GW9500 Kreepy Krauly Great White Inground Pool Cleaner

I purchased the Pentair Great White two months ago. I made my purchase after reading the reviews on Amazon for several pool cleaners. They were tremendously helpful in making the right choice. I am repaying what I owe by sharing what I've learned. We have a tough pool. I maintain it myself because pool guys take one look and quote an outrageous price. We live at the very northern end of the Los Angeles basin, nestled against the mountains that form the basin's northern border. It's a beautiful place to live, but several times a year the Santa Ana winds come, and during those times, the pool needs attention every day. Our property is ringed by eight huge pines that are beautiful and I would never dream of cutting down, but when the winds come, our pool fills up with pine needles first, then pine pellets a couple of weeks later. The winds also scrape dirt off the bare spots in the mountains and dump it in the pool. One day's wind is enough to turn the blue bottom brown. I had a Hayward Navigator for about five years. It worked most of the time, but it wasn't a set-it-and-leave-it device. We have a rectangular 40x20 pool with semicircular steps in one corner. The Navigator would hang up on those steps every time. It might take 5 minutes, it might take 45 minutes, but sooner or later you had to run out and clear it. It also spent a lot of time in the shop, sometimes multiple visits for the same problem. Finally after five years it started running in small circles and the guys at Leslie's Pool just threw up their hands. Since the Navigator, we tried two other cleaners, one expensive and one cheap. Neither worked. I asked around at several different pool shops for a cleaner that wouldn't get hung up on our steps, and the Baracuda MX-8 was mentioned several times. Luckily, I read the reviews here before buying it, as it seems a heavy leaf load will strip out the MX-8's gears. I tried the Great White based on the reviews, and it has been just great. It's a very simple mechanism but it works well for my difficult pool. It has yet to get hung up on the steps. Whenever it gets stuck on anything, it starts to spin and eventually pull itself off. My steps give it no trouble at all, but the circular cap on the pool drain confuses it. It'll take several minutes to clear itself, but it always does. The manual said to vacuum the pool thoroughly before the setting the Great White off on its maiden voyage, but I needed a tough test fast to decide whether I was going to keep it, so I gave it its first test on a day after the worst Santa Ana winds we've had in 2-3 years. The pool was full of needles, leaves, small pine branches, twigs, etc. It cleaned the whole thing. I had to take it out of the pool three times to remove a jam of leaves and twigs, but that's easy to do. Also, the clear hose really helps in telling where the jam is. It won't swallow the branches, but it doesn't get hung up on them either. When it finished its run, the pool was clean except for 5 or 6 branches and 3 or 4 large twigs that the vacuum wouldn't have passed either. We got them with the skimmer. Since then, it has kept the pool cleaner than any other device I've tried. The brushes really do a job. It has even removed some stains the chemicals didn't touch. The Great White is slow, real slow. It cleans the middle six times for every time it cleans the corners. But most of the time, that doesn't matter. Set it before going to work and when you come back, you'll have a clean pool. If I haven't run the cleaner for four days and company is coming in two hours, I'll take a Navigator over a Great White, but otherwise the Great White is far better. Now here's one important key. The Great White is VERY sensitive to pressure, and you won't hit the right pressure setting by fiddling with the dial, not at first anyway. The dial on the pressure valve says FASTER and SLOWER, but that's meaningless for the Great White. It has to be at the right pressure or it won't work right. When you first set the dial, Pentair gives you a pressure meter to make the adjustment. The picture in the manual shows that you should place the meter on the end of one length of hose and move the dial until the disc is between the lines. This doesn't work because 40 feet of hose and a giant leafcatcher will change the pressure at the vacuum head. So put everything on your line that you plan to put on it, and place the meter out on the end of the hose, and then set it. It's a two-person job but worth doing. Also, as the pressure at the filter changes, you'll need to adjust the pressure on the Great White. After awhile, mostly by observing how far it goes up the walls, you can set the pressure properly without the meter, but use it at first because otherwise the Great White doesn't work right. Most of the complaints I've read here seem to result from an improper pressure setting. I really can't speak to the repair reliability of the Great White after two months, but it looks good so far. The simplicity of the unit is real plus. The MX-8 is more expensive and much more complicated, and that means it's more vulnerable.

Bought this as a replacement to same thing that came with my pool. It lasted for a little over 4 years with very little maintenance/repair required. The rubber gasket that goes around the entire bottom of the cleaning head is usually the first thing to go, but it's like a $5 part and easy to replace. I honestly don't even know how truly necessary that part is, but it is supposed to help with suction. Depending on how well you upkeep your pool throughout the off-season, you can end up with a little slime built-up on the internal gears,which can make it not work as well. Again, it's relatively easy to disassemble, clean up any slime or crusties on the gears, and then it will work like new again throughout the swimming season. The hose will deteriorate before the cleaning head. This is especially true if you remove it from the pool for long periods of time and store it in the sun. It's best to just leave it in the pool all the time. It really doesn't get in the way all that much. I have never had the problems with this cleaner that others have reported -- like it staying in the deep end all the time. There was one incident where it just kept cleaning in a tight circle, but that was because some debris was in the steering mechanism on the bottom. Once I removed that, it worked as designed. Sometimes you do have to clean the cleaner, so you should probably check it at least weekly to make sure that it's not clogged or debris isn't otherwise interfering with it's operation. I have had numerous friends who have other namebrand auto cleaners in their pools comment about how much better the GW9500 works. For me when it came time to replace the original one, the decision was a no-brainer. Just FYI, all the components in my pool system are Pentair. I don't know if that makes a difference or not when choosing an auto pool cleaner, but the GW9500 sure does work well in my Pentair equipped pool.

Works well To extend life only use when cleaning the pool do not leave in pool weeks at a time use1 day a week or as needed.

I was given the exact same unit from a friend 7 years ago and it was 3 years old then. It's literally seen thousands of hours of use without rebuild and was worn completely out before it stopped working. It had a very rough life abd never missed a beat. Very good unit and I had no reservations of buying a new one. I have been trying for the last 3 days since I received it and can't get this new unit to work. Between the hose that came with it and the sweeper, it is very buoyant and will not sink to the bottom. It floats only 6 inches below the water surface. I bought another 40 foot of different hose and it helped. But the unit just won't stay running. It stops, and has to be pulled out and I have to push the oscillator with my hand to get it unstuck and working again. It will run for about 10 minutes and locked up. When it does oscillate, it does not move. It stays in one spot. I have adjusted the flow from lower that minimum setting to over maximum flow, no change. The filter has 300 pounds of new sand and a brand new pump all this weekend. My system is working perfect and in almost new condition. I'm very disappointed. I'm not sure if the design internally has changed, but it absolutely will not work.

Works great. Could get to the shallow end a little more frequently.

Gets hung up on the center drain will not got o the shallow end ... I will be returning it