20 Best Above Ground Pool Vacuum For Fine Dirt (2023 Updated)

I’ve had this pool bug for more than two years now, inn the same pool, which I think will make this an honest review. When it decides to work, it works ***. but it’s as reliable as a tweeker on Graveyard shift.

At first I found it odd that it hooked up to the exhaust instead of the intake, but then I realized it works like blowing over a ketchup bottle. The exiting water creates a vacuum under it which sucks stuff up, down to the smallest particles of sand.

The other upside of this design is that what it doesn’t suck up, it blows around and suspends it in the water for the skimmer to pick up later. All good. Now the bad. It works ***. but only when it decides to show up and clock in.

I swear my wife’s X-husband is more reliable. I can pick it up out of the water, let it clear itself and drop ***. and it takes of like the Flying Sub (for those who remember). Then, within a few minutes (sometimes seconds) of scooting around, it will stop in its tracks.

Mind you, it’s done this since new. You hear it shift gears but it goes no where. I went online, got You Tube Certified in Intex Bug Repair, took it apart, did all the fixes and it worked great for about an hour.

The problem is the flapper valve which makes it shift from forward to reverse, gets caught in the middle for some unknown reason, even after the fixes and I know dang well everything is moving freely and freshly lubed, internally.

My upgraded pump is more than powerful enough to drive the thing, so that’s not it. They’ve gone to a far lighter hose on the new ones. Maybe this will help????In short, there’s nothing else like it so the choices and other buying options are bleak.

It works well, when it decides to, but if you decide to buy one, do yourself a favor and DON’T WATCH ***. or you may end up going for your 12ga and doing some serious damage to your soft-sided pool. Make sure you’re up on your BP meds, as well.

I hope this reviews helps some folks.

Works well with my above ground pool. One thing to note with this is that it’s not so much a “pool vacuum”, but rather a “pool hoky” if that makes sense. There is no suction involved with this device.

You hook it up to the pump outlet that pushes water out, not the inlet that sucks it in. The pressure pushes it around the pool and the brushes scoop up debris. I like this in that it doesn’t suck all the junk into the pool filter and rather it goes into a little bin in the Intex unit, similar to a Roomba.

This helps from needing to change the pool filter after using it. I let it run for a few hours each week and when I pull it out the bin is full of all kinds of weeds and debris, so it definitely works, but don’t expect it to get every single bit of sand, seed, etc, especially if stuff has collected in a corner of your pool, so you’ll probably still need to use a handheld pool vacuum for the couple of spots it can’t get to.

Ultimately I view this product the same as an indoor Roomba. It doesn’t replace vacuuming, but it severely cuts down the amount of vacuuming you’ll need to do manually. For 1/5 the price of the more expensive and featured pool vacuums, I’m happy with my purchase.

The robot has been easy to use and we’ve used it often for 2 pool seasons. If you are expecting something to suck up leaves at the bottom of your pool, it doesn’t do much of that. It blows leaves and seems to do a great job sucking up algae at the bottom of the pool.

It will suck up some smaller leaves but if you have a good amount of large sized leaves at the bottom of your pool, it does better with small ones. With my rectangular intex pool, it doesn’t like to get the corners well at all.

I like that the movement slows down once it needs emptying. It has definately helped with opening our pool, I just wish it primarily sucked up large leaves.

Large bits of debris in your pool are not the problem. It’s the millions of little bits spread throughout the pool (usually settled to the bottom) that are the food for algae. I love the science/engineering behind this product.

Cheap, easy to use, uncomplicated and powered by the pump you already have running. What’s not to love?Unfortunately, this little guy zooms back and forth, jetting around the bottom of the pool like there is no tomorrow.

In the process, it stirs up all those millions of little particles so they float around in the water rather than sitting at the bottom or the pool. It does a great job picking up leaves and such, but it captures relatively few of the little bits and once they are floating around, it can’t suck them in.

Leave it running 24/7 if you want, all it does is keep the water churned up so that they can’t settle to the bottom to be vacuumed. All in all, a complete fail. The only good part is it was much cheaper to buy this useless product than it would be to buy the other ones.

I had an earlier version of the Aquadroid. I have used it for probably more than 10 years (I forget). Before that, I used a SIMILAR product for a similar amount of time. That oldest one used a slightly different pattern than the Aquadroid that I am replacing and was more effective at covering 90% of my pool in a shorter amount of time.

