"wanderer" wrote in message
.. .
On Wed, 2 Jun 2004 00:12:18 +0100, nightjar wrote:

"wanderer" wrote in message
.. .

snip

Takes about an hour every other week during the season to vacuum the
pool,

I have a robot that cleans the bottom for about six hours each day and
that
is not fully effective at keeping the pool clean.

Yup, that's why mine is never used. It cleans fine where it actually
passes, but I found the patterns of movement tended to be governed to a
large extent by the connecting hose, so some areas were rarely traversed
by the cleaner.

Mine is electric and not constrained by the floating cable in any way.
However, it can't do up the sides very far and can't get to places like the
steps.

Like I said, it takes me about an hour once a fortnight,
and the pool is nice and clean. The secret is not to let the sediment
settle and form into 'mud' that takes more aggresive action with the
vacuum head.

Difficult when you only visit about once every six weeks, which is why I
bought a robot. However, so much stuff gets into the pool that its filter
bag clogs at some point between visits and it stops picking stuff up. It
takes me about a week of daily attention to get the pool clean and I don't
usually go there for a full week at a time.

Colin Bignell