POOLSTYLE Leaf Eater

[fordsbyjay]

I was wondering if anyone else has used the POOLSTYLE leaf eater pool cleaner. It uses a garden hose instead of a vacuum. A bag goes on the top and water sprays up causing a negative pressure and sucks up the leaves. My pool guy says he uses it when they do service calls and he really liked it. I found the whole process a bit of a Pain. If there is any tension on the hose the front of the unit lifts up and it doesn't work well. Once the bag gets pretty full the weight of it falls over and I had trouble with the front lifting again. Once the bag is full you need to take it out, turn off the water, remove bag and empty. The whole process seemed longer then just using a pole with a leaf skimmer attached but it didn't stir up a mess like the leaf skimmer does. I thought about attaching the hose to the pole but that is just more work. You would still need to vacuum the pool after to get it totally clean. I think if you were not in any rush the concept works good for getting most of the leaves and pollen but if I am going to buy something I want it to make less work not more. Just my thoughts.

FWIW we have a tree line behind our property so all fall and winter we have falling leaves then in the spring we have large pollen falling.

 

[splashpad]

We have leaves, pollen, tree buds, etc and are in love with the PoolDevil! Yes it does require the pump to run to function (it attaches to the return), but it works almost better than advertised!

 

[kimkats]

I had good luck with my "leaf gulper" when I needed it. I could not use my old vacuum with out having to tear apart my pump afterwards as some of the smaller leaves would get past my baskets and clog up my impeller NOW I have a robot and it does a great job!!!

For pollen you can get these to put in the simmer basket:https://www.amazon.com/Disposable-H...unt+hair+nets&qid=1551557215&s=gateway&sr=8-7

One of our members @PoolguyinCT has a neat set up for his. He puts tennis balls on a bag attached to the top. This helps keep the bag from tipping over.

Kim

 

[fordsbyjay]

I had good luck with my "leaf gulper" when I needed it. I could not use my old vacuum with out having to tear apart my pump afterwards as some of the smaller leaves would get past my baskets and clog up my impeller NOW I have a robot and it does a great job!!!

For pollen you can get these to put in the simmer basket:https://www.amazon.com/Disposable-H...unt+hair+nets&qid=1551557215&s=gateway&sr=8-7

One of our members @PoolguyinCT has a neat set up for his. He puts tennis balls on a bag attached to the top. This helps keep the bag from tipping over.

Kim

I know what you mean about tearing apart the pump. My biggest problem is plugging the underground lines with leaves. I was originally looking at using a 110v 1 hp pump to make a vacuum setup and use an inline canister for a filter. Or better yet a trash pump to just suck that Crud up and blow it out in the ditch.

 

[djw]

I was wondering if anyone else has used the POOLSTYLE leaf eater pool cleaner. It uses a garden hose instead of a vacuum. A bag goes on the top and water sprays up causing a negative pressure and sucks up the leaves. My pool guy says he uses it when they do service calls and he really liked it. I found the whole process a bit of a Pain. If there is any tension on the hose the front of the unit lifts up and it doesn't work well. Once the bag gets pretty full the weight of it falls over and I had trouble with the front lifting again. Once the bag is full you need to take it out, turn off the water, remove bag and empty. The whole process seemed longer then just using a pole with a leaf skimmer attached but it didn't stir up a mess like the leaf skimmer does. I thought about attaching the hose to the pole but that is just more work. You would still need to vacuum the pool after to get it totally clean. I think if you were not in any rush the concept works good for getting most of the leaves and pollen but if I am going to buy something I want it to make less work not more. Just my thoughts.

FWIW we have a tree line behind our property so all fall and winter we have falling leaves then in the spring we have large pollen falling.

View attachment 94111View attachment 94112View attachment 94113

I use exactly this for probably 20 years (with a garden hose hook-up) over 3 pools if I get a overrun by leaves. Works well and the equipment can stay off.

I with all of my pools in history I eventually installed a kid safety fence when I had my own little kids around and thought I was done with the safety fences with my current pool. But and now that there is a grand child, I put another one on my current pool a couple years ago. The positive thing these kid safe fences do is cut waaaay down on the leaves blowing in. I have not had to deploy the leaf eater ever when I have had the safety fence up, the normal cleaner cycle can get that volume even though all 3 pools have had lots of close in trees.

 

[todd.brock]

WE were just bombarded with leaves in the fall. I used the Pool Demon-Its a battery powered leaf vacuum. I sent my wife to Leslie's on a Sunday and said, find something.. They said the garden hose option works ok, but this thing is the bees knees... So .. after cleaning for a month or so with it, it works well. Sometimes I have so many leaves , I just use a leaf net. Then I think the demon works better, so I use it. Moral of the story- When the leaves drop- Its time to close it up, which sucks cuz it will be early in September.
Pool Demon

 

[HeyEng]

WE were just bombarded with leaves in the fall. I used the Pool Demon-Its a battery powered leaf vacuum. I sent my wife to Leslie's on a Sunday and said, find something.. They said the garden hose option works ok, but this thing is the bees knees... So .. after cleaning for a month or so with it, it works well. Sometimes I have so many leaves , I just use a leaf net. Then I think the demon works better, so I use it. Moral of the story- When the leaves drop- Its time to close it up, which sucks cuz it will be early in September.
Pool Demon

How long do the batteries last? It looks like it takes 6AA batteries, so that *could* get costly if you used it any regularity.

I currently use the same type cleaner that the OP mentioned and I have found that in addition to the tennis ball method, if you place the entire waterhose into the pool, it will stop the tendency to "pop up" in the front. I wouldn't say that it's the bee's knees, but it works OK. As a matter of fact, our very gusty winds yesterday inundated our pool with leaves, so I have spent the better part of 2 hours today getting them out. I use the net/pole as best as I can to get the ones on surface and at the bottom, then the leaf eater to get most of the big leaves out...then in goes the robot, which does a fantastic job with pollen/little stuff.

 

[todd.brock]

I bought it Labor Day weekend and used it extensively 4-5x per week for at least 15-20 minutes until we closed in late October. I replaced one set of batteries. I agree it could get pricey, but for the amount of leaves I pulled out, I will deal with it, lol.