Parts are available to renew/repair the Droid. I have replaced worn feet a couple of times. There now seemed to be enough of the parts that were worn on my old Droid, and the part costs were high enough that I decided to just replace it.

I have not tried this new Aquadroid. It looks almost identical to the one that I just wore out. Maybe the path programming is more effective, like my first robot? For reference, my pool has a flat bottom and has a vinyl liner.

At first I was skeptical about the Aqua Bug doing what it claimed, but after assembling it and putting the big in the pool, my worries were put to rest in the first couple of minutes s I watched the buy pick up sand, dirt, bugs and leaves from the bottom of the pool.

This cut my pool cleaning by at least 80%. We gave a 15 foot round above ground pool. We also have the steps that go into the pool and so far no issue with it doing its job. Once in a great while, the bug will float half way to the top, but very rare, We just dunk it back down to the bottom.

One thing they don’t tell you is that when you are done cleaning, you have to disassemble the hoses and lay them flat. If you stare them coiled, or they start to bend, it could cause the Aqua Bug to not work and do it’s job.

I have one of those long plastic bins you can get at Walmart. You can disassemble them and place them in the bin for storage. Very happy with my purchase. You will be very happy.

This is my second aqua critter (bug). The first is ten years old and still running, just needed new hoses, and figured since the cost wasn’t that much more, would just buy the whole thing. The new vacs include a regulator and flow meter, to help with setup.

The vac does a great job, and will completely clean the pool in about an hour. Be sure to not coil the hose up when storing. It will give the vac a “memory”. Just store the hose alongside the pool. I’ll probably still use my old red vac for sentimental value.

She’s worn (had to replace feet about five years ago), but still works. Replacement parts are readily available, as is the leaf container, which works well in the fall. Contains enough hose for a 24′ round pool.

Very nice, even though its not a wall climber, it more than makes up for that with thorough scrubbing of the pool floor. I actually use this for my inground pool(10,000 gallon) clean its spotless in about an hour and a half.

You do need the fine filtration basket though. that, combined with occasional floculant, keeps our pool sparkling clean!.

So far so good. This is my third pool bot this season. I tried two other brands that did not work well. It is quite expensive though. My previous Smartpool cleaner was awesome and only cost $300. This one was $550 but is the closest to my original so far.

It cleans much better than the other two that I tried. It also has a neat bucket that you clean instead of those bags. Hopefully it will keep cleaning well.

Love this little robot vacuum! Does a great job and especially like that you just plug it in and let it go. nothing to hook up to your skimmer and debris gets collected in the basket inside the vacuum.

Just lift it out. My brother has one and recommended it to me and glad it decided to purchase! Worth the money!.

For the price you can’t beat it. Needs better instructions for adjustment. I would not suggest using the wall fitting that comes with it if you are replacing a Polaris. Use the Polaris fitting and attach the hose to it.

This gives you the option to use restrictor plates and the overall wall fitting is better. The hose is almost reason enough to buy this unit. It is an excellent hose and contains all the floats and swivels you need.

That is worth at least 1/2 of the cost of this unit in itself. The first drawback though does start with the hose and is not limited to this hose as I have had some Polaris hoses act the same way when new.

When you try to attach the hose to the top of the unit you might find it near impossible to actually cut a thread into the hose so until the hose loses it’s sheen due to chemicals you will likely need to leave it on there buy force of friction.

Maybe a good wire tie. That leads me to the 2nd issue. The tail. This comes with a nice perfectly good tail and an apparently week clip. The clip disappeared never to be seen again within a week. Had to wire tie it on.

Unit also seems to be overly hungry for it’s own tail. Have had to rescue the tail from throat and bag a couple of times. Probably means they used a hose that is too supple fora tail. Not sure how to fix that other than maybe replacing it with an actual Polaris tail.

Don’t worry about the Polaris backup. Drain it and put it away. This unit has backup built in. Sometimes spends too much time in backup mode. Performance is a bit subpar compared to a Polaris 180 in terms of wall climbing.

My unit won’t come all the way up a wall. I guess the good side of that though is it’s not spraying everyone randomly. I don’t like the double wall bag as it’s hard to empty. Only a moderate improvement on a 180 bag in catch rate.

