Average Guy Product Reviews

Unless you hire a pool cleaning company, or have some kids you can force bribe gently convince to do this chore for you, you'll need to rely on automatic cleaners, and the like, to do your work for you. Last time I reviewed the Batman and this time I'll be reviewing the Robin of our pool cleaning duo... the Pool Devil. The Kreepy Kruiser is the heavy hitter who takes care of the thugs in the deep dark parts of the pool, while the Pool Devil is the essential sidekick who does the lighter duty job of skimming the surface of the pool and rounding up the stray ne'er-do-wells. Together, this crime fighting duo keeps Gotham City, I mean my pool, in tip-top shape so that I never have to do any real work at all. 

In reality, they really are the best combination of automatic in-ground pool cleaners I could find. While the Kreepy Kruiser uses the suction of the pump to draw debris into the pool filters, the Pool Devil uses the jets to propel debris into it's own filter sock. However, they don't catch everything, just majority of the crap that falls into our pool. If I had to give a percentage, I'd say 90% of the debris that enters our pool is caught by one of the cleaners. I do still have to skim with a net occasionally, and I still have to brush the walls to keep algae at bay. I guess in the Batman & Robin analogy, I'd be Commissioner Gordon.

So, the Pool Devil pretty much does what it advertises. You hook it up to the pool's jet using the hoses provided. The housing of the Pool Devil floats on the surface of the pool and directs the flow of water through it's filter sock. Like I said, it catches most of the stuff floating around on the surface, but not everything. For some reason, some larger debris is just too big to get caught in the Pool Devil's tractor beam, and it just floats on by. 

Our pool is about 10,000 gallons and I typically run the pool pump for about four hours a day in the summer, which may seem excessive to some people. But we have our neighbor's mesquite tree to contend with which hangs over the pool and drops all kinds of crud all year long... tiny leaves, bean pods, longer twigs and needles, etc. The Pool Devil seems to do a really great job with the smaller debris like the tiny mesquite leaves since they are easier to get sucked into it's water flow. With some of the bigger stuff, like the bean pods, it's hit or miss.

I've had the Pool Devil in my pool for two years now and haven't had to replace any of the major parts on it... pretty good so far. The only thing I've had to replace are the filter socks. I think the Pool Devil only comes with one or two, so I highly recommend you purchase some extras filter socks. I bought a pack of four when I first got the Pool Devil, and I'm now on my last sock. So that works out to (let me get out the calculator), roughly one filter sock every 3 or 4 months on average, longer in the winter, shorter in the summer. They're made out of some kind of nylon mesh and it seems like they could have been made stronger.

So, we used to have the standard Kreepy Krauly, which was working fine until about a month ago. I noticed some thin pieces of white plastic floating around in our pool and realized these were worn off bits of the bottom seal from the cleaner. Apparently, the pool's plaster surface slowly abrades the plastic over time and pretty soon you have a pool cleaner that isn't worth a damn, which is to say it now sucks... just not the way you want. Unfortunately, we caught it too late and the actual housing for the seal thingie got worn down. If we had noticed it early enough, I'm pretty sure we could have just replaced the seal part.

After doing some research online I found out that Pentair had released the next generation of the Kreepys, the Kreepy Kruiser. It was alleged to be quieter than it's predecessor, not that I noticed much noise before... just a muted click, click, click sometimes. Plus, Pentair was offering a $50 mail-in rebate (and still is as of the date of this posting). Sweet... I love saving money, but my wallet would still be $300 lighter, even after the rebate... ugh. Not cheap, but definitely less than some of it's competitors.

Here's an action-packed video I found of it. What the hell is wrong with the color of this dude's pool water anyways? It looks like they're down on the bayou or something.

I ordered it promptly, partially because I was already getting sick of brushing out our delightful neighbor's mesquite leaves from our pool every day... plus I didn't want our pool to look like it was in a CCR video. Only after I ordered the Kreepy Kruiser did I realize that if I had waited two days, I would have been eligible for the short-term $100 rebate from Pentair. Doh!

After I dried my tears, it only took a few days to arrive. I immediately proceeded to hook it all up, which was the same simple process as it was for the Kreepy Krawler, then I clicked on the pump and... it worked, just as it was supposed to. No real issues at all, except I had to remove a length of hose and adjust the hose weights to make sure it didn't get stuck when cleaning out the pool steps. The Kruiser has been working flawlessly since I purchased it. Nice... I love it when things just work.

I guess I'd give it a 1 on suck-o-meter. The Kreepy Krauler would get a 3 since it only lasted about 3 years or so.

As for the alleged improved quietness, I can't really hear anything over the sounds of me munching down the caviar.

The original paint job on our house sucked. It was done in 1997 when the house was built and the builders must have used the cheapest paint they could get their hands on. For the last couple of years I've been slowly watching the paint peel and chip from the fascia boards and the underside of the eaves. The rest of our house is stucco, so the paint was still intact there, just faded. Plus they painted most of the homes in this area a butt-ugly coral/peach color... probably because everyone thinks pastels are "southwest" colors. Whatever... I'm painting it good old "brown".

