor cleaning system. Because of this we have a good sized 2hp pump and an overall high pressure system to jet wash the floors clean. And like mentioned above, now that we are adding solar panels to the mix we are running into the pitfalls of this combination. The In-Floor system likes high pressure and the Solar system does not. I have the system up and running but am concerned that I probably have too much pressure going through the solar panels. I'm still working on deciding what I want to do about that.

Regarding the Paramount In-Floor cleaning system I would say that I am now a fan of this system. It has worked out great for us. For a long time I wondered if the system was really doing very much. We have an automatic solid cover and I thought that maybe the pool was staying mostly clean due to the cover and that the Paramount system was not doing too much. well, recently I pulled out my pop up heads due to some flow/pressure testing that I was doing regarding the above mentioned solar install/pressure issue. I left the in-floor system basically disabled for a week or two and was amazed at how much debris accumulated at the bottom of the pool. I've vacuumed maybe three times in the last couple years but mostly the Paramount system has been doing all the work for me. Got to love that!

I recently came across an Aquabot automatic cleaner at a garage sale for cheap and picked it up out of curiosity. It works ok. It seems to get stuck on my steps a lot. I've tried different 'float' inserts but no luck overcoming this issue. Maybe if I get all new tracks it would work better. Anyhow, the in-floor system would be my choice over this because it just does its thing. The aquabot has to be inserted, cleaned, un-stuck, removed etc. Not downgrading the Aquabot by any means, (my neighbor loves his) I just am glad that ours already has the Paramount installed.

I hope this helps and I hope that more users can input their experiences and thoughts.
Thanks

[ouzoman]

Greetings to this great forum:

I'll chime in on the side of praising the Paramount in-floor system (installed by Paddock for me). It's been eight years of minimal (zero for the in-floor) maintenance and a clear pool every morning . . . . lately however I notice the heads don't retract completely (once the pumps are off), or some don't pop up all the way; I checked for any debris stuck in the heads, everything looks clean.
Chad, you mentioned pressure/flow testing - I'm thinking that might be the next thing to investigate. By the way I have a separate pump for the in-floor.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
John

[ChadH]

Yes, I do get the occasional 'stuck' pop-up head. It is really rare though, maybe 3 or 4 per year. It is usually a small rock or some little debris and/or the head is just slightly offset/wedged in. Our system is probably 12+ years old and maybe the wedging is due to slight wear down of the heads themselves. To clear them, I swim down give it a few small taps and it usually is freed up. Then I wait until the zone is pressurized and push the plunger (head) up and down a few times to try to flush out any debris.

The other time that the heads are still up after the pump is off is during the solar drain down period. All the water from the roof mounted solar panels slowly drains back into the pool via gravity after the pump is off.

Going back to the initial thread theme, to me this seems like a fairly minor issue and any cleaning system is going to require little bits of maintenance here and there.

[induce]

One stupid question:

How does the in-floor system handle leaves?
we had a Polaris 280 last time (loved it) and we are building a new pool and the builder is now installing the Paramount in-floor as standard equipment. Decision time.
thanks for input.

[ChadH]

No, it is not a bad question. Unfortunately I don't have a solid answer. I have a solid cover so most of my debris is smaller tree needles and particles. Most of my larger debris (which I would categorize the leave issue) would end up in my strainer basket. I know some Paramount systems come with an optional 'debris removal' canister but I do not have one and can't say how it works. Check out the below link, they have some graphics and details.

http://www.paramountpoolproducts.com/

Good Luck