Still prefer panty hose over any Polaris bag. Overall I do recommend it just be aware of it’s quirks.

After 5 years with the Aquabot Pool Rover Jr. , I replaced it with the Dolphin Escape for my above ground 18×33 oval pool. After one season, I could not be happier. In my opinion, a much better product for the following reasons: it brushes the bottom of the pool, removing stubborn algae, does a much better job cleaning the corners of the pool walls and even slightly climbs them, the cord does not twist up, emptying the bag and cleaning it is a breeze, much faster than the pool rover and you don’t have to worry about remembering to switch the swivel pin from side to side, it has a larger handle making it easier to hook and lift out of the pool.

It has done an excellent job cleaning my pool. I’ve read some reviews by some who are not happy with the supplied basket and they end up purchasing an accessory finer basket for very small debris. I think the supplied debris basket is fine.

I do not know how reliable and how long the product will last but it seems to be sturdy and well built.

We received our pool cleaner quickly! It was easy to assemble and we put it to work immediately. It replaced our old dolphin that was 15 years old. It was night and day difference, the pool is now super clean! It even safely picks up small toys.

Felt like this was a good deal, very happy about.

The product name and description is accurate but the stock photo on here is not. After reading mixed reviews I decided to give this bug a try for our pool. So far she buzzes around the pool sucking up all the little pods the trees drop.

I was having to use the leaf bag several times a day to try to keep up and now having this vacuum run every few days handles the bottom and I just skim the top! Has saved me so much time!!. We are new pool owners(trying to learn) and the pool store was trying to push us to buy a $1,000+ robotic vacuum and we only have an 18ft pool.

I’m glad I decided to try this $200 option instead! It took a moment to use the flow gauge for initial set up but once I figured that out all I did was attach the bug and she’s been off and working since!.

The AquaBug is a must have. I have purchased two now (had the first for many years (9, 10?) until the poor thing literally wore out). It makes easy work of keeping a pool clean, and it’s just fun too (guests are fascinated to see it shuffling along the bottom of the pool, and children love it).

Although there seem to be a lot of notations on the Web about not using the device in an Intex pool, we have done so for a long time in a couple of different Intex models, without a hitch (we didn’t use Intex’s pump filters though.

they’re ridiculously small for the larger pools). Have a different type of above ground pool now, and the AquaBug just hums along in it, too. At any rate, this product is ingenious in it’s engineering (have to admit taking the old one apart to help it run a bit longer), and they are very well made.

I wouldn’t do with one.

An excellent, excellent producdt. This is my second Hayward AquaBug pool cleaner. I purchased the first one in 2011 and it has vacuumed my above ground pool until this summer when one of the wheel axles snapped off while I was handling it.

I figured it was time to retire the critter and get a new one. I’ll pick up a wheel and axle kit and keep the old one as a spare. Some additional information. I’m using a 1 HP pump and sand filter in a 21 foot diameter pool.

I would also recommend purchasing the cork shoe kit. The bug seems to move more efficiently with the cork feet instead of the rubber feet that come with the AquaBug.

I’ve only had it a week, but it has successfully cleaned the bottom of our pool each time. I like the way it backs up to the wall and shoots water up the sides to dislodge anything that might be trying to hang on there.

It may not completely climb the wall, but it does what it can to clean it all. No tangled cord yet, but then its only been a week.

This is a good cleaner, works just as well as the one I had attached to the pump. This robot saves me a lot of hard work. I will need to buy the finer filter because my pool has some fine particles that seems to continue to go through both the filter and the robot.

Works OK, however, for the price you should get the finer mesh basket with the original purchase. Did have problems with the cleaner doing wheelies all the time. Had to add some weight to the front to stop it from doing this.

Also issues with the cord getting tangled.

The best manual pool vacuum ever! It works so well. The included mesh bag is what makes it awesome. It has very micro holes that keeps even the finest dirt inside the bag. Alot of the vacuums on the market have larger holes in the bags that still allow dirt to pass thru.

I wish the manufactuer had replacement bags as i would like to have a spare on hand. I highly recommend this vacuum. Sad to see that it is now double the price.

