GW9500 Kreepy Krauly Great White Inground Pool Cleaner

I purchased the Pentair Great White two months ago. I made my purchase after reading the reviews on Amazon for several pool cleaners. They were tremendously helpful in making the right choice. I am repaying what I owe by sharing what I've learned. We have a tough pool. I maintain it myself because pool guys take one look and quote an outrageous price. We live at the very northern end of the Los Angeles basin, nestled against the mountains that form the basin's northern border. It's a beautiful place to live, but several times a year the Santa Ana winds come, and during those times, the pool needs attention every day. Our property is ringed by eight huge pines that are beautiful and I would never dream of cutting down, but when the winds come, our pool fills up with pine needles first, then pine pellets a couple of weeks later. The winds also scrape dirt off the bare spots in the mountains and dump it in the pool. One day's wind is enough to turn the blue bottom brown. I had a Hayward Navigator for about five years. It worked most of the time, but it wasn't a set-it-and-leave-it device. We have a rectangular 40x20 pool with semicircular steps in one corner. The Navigator would hang up on those steps every time. It might take 5 minutes, it might take 45 minutes, but sooner or later you had to run out and clear it. It also spent a lot of time in the shop, sometimes multiple visits for the same problem. Finally after five years it started running in small circles and the guys at Leslie's Pool just threw up their hands. Since the Navigator, we tried two other cleaners, one expensive and one cheap. Neither worked. I asked around at several different pool shops for a cleaner that wouldn't get hung up on our steps, and the Baracuda MX-8 was mentioned several times. Luckily, I read the reviews here before buying it, as it seems a heavy leaf load will strip out the MX-8's gears. I tried the Great White based on the reviews, and it has been just great. It's a very simple mechanism but it works well for my difficult pool. It has yet to get hung up on the steps. Whenever it gets stuck on anything, it starts to spin and eventually pull itself off. My steps give it no trouble at all, but the circular cap on the pool drain confuses it. It'll take several minutes to clear itself, but it always does. The manual said to vacuum the pool thoroughly before the setting the Great White off on its maiden voyage, but I needed a tough test fast to decide whether I was going to keep it, so I gave it its first test on a day after the worst Santa Ana winds we've had in 2-3 years. The pool was full of needles, leaves, small pine branches, twigs, etc. It cleaned the whole thing. I had to take it out of the pool three times to remove a jam of leaves and twigs, but that's easy to do. Also, the clear hose really helps in telling where the jam is. It won't swallow the branches, but it doesn't get hung up on them either. When it finished its run, the pool was clean except for 5 or 6 branches and 3 or 4 large twigs that the vacuum wouldn't have passed either. We got them with the skimmer. Since then, it has kept the pool cleaner than any other device I've tried. The brushes really do a job. It has even removed some stains the chemicals didn't touch. The Great White is slow, real slow. It cleans the middle six times for every time it cleans the corners. But most of the time, that doesn't matter. Set it before going to work and when you come back, you'll have a clean pool. If I haven't run the cleaner for four days and company is coming in two hours, I'll take a Navigator over a Great White, but otherwise the Great White is far better. Now here's one important key. The Great White is VERY sensitive to pressure, and you won't hit the right pressure setting by fiddling with the dial, not at first anyway. The dial on the pressure valve says FASTER and SLOWER, but that's meaningless for the Great White. It has to be at the right pressure or it won't work right. When you first set the dial, Pentair gives you a pressure meter to make the adjustment. The picture in the manual shows that you should place the meter on the end of one length of hose and move the dial until the disc is between the lines. This doesn't work because 40 feet of hose and a giant leafcatcher will change the pressure at the vacuum head. So put everything on your line that you plan to put on it, and place the meter out on the end of the hose, and then set it. It's a two-person job but worth doing. Also, as the pressure at the filter changes, you'll need to adjust the pressure on the Great White. After awhile, mostly by observing how far it goes up the walls, you can set the pressure properly without the meter, but use it at first because otherwise the Great White doesn't work right. Most of the complaints I've read here seem to result from an improper pressure setting. I really can't speak to the repair reliability of the Great White after two months, but it looks good so far. The simplicity of the unit is real plus. The MX-8 is more expensive and much more complicated, and that means it's more vulnerable.

