Polaris Vac-Sweep 380 F3 Pressure Side Automatic Pool Cleaner for In-Ground Pools

by Polaris Vac-Sweep

Product Features

• Durable, automatic, robot cleaner for in-ground pools
• Sweeps and scrubs the bottom and walls of any size or shape pool
• Circulates clean filtered water throughout your pool while cleaning
• Unique filter bag removes debris before it reaches your pump basket or filter

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 18 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B002HRET5Q
• Item model number: F3
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,116 in Patio, Lawn & Garden (See Top 100 in Patio, Lawn & Garden)
  • #4 in Patio, Lawn & Garden > Pools, Spas & Supplies > Cleaning Tools & Attachments > Automatic Pool Cleaners > Pressure Pool Cleaners

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Pressure Side Automatic Pool Cleaner for In Ground pools

Product Description

Our Polaris 380 Vac sweeps past the competition!

This mighty cleaner packs the power of 3 jets to swiftly scrub and sweep the bottom and walls of any size pool. In 3 hours your Polaris 380 will not only have cleaned dirt and debris, but will have also helped to distribute chemicals and heat around your pool.

This independent cleaner runs off a separate booster pump so that the rest of your filtration system may run as efficiently as the Polaris 380. The unique filter bag even removes debris before it can reach your pump basket or filter making it the perfect complement to the rest of your pool equipment!

Includes 31 ft. hose kit, deck or wall mount and complete instructions. Pump must be hard wired.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tricky at first but works really well now, June 17, 2008

By 

Alan Greatorex (Middletown, NJ USA (ex Sydney AUS)) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This is my first pool vacuum and I took the recommendation of my local pool store, who also built the pool in the first place, because I figured they were the experts.
They installed the 380 with booster pump and set it up for around 100 bucks and, given the work they did, I would say that's a bargain. Total cost, including tax, was $1107.
When we first started using it our pool was still very dirty from an algal bloom, which we thought the 380 would make short work of. WRONG!!!! Don't use your new Polaris if your pool is green!!! The inline filter got clogged and split right down the seam, allowing junk to get inside the Polaris until the wheels stopped turning altogether. I learned that the Polaris 380 is driven along by internal water jets which squirt water onto a turbine. If these jets clog the wheels stop. Also, prior to stopping completely, it had started behaving weirdly; running on one wheel, tail thrashing wildly, squirting water everywhere, not climbing the walls, lying on its side - just weird and unpredictable and certainly not cleaning the pool. We were very annoyed.
After a call to Polaris in California, who were very helpful, it went back to the store for repair, which they kindly did for free. When we put it back in the pool, which was now clean from manually vacuuming to waste, it performed perfectly- it did everything they say in the ads - climbed the walls, tail wagging gently, moving randomly through the pool, sucking everything up (including small rocks). It did a perfect job and vacuumed sand, silt, leaves, you name it. Flawless!!! And in about one and a quarter hours to get the pool cleaner than I'd ever seen it before. I put it in again a few days later and it did it all again and fast. Magic.
So lesson learned. Be realistic about what you expect it to do and make sure that the pool is relatively in good shape before you use it. Certainly make sure that the water is clear first.
Too early to comment on the repairs and maintenance or how long it will last, but it certainly works well right now.
Also I can't comment on whether the 280 model is better, as some people say, but based on my limited experience the 380 is great. Before buying I would ask a local pool shop or owner to explain what it should look like when it's working properly, so you know what to expect. When ours first went crazy we didn't know what it was meant to do, so it was hard for us to recognize the weird behavior at first.

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A decade's experience, August 14, 2007

By 

L. M. Hileman "dalehileman" (Apple Valley, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This is a test
I can't compare the Polaris 380 with other cleaners, but try Googling as follows:

Polaris 380 forum

,where you will find divers pertinent input (no pun intended), eg:

[...]

Having maintained a large in-ground plunge for the better part of a decade, however, I can confirm unequivocally that the Swimming-Pool Establishment employs very few rocket scientists. The 380 system doesn't perform as well as one might hope and with a very limited warranty is expensive and hard to repair; while your friendly local service establishment might not provide much help in this respect.

In the first place, the path of the Vac-Sweep unit isn't sufficiently random, following a somewhat repetitious path and often leaving a single large patch of debris on the bottom. This problem can be dealt with by everyday shifting the position of the thrust jet, a nuisance at best; while there doesn't seem to be an optimum position for best coverage.

For example, my steps are at the shallow end of the pool. But if I set the jet to a high position in order to encourage climbing, the Sweep will spend almost all its time at the deep end. Polaris would do well to emulate other makes of pool sweepers which include a mechanism to slowly rotate this jet and thereby encourage a less predictable route.

Furthermore owing to its geometry being intended more for styling than performance, it is reluctant to climb steps and platforms, leaving their surfaces for its owner to sweep manually-every day just before your afternoon splash. The main problem seems to be the geometry of the frame, bugling out in front of the wheels, especially the single-side wheel. Thus when it encounters a curved surface such as the edge of a platform or step, it can't climb because the two wheels can't engage the obstacle simultaneously. Instead it makes repeated thrusts like the adolescent puppy attempting to hump your pantleg, without however gaining any elevation, until finally the backup valve pulls it away. Clearly the Vac-Sweep should have been built with four wheels instead of three, the two front ones projecting well below and in front of the frame. Also it might have helped if the unit had been made more narrow in width so as to better navigate the steps.