I dont know how many people vacuum the pool alone like I do, filling the hose with water, trying to get the little piece into the filter then try connecting them without water. sucks. this is sooo easy.

and keeps all the water in the pool. you do have to have the hose off during assembling and de-assembling, but for the price *****.

amazingly great for the price. bought on with a motor one time and it quit working within a week. GOOD PRODUCT

Stopped working after only 2/3 of a season. No problem. Under warranty. Right? WRONG! Clearly eligible for warranty. Approved for warranty. 2 1/2 months later still no pump for pool. Now season is over.

Multiple calls to company get same ***. no parts in stock. So the warranty is USELESS if they don’t fulfil the promise of a warranty. This is regarding the 16″ sand filter and pump. I also own the 12″.

It too has had problems. So quality is an issue with INTEX. Also the purchase of 16″ was due to 12″ not being powerful enough to circulate and keep pool ***. its only a 7500 gallon pool. SHOULD have been plenty.

But was not. So purchased 16. WHEN ***. it is a solid system. Enough power for an 18′ round above ground. But since it isn’t working and INTEX has not fullfilled their warranty obligation, my family has lost most of this year for swimming.

Based on their inability to stand by their products, I would HIGHLY recommend staying away from this brand. And PLEASE, before anyone thinks of using COVID and supply chain ***. and labor or whatever other excuse INTEX has ***.

if these issues were ***. then how have they been able to continue to sell the same pump on Amazon and their own website this entire time. ????? One would hope they would take care of their current customers instead of screwing us over in order to sell the units to new customers.

As one who truly enjoys writing positive reviews ANYTIME they are ***. this is NOT how I would rather spend my time. But as a customer multiple times over regarding INTEX, I feel it is important to warn any potential new customers just what they will probably be dealing with if they purchase an INTEX product today.

This pump was purchased to build an 8-foot stock tank pool. It arrived well boxed with no damage. Taking the items out of the box and getting everything hooked up was fairly straight forward. Everything you need to get a stock tank pool up and running is in the box except the kit does not come with an inlet fitting.

So make sure you get a inlet valve when you are setting everything up. Once I got the system hooked up, I ran into the second problem. The website and instruction manual indicates that this filter takes 50 lbs of sand.

Which would be a single bag. I had to use one bag and a fraction of another to get sand in the proper fill range. Solving this issue was simple, so I kept cruising along until I hit the third issue. The third issue is I have weather proof in use outlet boxes for all of my outdoor outlets.

If you do not know that these are, these are outlet covers that have a box that opens, you can plug in your electrical item, and there is a slot for the cord to come out while you close the box, so everything is protected from the elements.

The plug that is on the pump is a plug with a built in GFI, which being around water is a great thing. The issue arises when you go to plug this plug into the outlet, and the plug is longer than a standard outlet box, by about 1/8 of an inch.

This required me to dremel out the box just enough to get it close to fitting, and then hand filing the rest while checking frequently to make sure the back end of the outlet fit perfectly through the side of the box and there was not a gap for bugs.

Or that you have dealt with all of the minor foibles of getting everything set up, let’s talk about the pump and filter. The pump is strong, moves bunches of water, and is surprisingly quiet. The instructions are clear and simple to follow for the initial backwash and how to set it to start filtering.

The timer function is a little clunky, but it comes with a timer and it functions well once it is set, and since this is a set it and forget it type of function, it works as intended. In summary, this is a great pump once you get everything going and it appears that it will work well.

My wife is happy with how quiet it is, and in a 8-foot stock tank it generates enough of a current that if you are floating, it will slowly spin you in a circle. I would recommend this system to a friend.

I took off one star for not including an entire system in the box (i. e. inlet fitting), having to get 2 bags of sand, and the plug issue.

I have to warn anyone who considers spending their hard earned money on a product that only has a 6 month lifespan tops. It worked great for the first season (July -Sept) and were happy with how it kept the water clear.

At the end of the summer we cleaned out the sand put it away dry as if it were packaged new. We set it up again the next season and it would not turn on. The display was blank so we checked the outlets with other appliances and we had power going to the pump.

We read all the trouble shooting tips and the directions and trust, me we tried everything. I was all ready to contact the manufacturer but miraculously later on in the day while it was still plugged in we heard a beep and it suddenly turned on.

It ran fine the second summer (3 months tops) after it finally tuned on. At the end of the year we put it away again clean and dry. This year we took it out and set it up again and the same issue. Plugged it in and the display is blank.

