Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

ORIGINAL REVIEW (updates at the end): I feel it's time to write a review on this cleaner after owning it for 4 1/2 years and being absolutely thrilled with it. The reason I have waited so long is because I kept thinking "this can't last much longer, I'm sure something will break soon" because that had been my experience with all of the other cleaners I had owned. I can't even begin to add up how much money I wasted on pool cleaners & parts over a 10 year period before discovering The Poolcleaner by Poolvergnugen. If you are reading this review and you are in the market for a new pool cleaner because you're sick of fixing your existing one, then you know exactly what I'm talking about. I had tried all of the "top rated" ones out there, and either they didn't clean well or they were absurdly expensive to maintain/repair. The worst was the Hayward Navigator... I don't know how that company hasn't been shut down by the FTC for fraud, since they make an item which is designed to fail - and fail often - and then costs an arm & a leg to repair. I probably spent $100-$150 a year on repairs with that thing and it cost me $300 to begin with, and it didn't even clean very well! Anyways, on to The Poolcleaner. This cleaner is an absolute workhorse. I live in Arizona where pools are open year-round, and this cleaner is in my 22,000 gallon pool doing it's thing 365 days a year. Our pools can be extremely difficult to keep clean in the summer months due to the extreme heat (which speeds up algae growth) and all of the dust in the air, and we need to run our pumps for 10-12+ hours a day just to keep them clean. And in the 4+ years that I have owned this cleaner, my pool has never been...well....cleaner. :) This will climb walls with ease (given the proper amount of suction) - in fact with a freshly cleaned filter it will nearly climb out of the pool! It covers the pool in a random pattern to ensure it gets every nook and cranny, it sucks up every speck of dust and debris - including long palm tree fronds and bougainvillea leaves which would clog my other cleaners, and it NEVER. BREAKS. DOWN. EVVVERRRRR. That last part is the major selling point, in my opinion. Even if the cleaning was just mediocre, I would STILL recommend it solely based on the fact that it is bomb proof. All that I've had to do in 4 years is take it out of the water for an occasional clog (which rarely happens), and I have changed the front tires twice and rear tires once at a cost of about $35/pair (I have a pebbeltec pool which is hard on tires; if you have plaster they will last much longer). BUT THAT'S IT! So it has cost me a grand total of $105 in maintenance in 4.5 years ($23.33/year) compared to $100-$150/year with my old Hayward. And this thing cleans so much better than the Hayward it's not even funny. I could go on and on, but I think I've already covered my two main points - it does a phenomenal job at cleaning, and it hardly costs anything to maintain. What more could you possibly want? The only thing I'm disappointed about is that it won't climb & clean my stairs, so I have to brush those down once a week (which takes me about 60 seconds). So you can stop your research right here and just buy this cleaner, you will not be disappointed. POOLVERGNUEGEN FTW!! UPDATE 12/2013: It appears that Haywards has now purchased Poolvergnuegen brand. I hope they don't mess with the design and turn it into a "designed-to-fail" product because the original design is flawless. UPDATE 5/8/2015: I have now owned this cleaner for 6 years and it is still flawless! In the meantime, I've had to replace a 3-year old pool cleaner at one of my rentals (with this one) and put about $150 in parts into another before replacing it with this as well. And all I've had to do with this one is replace the wheels 3 times in a 6 year period!! And I have a pebbletec pool which is notorious for being hard on the feet/wheels of cleaners. This continues to be one of the best purchases I have ever made for my pool (along with a variable speed pump and salt water system). UPDATE 5/7/2016: I'm now at 8 years since buying this pool cleaner, and since my last review 2 years ago all I've done is replace the wheels one more time. But now it looks like I'm finally having issues, the cleaner doesn't move well anymore and constantly gets stuck. I took it apart and it looks like many of the gear pieces are showing a lot of wear. I added up the cost to replace all the moving pieces and decided to instead just buy a completely "lower rebuild" kit which I found on a popular auction site for $140 to my door. So if you take that cost, plus the 4 sets of wheels ($65x4) and spread it out over the 8 years of ownership it comes out to about $50/year or about $4/mo. But keep in mind I live in AZ where my pool is running year round, and the pump needs to run a very long time in the summer when it's 100+ outside. If you live in a climate where your pool is only used half the year then you can cut that cost in half since your parts will last twice as long.