Are In-Floor Cleaning Systems For Pools A Good Idea? 

I live out in Nevada and have an in-floor system. Works great for our climate, desert landscaping, primarily dust/dirt accumulations. I have not had to vacuum the pool since purchasing the house back in 2020. Pool was built in 2000, and the in-floor solution was installed at time of build. Installing post-pool build wouldn't seem advisable, but installing at time of original pool build, I would highly recommend. No fussing with a "creepy-crawler" over a 20yr span.

We have one and it’s been fantastic

I didn't choose it but I purchased a home with a small pool in Florida about 4 years ago with a Paramount system. It wasn't working and I had no idea what it was until I started to look more closely and mess around with it. I had to purchase a replacement for the innards of the valve that cycles through the zones, about $200. Since then it's worked very well for me. It takes very good care of the small debris, of course it's not going to do anything for bigger leaves and other things. What I do find is the turbulence of the water along the bottom of the pool and flowing along the sides really keeps me from needing to brush anything, all surfaces of the pool seem to get hit. I just need to use the net to grab the bigger debris every few days-- and every month or so I get out the vacuum. Technically it probably should have a 2hp pump which would be way overkill for my 7500 gallon pool. I recently bought the Black and Decker 1.5 hp pump and run it for 1 hour in the morning and evening at 3000 RPM to take care of the cleaning and then slow the rest of the time. Now if I saw the sticker price of one of these systems in a new build I probably wouldn't choose it but it works well for me.

I’m likely the third owner of this pool. Installed in the 80’s I’m seeing likely typical wear. learned pool care through RU-vid. Replacement pop ups are available, but the old style isn’t advertised like the newer heads, and cost two or three times more. A Drain cover that broke when I stood on one. Not knowing anything about it, I picked up a nice set. Well, the design is important. You need leafs to enter, and the covers I bought are Fort Knox. I later learned that they need the gap to suck in leafs. So, now I’ve defeated the cleaning. :( Before installing the wrong drain covers I backflowed water with a garden hose through the pipes and found a large chunk of concrete in the pipe. Likely broke off under pool drain cover and lodged in the pipe causing a debris clog. I didn’t know what the canister was as the door was sealed shut. Vice grips helped with the lid and that leaf basket hadn’t been maintained. Nasty basket.. now I am learning how it supposed to work. The manifold that controls the pop ups. Has a gear system and impeller that needed replacement, now replacing a not normally consumable plastic piece in the head. Finally I skipped valve calibration. Bottom line you need to know about the system if you plan on maintaining it. This isn’t a common system and fewer people know how it works. A pool robot is easier but it too has limitations.

I've had the Paramount Vantage in-floor system in my pool for 18 years now, I have never vacuumed the pool once since I put it in and I don't even own a vacuum head. The only part of the pools that I have to broom off are the steps, only maybe 3 or 4 times a year. If the pool is swam in each week brooming isn't necessary. My system originally had 2 pumps, a 1.5hp for the normal pump and a 2HP for the in-floor only. I changed my system and got the most powerful single phase (240v) pump I could buy and now run both systems from the one pump. I adjust the flow through the chlorinator to control how much pressure goes to the in-floor. I run the the in-floor at 150kPa or 20 psi and have also added the largest single cartridge filter you can buy in OZ, so one cartridge filter for each system. Normally the in-floor systems don't filter any water, they just recirculate it, all water that comes from my pool is now filtered before returning to the pool. This reduces the amount of time it takes to turn the water over in the pool so in summer I can run the pump for around 2 and half hours a day and as little as 20 minutes a day in winter. If I ever put in another pool I wouldn't think twice, in-floor for me everyday. Regarding the pop-up nozzles from Paramount Vantage, they have a lifetime warranty on them to the original owner of the pool, I got my first replacement today as it had a broken spring but they gave me a brand new pop-up nozzle assembly. Not bad for 18 years, I have also replaced the main control valve once in that time. It's a very easy job to do. Also regarding the pipes, mine don't go under the pool they go around the outside. The only part that is under the pool is the short length from the side of the pool to the floor nozzle.

