PoolSkim Pool Skimmer and Pool Cleaner

The media could not be loaded. The long video should give you an idea of how well this works in practice. This is how my pool has normally been looking between cleanings, and the PoolSkim was just installed when this video was taken. The pool no longer looks like this.The inventor of this should be knighted. Fighting the oak leaf situation in the pool all summer really takes much of the enjoyment out of owning a pool. Clean out the pool, come back two hours later and it's a total mess of leaves. Cleaning out the skimmer baskets is a pain because I use the filter saver socks in an attempt to keep fine sludge from reaching the filter.From the moment this was installed, it immediately sucked down all the passing leaves that routinely missed the skimmer. Because there were just so many leaves, I had to run the booster pump almost three hours a day to clean all the ones that would eventually sink to the bottom. Now I have it set to one hour, so in theory there should be a payback period to this in hard dollars. That does not even put a price on all the time saved by not having to worry about keeping the pool deck clear of leaves constantly and raking the pool every time we want to use it. This means less cleaning of the skimmer baskets and cleaning the filter saver nets. On random inspection, the only leaves in the pool have either recently dropped in, or those which are sticking along the edge or the pool sweep hose.All you have to do is install using the manual guidelines for piping to a general height and it will self-level with changes in the water level, since the upper cylinder freely moves up and down. I just wish the net were larger. I was concerned that the net would be difficult to clean, but turning it upside down allows all the debris to drop since the netting is fairly stiff, so it holds its shape when emptying.I would like to have two of these, but having only four return outlets, I don't want to impact the flow and circulation of the water around the pool. I would say that if you have the money to afford a pool, don't be cheap and overlook this if you are irritated with too much pool maintenance. If you don't have a lot of falling debris, it may not be worth your while though.The one "problem" with this is that you can't leave things free floating in the pool, like a floating chlorinator, since the vortex will hold such things right next to it. I recently added this solar copper device to reduce chlorine usage and it cannot be used without a tether because the PoolSkim vortex acts like a magnet. Chemical-Free Sun ShockFor anyone curious about how the flow of water around my pool is created, I use three fountains like these on the other return ports (the ones I own no longer seem to be made): Splash-A-Round Pools SEC385 Waterfall Spray Pool Fountain Instead of using as a fountain, I use them underwater and point in a counterclockwise direction along the wall (about 10 degrees off the wall actually to prevent wear on the wall) The flow is restricted when compared to a standard jet, so at a speed of just 1700RPM on a variable speed pump (with a clean filter), it moves water quickly around the pool. Even at 1200RPM the pool stays clean. The PoolSkim includes some pieces to do something about restricting the flow on your other jets, though it wasn't apparent how to install them if needed.Two year update: No change. No worn parts. Just works as well as it did on day one. Like many plastic parts, it will collect algae if you let your chlorine levels fall too low, but that is not meant to be a knock on this product. But it is easy to remove and clean if that happens.

First off, it was kind of a mission to install. I had to take a drive to my local Home Depot and had to have 2 employees help me with the installation hurdles. I believe it's because our pool is fairly new and uses those "snap in covers" in our water return/outlet pipes. Not the screw type which they provide fittings for. 2 hours , 2 couplings, and reducers later; that bad boy was installed. I then turned on then pump and the thing did nothing. I then realized my return didn't have sufficient pressure/force from the water coming out of the pipe to make it function properly. The reason is: we have a waterfall in our pool that acts like a return making the actual returns in the pool really weak. I was disappointed an called the company for a full refund / minus the shipping I had to pay to send it to them. I went to dismantle the thing to return it and thought, "let me take a look by the millions of pipe by the pump for my pool and see if it had a waterfall shut-off valve. It DID! So my water fall is never on now. I prefer a clean pool than beautiful waterfall. (the women in the family disagree) I made a deal that during events/parties that the waterfall would be on.This skimmer left my pool, that was full of dead bugs, bees, flies, and these really small white gnats, completely clear in 2 hours. I was amazed. I stayed in the pool those 2 hours with my glass of wine(s) observing and following particles and dead bees from their starting point the their destination(poolskim). The trip avg. was about 10-20 mins. for which ever debris I followed. (yes, I was bored on that Sunday dusk) I also noticed at first the the really small particles and gnats would come out of the net as they were smaller than the holes in the net, but after the net got filled with more debris and grass and leaves they sort of turned into a secondary filter which stopped the smaller particles that once escaped their demise. Everytime, I go in the pool I still get amazed how clean it is.The pool man asked me where I found this amazing product as he doesn't have to clean the pool surface anymore. I told him he now is being paid 10 dollars less then normal. (was joking with him). He should of been the one recommending this product to me instead of me hunting online trying to find a surface cleaner. Well his future and current customers will thank him now, and he should thank me. And I should thank the reviewers and amazon. And finally we should all thank POOLSKIM for an amazing invention. so simple yet so effective. Keep up the good work. If you're hunting for the same thing I was. Stop hunting. You found your new cleaner. BUY IT. You won't regret it.