You can deal with the foregoing problem by adding a second tire to the single-side wheel, so as to project a fraction of an inch beyond the front, thereby improving the chance of traction. But you will have first to stretch the new tire, a requirement entailing Herculean effort. Also it helps if you acquire two additional feed-hose floats, mounting them as near as feasible to the Sweep so as to enhance buoyancy. More than one or two floats so situated, however, significantly diminish its traction when the Sweep is at the bottom.

Performance may be improved somewhat by removing the wall-fitting pressure restrictor, thereby increasing the power and range of the Sweep (Incidentally, this mod may increase wheel speed beyond the specified 28 rpm, which we suppose could shorten the life of the system). In addition, when I replaced the booster pump, the new one proved noticeably more powerful.

Used without restrictor, however, increased gyration of the backup system can occasionally so tangle up your feed hose as to temporarily disable the entire system until you untangle it. So if you also encounter this result, I suggest you think twice about letting it run during a weekend getaway.

Even with the increased thrust, though, the Sweep may not reach the far end of your pool because it can't overcome a loop or two in the feed hose. This could be due to reduced traction as suggested above, exacerbated by the float (its bouyancy discouraging it from being nudged below the surface and the effect of friction of its bulge above the surface); to reduced flow owing to aging of the motorpump, or even something as subtle as the season; for it isn't entirely unreasonable to guess that if you use your system in the winter as I do, the reduced water temperature stiffens the hose beyond its ability to untangle.

My contact with the Polaris folk suggests they had been working on a scheme to eliminate the floats but apparently they were unsuccessful because that was several years ago and I haven't heard from them since.

The Sweep itself is also covered by a 12-year guarantee. But after 2 years when it begins to wear out, you're chagrined to learn that the warranty covers neither internal parts nor labor. You will not enjoy replacing the belts.

A minor annoyance with the filter bag: The Velcro means by which the bag is opened soon becomes hopelessly entangled with debris and eventually won't stay closed. Therefore never open it. After just a few attempts you will find it fairly easy to empty by shaking out its contents.

Unless you're really determined and just plain good at it, you'll find the sweeper system difficult to repair as many parts don't fit together right or can easily be interchanged unintentionally. For instance there are at least a dozen permutations and combinations of such ways in which the parts of your auxiliary booster pump can be misassembled, not just by amateurs like you and me but even by the trained technician during a repair job.

The pump subassembly fails by throwing water from its top seal. (Even if you're able to dismount it yourself, the cost of repair is well over $100 and so you might resolve to learn how to do it yourself). The motor is water-cooled through the motor axle so if a slight amount of air enters the system (for example, if the pump is reassembled incorrectly, if water level drops below skimmer port, or if a small crack should develop in the plumbing), or you experience unusually high air temperature on a still day (which we do experience here in California's High Desert), it quickly overheats, shortening if not ending its life, at a replacement cost over $300.

So at risk of oxidization, I've installed a supplementary cooling system comprising weeper-soaker hose wrapped around the housing and fed under pressure. However, don't do this yourself if you're concerned that its corrosive effects might void your warranty. But if you're interested, I am [e-mail] and I'd be glad to elucidate in more detail.

Owing to the complexity of this auxiliary system, including an elaborate Sweep full of small parts, the booster pump with its overtemperature breaker, pressure restrictors, an overpressure relief valve, 70 ft. of tubing, and an intricate backup valve containing dozens of gears, its susceptibility to malfunction is so great that the unit cannot properly be tested by your friendly local repair facility unless they have an entire pool complex on their premises. Hence when you get it back, your repaired motorpump may still not work.

As I said, though, I can't compare its performance and reliability to that of other makes, while some users post Internet forum reports of great satisfaction and long life from the Polaris 380 System.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Polaris 380 and Zodiac Warranty-BEWARE HOMEOWNERS, August 15, 2011

By 

D. Davis "D" (San Antonio, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Polaris Vac-Sweep 380 F3 Pressure Side Automatic Pool Cleaner for In-Ground Pools (Lawn & Patio)

Purchased a Polaris 380. Unit stopped working six months into the warranty period. The manager at Leslie's Pool Supply say's he can't fix it, and Alicia Taylor CSR at Zodiac Pool Systems (The manufacturer) says they don't service or repair their own products anymore. Additionally they sent me right back to Leslie's, who again, can't fix the issue. One side issue, Zodiac only covers PARTS under the "warranty" and does not cover labor to replace those parts. They also do not warranty any of the hoses, belts or plastic components. Apparently they only cover the little plastic motor inside that is powered by water, but you have to pay the labor to have it serviced. In my opinion, this is the biggest scam on the planet. Obviously they anticipate the cleaners becoming inoperative before warranty expiration, and therefore do not warranty those items, so they can make more money in parts, all the while knowing you don't want to spend another $600. I must admit, I believe that this scam has got to be one of the best laid, grey area legal scams of the Century. RECENT UPDATE: TO ANY HOMEOWNER. IF YOU HAVE PLENTY OF CASH TO THROW AROUND, DISREGARD MY ADVICE, IF YOU DO NOT AND YOU WORK FOR A LIVING, PAY ATTENTION. THE LITTLE PART IS GOING TO COST ME $345.99 TO REPLACE, AND THE UNIT IS UNDER WARRANTY, GO FIGURE. I BELIEVE ZODIAC DOES THIS ON PURPOSE, SO BEWARE OF ZODIAC PRODUCTS. I WILL NEVER AGAIN OWN THIS BRAND OR ANY OTHER PRODUCT WHERE THE MANUFACTURER BELIEVES IN STEALING FROM IT'S CUSTOMERS.