My pool came with the in-floor system after purchasing a house in France. It worked well for a year or two then the valve system wore out. Replacement parts were incredibly hard to find and VERY expensive. I still have to brush the pool and put the robot through it every few days in summer. The only thing I like about the system is the pleasant gurgling as the system works through the top stair at the shallow end every seven minutes. It does add something to recirculation though a more powerful pump might be in order.

Agree, auto pool cover would he way better. Keep stuff out, lower pool temps to reduce chlorine costs, safety. Personally I do all my own pool maintenance and I've bever felt a need for in pool cleaners. Robot and a net work fone and tale little to no time for me. Throw it it, take it out, wash the filter out. Done.

Spot on!

I have a Caretaker99 in my concrete pool since 2001. Yes....a long time and it works amazingly well. However, it is best for smaller pool and MUST be installed correctly by the right builder who understand how the system works. It is expensive at first but the many benefits are great. Use little chemical ( I use ozone and some residual chlorine), the chemicals are always distributed homogenously in the pool and the water temperature even everywhere. no cold stops. Easy to order parts over the internet. In the long term, best system. PS My pool has ceramic tiles. Never had to use a vacuum machine nor brushed any walls or floor of the pool. The system clean 99% of the pool👍

Ah interesting, sounds similar in function to an undergravel filter for the aquarium

Sorry, you sound like a very knowledgeable guy. But I completely disagree on the summary that they don’t keep the pool clean and eliminate spot vacuuming etc. I’m a pool tech and in my experience it all just comes down to the expertise of the installer. The pool builder I do a lot of work for only install paramount systems and many of them literally need no vacuuming when I get there monthly. All the leaves are in the baskets. They are definitely expensive, and they definitely use a large amount of energy. But they also work amazingly well when installed correctly.

I have a paramount in the pool that I bought about a year ago. The pump is borderline dead, and I need to start replacing nozzles here and there. I’m my wife and kids’ pool guy, so I appreciate all the help I can get 😂 I can do all the work my self. The pool is going to need to be refinished again pretty soon too. Would you suggest replacing the pump and nozzles here and there, or killing it and using that cash on a top of the line pool cleaning bot?

I have on that worked great with my cartilage filter. Pool guy talked me into getting a sand filter and since then I CANNOT get my pool clean. Pool builder told me the sand filter does not have enough pressure with the sand filter to clean the pool. Is this correct and could you explain.

By there again. My pool was chipped out and the process is still going, lots of debris and cement in the pool. Thing he, one zone of my in floor is not spitting water into the pool, I tried to test all zones before they plaster the pool, so I got a garden hose with a nozzle and tried each. But again the one zoom which is the steps low flow zone is not spitting any water at all. I went the opposite way and put the hose in the pop up head hosing to see if water comes out from the actuator pipes, but nothing. It worked before the chip out. Do you think some big debris might be blocking that? I’m worried there is a breakage of PVC somewhere but even then, I should still see some water coming out from either end. Also, do you know if during plastering process, they do vacuum or suction all these pop up lines to get all the debris out? My contractor said they’d do that but not sure what they use and how they do it. Thanks again!

As a pool technician I hate them. Every one I service has issues. The gears are cheap plastic and constantly break, heads are pain to deal with and overall just a major inconvenience. Better off getting a pressure side sweep or a suction side sweep.

I think I have only seen one of these systems that worked properly out of the pools I have visited in the past three years. I have never seen one customer feel the need to fix the ones that were not working properly. I have to assume at this point all they are is another potential point for the pool to leak.

I have a regular, non-variable speed, 1.5 HP pump motor. I’ve heard that these motors use one kilowatt per hour per HP. So, my motor would use 1.5 kilowatts per hour. Is this accurate? If not, approximately how many kilowatts does a 1.5 HP pump motor use per hour?

Video idea: contrast suction vacuums with robot vacuums, and also if leaving a suction vacuum in your pool is as bad as leaving a robot vacuum in your pool.

Where does the debris go and how do you empty it??

I already have in-floor cleaning system. I am due to resurface my pool, and every pool builder suggested killing the system, but that will require me to add 2-3 return lines which can get expensive. Would you recommend keeping the system, and adding a robot cleaner in the future to help cleaning the bottom and the walls of the pool?