- If you live in an area with a lot of trees or have heavy use of your swimming pool, then you surely have use for a pool sweep. If you have an automatic sweep, this little device can take hours off your maintenance time. It is an underwater vacuum that moves around the pool on wheels and pulls dirt and debris into the pool filter or into its own separate bag. There are pool sweeps for both above-ground and in-ground pools. Some made for above-ground pools with no skimmer run off rechargeable batteries and are completely self contained.
- This style of sweep is the least expensive to purchase, run and maintain. They hook to your pool through the inside of the skimmer basket or to a line specifically made for the hose. The suction sweeps take only minutes to install and clean rather quickly. They use the suction from the pool to pull in the debris from the bottom and sides. They are powered to move along the pool on wheels. They will only work when the pool filter is on. If you have a lot of big leaves that fall into your pool, then you may need a pressure style sweep instead. The suction sweep can get clogged and the filter will need to be backwashed often with heavy leaf activity.
- Pressure style sweeps come in two types: one with a booster pump and one that works from the pressure of the filtration system. The latter requires a "T" installed into the plumbing of the filtration system and uses the pressure from the system. If you are going to install this type of sweep you should make sure the filtration system has enough pressure for both. The pressure runs through the sweep and breaks up debris, and then a vacuum sucks it into a bag attached to the sweep that you empty occasionally. The bags clean much better when they are dry so you should have 2 bags for rotation. These cleaners will pick up just about anything, even rocks. They are more expensive and have more moving parts, so they cost more to maintain than the suction type. However, they can handle much more debris than the suction type too. The pressure sweep with its own pump costs more to run since you have to run a separate pump, but has more pressure and can handle the cleaning more efficiently.
