Customer Reviews

Hayward 500 Aqua Bug Above-Ground Automatic Pool Cleaner

5 star:		(120)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

This is a great little vac. It hooks up to your filter intake or skimmer, and vacuums straight to your filter - not a bag with holes that doesn't catch fine particles. We use ours in a 24' above ground pool made by Intex. Yes, one of those temporary pools. It would work in any above ground pool! The most important thing to have is a good filter system. The filter supplied by Intex is not very good. This vac works best with a sand filter. We have a Hayward Pro Series system with a 1.5 hp Power Flo Maxtrix pump. The combination of this filter system and vacuum has saved my summers. I spent the first year with this pool spraying out the filter and hand/pole vacuuming only to see the finer particles come back into the pool through the return. It took all the pleasure out of having a pool! Now, I hook up my vac (3 min), turn on the filter system (1 sec), and walk away - it's awsome!!! This little vacuum even handled our pool opening this year, which included a large number of leaves and a ton of very fine particles. Unlike the super expensive Pool Rover, this vacuum does not move systematically around the pool to clean in a specific period of time. It moves in ever-widening circles, then goes straight for a bit and starts circling again. It can be a little vexing to see it turn just before it gets to something that you want it to vacuum up, but if you give it time, it will get everything. We put ours in and let in run for about an hour, when we come back the pool looks great! Aqua Bug, Wanda the Whale, and Diver Dave are all the same vacuum with different housings.

I can't knock Diver Dave for not working with my Intex Above Ground Pool w/Saltwater Pump. His construction seems solid and it's a great concept. However, I could find no information on how well it would work with an Intex Above Ground pool with Saltwater Filter, so posting this review to save others from the time and difficulties.

I would not recommend this with an Intex Above Ground pool system. I would guess it works wonderfully with a pool with a larger pump and true skimmer (based on other reviews), but it doesn't do much for the Intex Pools (in side-wall inlet pump attachment).

I had some minor algea on the bottom of the pool, which stirred up easily if lightly touched. Dave couldn't put a dent into it. Three issues: 1) The attachment to the skimmer means pulling apart the existing skimmer from the side wall and using the cone adapter. It does not fit well and is very cumbersome to keep removing and reinstalling to run the surface skimmer at all. 2) The suction "seems" sufficient, but Dave won't keep his nose down. I believe the depth of the pool doesn't provide enough "upward" hose length and as he travels he tips away from the the bottom and the direction of travel. This could also be due to insufficient suction. 3) No brushes on the bottom. I don't have debris, but fine particles and without brushes, it was still sitting there even if he passed the same section multiple times, nothing to stir it up so to speak.

While the construction and concept seems great, he's probably better suited for pools with true skimmers, deeper water and larger pumps for more suction. Dave went back.

I have a fiberglass pool, so cleaners designed for vinyl bottoms really work better for me than those for "cement ponds." And the price was right.

However, this item is in the "Toys" category and that is TERRIBLE. This pool cleaner works off of the vacuum created by your pool pump/filter. The cleaner is made more efficient by the use of two venturi intakes (the smallest one is removable). With only about a half-square-inch intake, the suction on the bottom of this cleaner is ferocious. And instead of Wanda the Whale, they should have dubbed it Sarah the Shark.

DO NOT let children into the pool when this device is operating - or simple-minded adults for that matter. Get a toe stuck in the intake when Wanda runs over your foot and you might find yourself pulling it out of the filter before heading to the ER to see if they can re-attach it. And God help the curious adolescent boy who has the pool to himself....

Hayward is quite clear about the dangers of this product and the narrow operating environment, but making the thing cute and cuddly and allowing it to be categorized as a toy seems to be a massive product liability exposure.

Warnings aside, this is a great auto pool cleaner at a really great price. You may need to cut out the venturi intake to match up better with your pump pressure and to allow it to clean your pool in a more systematic way, but you'll be impressed with what the little thing can accomplish in a half-day or so.

Highly-recommended pool-cleaning TOOL! Highly-discouraged as a "toy" using any criteria.

UPDATE (13 Apr 2010): The Wanda the Whale cleaner comes with soft vinyl "feet" that allow it to move around a pool without damaging a liner. To use it in a fiberglass or cement pool, these feet should be replaced with cork feet that will provide a better grip, and wear longer than the standard vinyl feet. These feet can be ordered from Hayward but are available at any decent pool supply store that sells Hayward products. If you have this device - or plan to buy it - and will use it in a fiberglass or cement pool, be sure to replace the four "feet" to get the best performance of this unit.

With the proper cork feet, this wonderful little cleaner does a fabulous job keeping my fiberglass pool sparkling clean (it even cleans the side up to three feet from the bottom) - at a price that is dramatically less than typical automatic pool cleaners.

