Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was reluctant to buy this based on the bad reviews. At the time of my purchase the product had 20% of the buyers/reviewers rating it one star.. i took a chance as i knew if it didn't meet my expectations, I would pack it up and send it back.. After a week, I'm really happy with this but read on because you may not be.. if this is your only pool vacuum, buy something else. Well first let me clear up some bad information posted in other reviews.. "you need to buy an extra silt bag." You don't, it comes with 2 extra bags including the screen bag. "You need to buy a pole". If you own a pool, you likely own a scimmer pole. It fits on your regular pole "After a few uses it doesn't have good suction" Yeah, any pool cleaner needs constant cleaning. Use it/ clean it I purchased this product for two primary reasons 1) I have a large in ground pool and an expensive robot that randomly zigzags around my pool for 6 hours and misses spots. I also have a regular vacuum that is a chore to take out and setup so getting those few missed spots is a pain.. 2) my pool gets dirty in the same spots.. I get collections of "stuff" in the same corners/areas of my pool. I wanted a way to hit just those areas quickly for quick cleanups without dragging out the robot cleaner. So I was looking around and found this pool blaster catfish vacuum. It seemed to fit the bill for the two problems I was trying to solve. In un boxing the vacuum the first thing I noticed was it's "toy like" appearance. It doesn't give you the impression it's going to hold up/ function well. I followed the instructions and started out of the gate using the fine silt bag. . After charging for about 45 mins it was fully charged and I was anxious to try it so out I go vacuuming the pool at 11:30 at night. As usual I had a collection of dirt along the back seams of the pool and on the deep end and some small spots in the shallow end. I mounted the vacuum on my skimmer pole push the button on the back of the vacuum to turn it on. The sound of the vacuum also doesn't make you feel this is a well built device. After submerging the vacuum the noise quieted and the device was working well .. I started in the shallow end so I can see if device had sufficient suction and not just pushing around dirt. i cleaned up the obvious areas in the shallow end which took about 5 minutes. It worked well on the deep pool steps but when the motor comes out of the water the suction stops, on shallow steps it didnt work at all. So plan on using this in at least 10 inches of water or at an angle to keep it submerged. On to the deep end! In another review, it mentioned it was hard to keep the vacuum on the bottom it wanted to float up and I kinda agree. The areas I wanted to hit, the outline of the deep end basin and closer to the edges, I could easily get to with no issues and it picked up everything . As I reached out to the center of the pool it was harder to keep the vacuum on the floor consistently as the angle of the skimmer pole went more horizontal. It had a tendency to float up. Still it did what I needed it to do.. First time out, it ran for about 25 minutes and performed "ok". I've since used it 3 more times doing spot cleaning about 8-10 minutes and I haven't charged it up yet and each time feeling a little better about the vacuum. I view this device as a "dust-buster" for your pool, great for quick spot cleanups. You wouldn't want to vacuum your whole pool with it, while you could probably do a larger section if needed. Hope this helps in your decision. I'll post some updates after living with this for a while. Update- after two seasons I continue to be impressed with this little vac... So getting ready for Memorial Day pool opening a worked a few days in getting open and blue, I’ve got the yard setup for the weekend and all the pool supplies away and we get a quick rain shower on Saturday night, which drops a bunch of crap, including worms into the pool.. I was able to clean up in 15mins and back to prepping for the party.. i’ve just started season 3 with this little guy and used it 3 times for 15mins each time.. I can’t stress enough, works great a spot cleaner in conjunction with your regular pool vac.. Final update 2019 -after three season it finally died. I buying a replacement 3 years for $90 bucks it’s worth it - One last update 6/2020 - So after great success with the first vac the next 2 units didn’t last a full season.. poor quality control not sure if I would try it again..