scorpster wrote:
There's a large concrete swimming pool at my mom's house that needs
refurbishing, and I'd like to help her bring it back into use. Drain
the water, clean out debris, acid wash, ok sounds relatively simple and
cheap so far. Except the part I'm worried about is the filtration
system. It is very old and rusted in the pool room and I doubt it
works. So I can better "visualize the cost" of this project and keep
the cost manageable I figure I'll use a pool cleaning robot instead to
suck up leaves and dirt that fall inside. But can these things do the
whole job in a large pool? Can they keep up with keeping the pool clean
without excessive maintenance? What is considered the best model these
days as a filter system replacement?

No way.

While the pool "robots" are much better than the cleaners than attach to
the suction side or pressure side of the pump (or that have a dedicated
pump) they can't filter that much water.

I have the Dolphin. It was $800 with the caddy, and that was with a 20%
off at Leslie's. Leslie's is a good place to buy it because they offer a
longer warranty on the Dolphin. Mine broke like a week before the
warranty was up and it was repaired free.

On my pool, all the water for the filter goes through the skimmer, the
drain in the bottom doesn't work, so I needed the better cleaner.

Installing a real pump and filter isn't that hard or expensive as long
as the plumbing from the pool is okay. If you're good with PVC and
wiring you can do it yourself. Just plan the PVC arrangement so that the
pump is removable/replaceable in the future.