Lets start by saying this is a great product thus far. From the first time in the pool, it has never been so clean. QUICK NOTE... Amazon page does not say it but there is a one hundred (100) rebate if you goto manufactures website. There are a lot of options when considering a pool vacuum. Mine was mainly wanting one that worked but not costing and arm and leg. The Great White is exactly that. Simple setup (real simple) and just let it go. It says in a 6 hour window it will cover your entire pool but i have seen it in about half that time. Some reviews mention vacuums of all kinds getting stuck. With this one just wait 1-2 minutes and it will turn itself around (designed that way). It also is designed to spend majority of time in deep end as that is where most dirt and leaves gather in pools... it will get to your shallow end though. ONE THING TO NOTE: My pool has a shallow and deep end (9 feet). The deep end has slanted sides that come up to main side wall at about 3 feet from top of pool. Where that meets there is a crease (not rounded like a bowl but a crevous). The Great White and most vacuums will not climb the wall in this case. The incline to the wall...no problem... but not the actual side walls. The only way this or most would do that is if you have a bowl shape at the sides (meaning a smooth curve from bottom to side wall. Newer pool are more like this then older ones like mine... This is also true of stairs although very randomly it may make it up but don't count on it. BUT... this is no issue as i have seen. Once this thing gets going there is little need to vacuum the stairs and walls as no dirt sits long enough to compile on them. SUGGESTION: You have to read the whole instructions manual pre-setup to realize you can do this... but you can use you skimmer basket with the vacuum plate... this is good if you get lots of leaves. The main setup assumes you are going right to skimmer port and not using it... but like 10 second attachment to plate and you are good to use it. For this price (and rebate I mentioned)... I am enjoying my pool with hours less work each week and t didn;t hurt the wallet much to do it. Well, well, well worth it.

I started out skeptical, I read so many reviews of so many different sweepers and pool cleaners I honestly didn’t know what to get. As much as a robotic cleaner seems to be the way to go, there was just way too many bad reviews and those machines aren’t cheap. For over $600 I was pretty shocked to receive it and see what it was. All hard plastic parts and not much to it. After a few days if hooking it up to my side pool suction port, it wasn’t doing much at all and our pool was a total mess. We’d just gone through a full week of insane winds in TX and we were desperate. Long story short, after a week I realized we needed to check suction and also shut down one of our skimmers to increase vacuum power. Let me tell you, after about 3 days our pool started looking amazing. We have a DE filter and we had to backwash it a couple of times to get rid of everything this machine sucked up. Don’t give up if you feel like it isn’t doing anything. It’s more than likely the set up is incorrect. This Kreepy Krauly Great White really gets the job done. We also have a leaf basket that traps big stuff attached and I’m very happy with this purchase. Not only does it get rid of all the dust that settles on the bottom but the brushing works really well too. It’s worth every penny!

I was given the exact same unit from a friend 7 years ago and it was 3 years old then. It's literally seen thousands of hours of use without rebuild and was worn completely out before it stopped working. It had a very rough life abd never missed a beat. Very good unit and I had no reservations of buying a new one. I have been trying for the last 3 days since I received it and can't get this new unit to work. Between the hose that came with it and the sweeper, it is very buoyant and will not sink to the bottom. It floats only 6 inches below the water surface. I bought another 40 foot of different hose and it helped. But the unit just won't stay running. It stops, and has to be pulled out and I have to push the oscillator with my hand to get it unstuck and working again. It will run for about 10 minutes and locked up. When it does oscillate, it does not move. It stays in one spot. I have adjusted the flow from lower that minimum setting to over maximum flow, no change. The filter has 300 pounds of new sand and a brand new pump all this weekend. My system is working perfect and in almost new condition. I'm very disappointed. I'm not sure if the design internally has changed, but it absolutely will not work.

