Many people dream about owning their very own backyard swimming pool, but their dreams usually don’t involve the difficult task of maintaining one. Do you know how dirty a pool can get? Fallen leaves and dead raccoons aren’t even half the story. But if you’re looking for a hands-free way of keeping your pool’s water pristine, then a robotic pool cleaner is for you.
Hayward Pool Products is a popular automatic pool cleaner manufacturer. Their line of pool cleaners isn’t at the same level as Maytronics, but the simplicity and affordable price tags of their products, like the Poolvergnuegen, is what attract pool owners. Let’s take a quick look-see at what the 4-wheeled Poolvergnuegen is all about.
Quick Installation
Getting the Poolvergnuegen set up and ready to roll is as easy as setting up any automatic pool cleaner. The Poolvergnuegen comes with twelve 3.2-foot hoses that connect to one another and the robot to give it full coverage of your pool. Everything snaps easily into place.
The unit has a maximum travel distance of 40 feet from your pool’s suction port or skimmer with one or two hoses added so it doesn’t go taut. The hose needs to be filled with water prior to turning the robot on (just dip it underwater and let it fill up).
You’ll need to manually adjust the Poolvergnuegen’s suction by adjusting the wheel speed to between 11 and 13 RPM. This can be done by turning either the pool pump’s ball valve or the skimmer hole adapter.
This is probably the most challenging part of the whole setup which should give you an indication of just how quick and easy it is to get the Poolvergnuegen up and running. No boost bump necessary to get this automatic pool cleaner started.
Vacuum and Scrubbing Performance
The Poolvergnuegen is all about suction. Its powerful motor draws in several thousands of gallons of water every hour, picking up every fallen leaf, every acorn, and every other large-sized debris you can think of.
This automatic pool cleaner does not have its own filter, but instead it passes all debris through your pool’s existing system. At the end of the day, you can check the pool filter to see just how effective the Poolvergnuegen’s vacuum is.
Scrubbing, however, is an entirely different story. It does not have a brushroll, and the only way it can dislodge dirt and algae is if the wheels accidentally make contact with it. By no means is the Poolvergnuegen a reliable scrubber—you’ll have to do the painstaking task of scrubbing your pool lining manually.
Random Navigation
By the looks of this robot, and the lack of a controller module that you’d find in Maytronics’ products, the lack of navigation software isn’t all that surprising. Instead, the Poolvergnuegen has a set travel distance where it turns anywhere between 90° and 540° every 11 to 14 feet of forward movement (based on suction and wheel RPM settings).
Unsurprisingly, its random navigation means longer cleaning times, as in it can take a whole day of cleaning to clean your pool from end to end. The silver lining is that it’ll get the job done eventually but probably not as quickly as you may have hoped.
Surprisingly Excellent Maneuverability
Despite not coming with state-of-the-art navigation software, the Poolvergnuegen maneuvers beautifully underwater. This is mainly due to the four oversized wheels and their deep treads which allow it to travel pass by and over obstacles without missing a beat.
This four-wheel model also has the ability to scale walls and stay afloat for minutes at a time to purge more debris from your pool’s water. You’ll know when you need to replace the wheels just by looking at the treads.
Pool Types
The wheels that come standard with the Poolvergnuegen are made specifically for use in concrete swimming pools. However, those with vinyl or fiberglass pools aren’t out of luck; Hayward offers a set of different wheels for various pool surface types (sold separately).
Verdict: Should I Get the Hayward Poolvergnuegen Automatic Pool Cleaner?
There’s no denying that the Hayward Poolvergnuegen is a great pool cleaner. Those of you looking for your very first automatic pool cleaner, this is a great, affordable unit to start with. It’s a simple, straightforward robot that vacuums pools clean and is able to suction up large pieces of debris without choking.
Essentially, the Poolvergnuegen amplifies the effectiveness of your pool’s filtration system by randomly suctioning in any debris it comes across. Overall, the Hayward Poolvergnuegen is a decent robot that would fit well in almost any in-ground pool.
If you have any comments, please add them below. Similarly, please let us know if you spot any errors.