I left it plugged in all day waiting to see if it would somehow turn on again but it wont. The led control panel is completely blank and will not turn on. What a shame it is that 1 month after the warranty ran out, it is now completely useless and will likely make it way to a land fill.

The pool is filled now but we have no pump, we are forced to look for another all over again spending even more hard earned money. I have been reading here that many other people are experiencing the same issues and have tried to contact the company but never getting any response.

This product is clearly defective. It is such shame and a complete waste since the problem is probably due to some 2 cent cheep electrical component that renders this pump useless.

I was very skeptical about this cleaner. Previously I had tried a pool cleaner similar to the Kreepy Krawley and it worked “ok” – but would sometimes just go around in circles and wouldn’t cover the entire 24′ above ground pool.

This one claimed to have a “programmed” drive mechanism – so I thought I’d see if it worked better. The Pros – tubing the comes with it is durable and long enough to reach my entire 24′ pool. It snaps together with “rib-like” connections.

The cleaner itself has two “rocker” type feet with rubber pads. The cleaner seems sturdy. When assembled and put into action, its ‘feet’ propel it forward while a geared drive system steers the cleaner to effectively cover all areas of the pool.

Since it sits low to the ground – it does a great job of picking up debris from the pool bottom. It rarely gets stuck and usually if it does – its because the suction is weak and you need to clean the filter or perform a backwash.

THE CONS: Few cons here – first, I think the steering needs to allow it to travel in longer “straight path” distances instead of various circular patterns. Second – the tail (which is purely aesthetic) does not stay on and pops off often.

And last – the are no brushes, so it does not do anything for wiping algae. Summary: All-in-all its anaffordable, hard-working cleaner that rids your pool floor of any debris. It’s pretty quick and effective.

Make sure your filtration system is running optimum and has good suction – this guy requires good suction to drive the movement pieces AND pick up debris. When I find mine travelling slowly, its usually because my filter needs attention.

Everyone also loves how cute it is – so its not just some weird looking device that looks like a leech crawling around your pool. BTW – my Kreepy Krawly got stuck on a rock that magically made its way into my pool one time and it repeatedly bumped up against it thousands of times – and wore a hole in my liner which caused a leak – this device turns by design, so even if it hits a foreign obstacle – it will turn and go away from it in a short period of time, unlike the other which just aggressively tried to get past it.

So in my opinion, its safer for your pool floor!.

She does a great job overall. A couple of notes. Hoses did not mate with my Intex intake. I had to buy a Blue adapter to screw into the Intex fitting and buy a few adapters at The Hardware store. If your pool is dirty like mine was.

You really have to monitor Wanda and her suction ability. I had to stop Wanda and clean out my filter and unscrew the blue adapter and clean out the intake on the pool wall several times. I then backwashed once.

After that, Wanda kept on going and my pool is as clean as ever. She is slow but does a fantastic job. Tail is worthless and does not fit into the grooves.

The unit is impressive and does a very nice job of cleaning my 26′ above ground pool. On the downside, the intake is rather small and small to medium size acorns clog the hole. Some chestnut oak leaves jam the intake and many are sucked through.

There were some attachments that I still don’t understand with the directions a little vague. I intend to reach out to the company for further advise. I have been a very satisfied Hayward product user for years.

DO NOT BUY THIS POOL CLEANER. IT LITERALLY RUBS OFF THE COLOR OF YOUR LINER. I HAVE HAD A POOL AND CLEANED IT BY MANUAL BRUSH FOR 9 YEARS. I BOUGHT THIS UNIT AND WITHIN USING TWICE, THE BLUE LINER IS WHITE.

THEY WONT DO ANYTHING UNLESS YOU HAVE 3 MONTHS WORTH OF CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. THIS IS THEIR WAY OUT. I HAVE DONE MY OWN POOL TESTING FOR 9 YEARS WITH NO PROBLEMS. EXPENSIVE UNIT AND IT RUINED MY POOL LINER.

***** DO NOT BUY **** WARNING.

The Prowler 910 is amazing! I wish I had pursuit years ago. My pool maintenance is so much easier now. I have more time to enjoy my pool. I highly recommend it.

Works great! Picks up dirt, leaves, etc and does a great job covering the entire pool. No more vacuuming with a 20 ft hose! I should have bought this the day I bought the pool!