The Great White worked exactly as advertised, but I ended up returning it. Here is my situation. I have a 16x32 in-ground, vinyl liner pool with a hopper bottom deep end. I live in the North East. For some reason the big problem that I have with the pool is algae growth. Yes, I have tried all of the chemicals. So I was looking for a cleaner that would help to prevent algae actually going over every inch of the liner every day. As others have noted, the Great White does not like the shallow end. As documented in the cleaner's instructions, the Great White will travel to the shallow end a couple times during an 8-hour cleaning cycle. And indeed that is exactly what it did for me. Unfortunately it did not cover every inch of the shallow end nor did cover most of the slope leading to the shallow end. So my algae continued to grow. The Great White mostly spent its time circling the deep end. It would occasionally travel up the walls of the deep end also. Yes, I adjusted the suction to the specified strength. And I also tried giving it even more suction than required. The other problem I had with the Great White is that its front bumper started to wear a line in the sloped side of the my deep end. So I would not recommend this cleaner for a vinyl liner, hopper bottom pool. I still gave it four stars though because it did do exactly what it claimed to do. For a concrete pool without a deep end, I think it would work great. I returned the Great White and got a Kreepy Krauly Kruiser. The Kruiser is awesome! It covers every inch of the pool (even the walls) so I have had no further algae. The mechanism is much simpler, so it seems like it will last. It is much gentler on my vinyl liner. And it is $50 cheaper than the Great White. Seriously, I cannot believe how well the Kruiser works! My pool went from being a total pain, to completely trouble-free in about two days.

Bought this as a replacement to same thing that came with my pool. It lasted for a little over 4 years with very little maintenance/repair required. The rubber gasket that goes around the entire bottom of the cleaning head is usually the first thing to go, but it's like a $5 part and easy to replace. I honestly don't even know how truly necessary that part is, but it is supposed to help with suction. Depending on how well you upkeep your pool throughout the off-season, you can end up with a little slime built-up on the internal gears,which can make it not work as well. Again, it's relatively easy to disassemble, clean up any slime or crusties on the gears, and then it will work like new again throughout the swimming season. The hose will deteriorate before the cleaning head. This is especially true if you remove it from the pool for long periods of time and store it in the sun. It's best to just leave it in the pool all the time. It really doesn't get in the way all that much. I have never had the problems with this cleaner that others have reported -- like it staying in the deep end all the time. There was one incident where it just kept cleaning in a tight circle, but that was because some debris was in the steering mechanism on the bottom. Once I removed that, it worked as designed. Sometimes you do have to clean the cleaner, so you should probably check it at least weekly to make sure that it's not clogged or debris isn't otherwise interfering with it's operation. I have had numerous friends who have other namebrand auto cleaners in their pools comment about how much better the GW9500 works. For me when it came time to replace the original one, the decision was a no-brainer. Just FYI, all the components in my pool system are Pentair. I don't know if that makes a difference or not when choosing an auto pool cleaner, but the GW9500 sure does work well in my Pentair equipped pool.

If you are considering a new pool cleaner, look no further. This one is hands down a game changer. Getting stuck is no longer an issue in addition to cleaning and brushing your pool with unmatched efficiency. I had a navigator and there is no comparison, the navigator was less expensive but for me I got what I paid for. This is more money but worth every penny. Easy to install and walk away in a few hours your done. No more brushing the walls or pool surface. I still brush the steps but a small task by comparison. Love it and my pool never looked better. Had a small issue on delivery but the seller resolved the problem almost immediately. Problem not even worth mentioning other than to report they responded quickly and resolved my concern.

Works well To extend life only use when cleaning the pool do not leave in pool weeks at a time use1 day a week or as needed.

Works great. Could get to the shallow end a little more frequently.

Gets hung up on the center drain will not got o the shallow end ... I will be returning it