IMHO an automatic pool cleaner is worth it's weight in gold, especially if you have a pool of any size. Even if it only takes 15 min. to vaccum, the beauty of an automatic cleaner is that you can program to run at a specific time of the day or night (if your pool has that capability of programing). I program mine to run early in the a.m. each day for 2-1/2 hours and wake up to a spotless pool each day.