I'm not qualified to actually rate this product because I haven't really used Diver Dave but wanted to point some things out they may be helpful to people who have smaller pools and filer systems. I ordered this product and when it arrived I found out that its performance has a lot to do with the power of your filter. I was also disappointed to find that you need a pool filter that has a leaf strainer. You can buy an attachment if you don't have the strainer and that actually would be a good solution. I already paid $100 dollars for this and I would have probably paid the extra money for the attachment but then I realized there were other factors such as the fact that there are some wrinkles in the lining on my pool floor and I read that Diver Dave would probably get stuck on the wrinkles. I really think Diver Dave would be great if you have a good, strong filter, no wrinkles in the floor lining, and a strainer basket. I'm disappointed because I was looking forward to having a pool boy, even if he doesn't have blonde hair, a six pack, and a good tan.

I couldn't be happier with the AquaBug. It does a great job of cleaning my pool quickly and quietly. They say it takes 10 minutes to install, but I did it in about 5. The biggest problem with the bug is that it looks like a toy and is fairly inexpensive, so people might not take it seriously. However, it really does the job. It came with enough hose for my 15' x 30' pool, and it never gets stuck on my ladder. Added bonus: the random path it takes through the pool is hypnotic to watch. If you get a lot of leaves in your pool, I recommend getting the optional leaf-catcher to keep your filter from getting clogged.

I have a 24 foot round above ground pool with a 52' inch depth. The bottom is not perfectly smooth (some wrinkles and divets), but the product does a great job in about 2 to 3 hours. I plan on running it every couple of days to clean and stir up the water at the bottom of the pool.

We love diver Dave! The cleaner was easy to assemble, use, and it does a great job on our above ground swimming pool. The kids like watching him swim around the bottom of the pool. They feel someone is watching them all the time. The cleaner picks up leaves as well as any dirt. It works really great even with pine tree needles.

This product came with a great price too! I shopped around and I received the best price from Amazon.com.

I ordered this for my new above ground pool (easy set pool with the inflatable ring on top) and the kids named her Aunt Wanda. I was so excited after reading the product reviews I did not hesitate in purchasing her and couldn't wait to see her in action, and we are still waiting to see what she can do.

Disappointments- the product description needs to be more detailed to include all additional items needed to use Wanda. It says "just plug the hose into the swimming pool skimmer, and let this automatic pool cleaner go to work". So, I ordered a skimmer. Because the pump I had was a small pump that came with the pool, I also ordered a 1500 gph pump. Once I hooked up all of the new items, I put Wanda to the test and waited for her to suck and was extremely frustrated when nothing happened. After hours and hours of trying every day for 2 weeks to figure out why nothing was happening, I gave up, took her out the pool and re-read all of the instructions. It turns out a leaf canister was also needed, so there I was ordering another piece, and she still wasn't working. Upset because Wanda and the items required to make Wanda work now exceeded the price I paid for the pool and she still wasn't working we turned again to the instruction booklet and online information to see if we were missing something and according to the information we had everything required but still nothing was working. At my wits end, I decided to call the manufacturer to see if they could assist and learned that I needed at minimum a 2500 gph pump for her to work, so again I had to place another order. If the product description included a list of all additional items needed for Wanda to work, I would have been able to research the actual total expenses involved, I could have ordered all the parts at one time vs having to order piece by piece and if the pump requirements were ANYWHERE on the product listing or instruction manual, I could have avoided purchasing the 1500 gph pump and got the 2500 gph pump instead. Wanda actually ended up costing me about $500.00 and I still havent seen her go.

This little pool cleaner rocks. I have a 16 x 32 oval pool and my "professional" pool installer totally screwed up the bottom which left it with small wrinkles, and even worse, large indentations where the sand under the pool settled and the frame is raised. This makes for some pretty substantial navigation challenges for the Aqua Bug, or so I thought. I was reluctant to buy this at first, thinking there is no way it could overcome the uneven bottom of my pool. Considering the price, I thought WTH, and I went for it. I was pleasantly surprised as the Bug wondered into an indentation, stopped for a few seconds, turned a different direction and crawled out again. Awesome. Obviously if the Bug couldn't handle this it wouldn't even pay for me to use it since I'd be out there baby-sitting it constantly. If that were the case I may as well just clean the pool manually. But, as I said, the Bug came through with flying colors. The Aqua Bug didn't come with enough hose to reach the end so I had to buy more hose. (It comes with about 30 feet, but you have to take into account it not only has to span the entire length of the pool, but also has to go "down" to the bottom.) That being said, it took about two hours for the Bug to clean the entire area it could reach. I'll have the extra hose by the next use, but I don't expect it will take much longer. The DVD with instructions that comes with the Bug explicitly states that the bottom of your pool must be flat and smooth. It's nice to get a product that actually out performs expectations. How often does that happen?

I've got an Intex 16ft ultraframe pool. I get some sand, and debris on the bottom of the pool and needed a solution. This pool cleaner takes 5 to 10 min to setup and then I just walk away for a few hours. It uses your existing filter (which I can generally just spray off). I can't comment on durability as I've only used it a few times but I can say it works, is quiet and is easy to use. It comes with several hose sections that need to be attached and detached each time and stores in the box flat otherwise "hose memory" will occur and make it more difficult for the pool cleaner to get around in the future (according to the manual). I have not owned other pool cleaners.