At any rate, we needed to paint the house very soon, so I had a few bids on getting the house painted by painting contractors. They ranged from $2,500 to $3,500 to do the entire house, including the cost of paint and supplies. I knew that painting a house wasn't rocket science, just a monumental pain in the ass... so I decided to figure out the costs of doing it myself.

All tolled, paint, supplies and equipment would be in the $1000 ballpark. Not too bad I suppose, plus I'd get to keep the equipment for future projects. So, I committed to painting the house myself and began getting together everything I needed:

• Graco Magnum X5 Paint Sprayer
• 12 gallons of wall paint (Sherwin Williams "Super Paint" Satin Exterior - "Tavern Taupe" SW7508)
• 5 gallons of trim paint (Sherwin Williams "Super Paint" Satin Exterior - "Tiki Hut" SW7509)
• 5 gallons of primer (Glidden Grabber in gray) for wood on fascia and eaves
• Large canvas Dropcloth
• Paint brushes
• Paint scraper
• 1-1/2" wide painters tape (the blue kind)
• Roll of masking paper for the windows
• Paint straining screens for 5 gallon buckets
• A few empty 5 gallon buckets for straining paint and cleaning sprayer

So, that's all the crap I had to buy. Most of it is self explanatory, but this post is mostly about the Graco Magnum X5 Paint Sprayer. I looked at a bunch of other sprayers before I bought this one. The ones you see a lot are the Wagner sprayers like the Paint Crew. I hear these suck, both from reading reviews and from friends and family that have used them.

Another popular brand is Graco. These are more expensive, but you can tell right away that the construction is better... mostly metal parts as opposed to plastic. Some of the Graco sprayers were pretty pricy, $500 to $1200 I think. That was much more than I waned to spend for this project. So, I decided on the bottom-of-the-line Graco sprayer, the Magnum X5, which was only about $300. Some of the more expensive ones, like the X7, have wheels and a frame for carrying the 5 gallon buckets. Had I known how much I was moving the buckets and sprayer around, I might have sprung for one.

It comes with a DVD and quick start card which was laminated to keep it from getting soggy. The DVD was short and informative, I recommend you watch it first because it shows how to clean, prime, and store the sprayer correctly so you don't get dried paint clogging anything. I used the 25' hose that comes with the sprayer, but I probably should have upgraded to a 50' hose to keep from lugging around the sprayer and paint bucket so much. I did opt to purchase a swivel for the spray handle... about $25. This definitely helped the hose from getting tangled up too much.

I also just used the standard spray tip that comes with the sprayer. It worked fine pushing out all the paint and primer, which was pretty thick. I didn't have to thin any paint down, and the sprayer didn't clog once. If it did clog, the spray nozzle has a lever that you rotate to easily clear out any dried paint globs. I'll probably use this same sprayer to paint my kitchen cabinets someday, so I'll pick up a finer spray nozzle for that project.

Clean up and storage was pretty easy. I watched the DVD and used the quick guide card since I couldn't remember all the steps. After a few times, it was a piece of cake. It probably takes half an hour to clean out the sprayer. I used an old toothbrush to clean out the spray nozzle, intake filter, and the small filter in the sprayer handle. The extra 5 gallon buckets I bought came in handy for waste water and clean soapy water. I also picked up some Graco Pump Armor liquid. I have no idea what's in it, but it's supposed to keep your sprayer from clogging during storage. I figured it was worth a few bucks to keep the sprayer in working condition.

Overall, the project took me three full days to power wash, scrape old paint, prime the eaves, and paint the whole house. Plus another day or so to do touch-ups with a brush... hey, I'm no pro. There was definitely some over-spray.

As far as the Graco Magnum X5 Paint Sprayer goes, it worked really well. No problems at all, even in the Arizona heat. I'd give it a 1 out of 10 on the suck-o-meter.

Oh yeah, something else to remember if you're ambitious enough to try this yourself, buy some Advil... you'll thank me later.

So here's how I'll rate stuff. I'd give products a number on the suck-o-meter (suckiness increases with higher numbers). I reserve 0's for items that not only don't suck at all, but they do something else surprisingly beneficial that wasn't expected.

So 1) who the hell am I, and 2) what makes me qualified to review anything in the first place?

1) My name is Mike and I live in the burbs of Tucson, AZ. I'm a pretty average guy overall and like most of us I live a pretty average life. I'm 38 years old and have a one year old son, Cole. My wife, Janie, and I have been married for, *counts fingers*, six years. We got married in Vegas at the luxurious Tunnel of Love Chapel in case you were wondering. Hey, if it's good enough for the likes of Mr. & Mrs. Torme, it's good enough for us. I make a living as a web and graphic designer, and my wife is a Registered Nurse... she sometimes patches me up when I do something stupid to my appendages, which is nice. There's other ordinary stuff about myself that I could bore you with, but I'll leave it out for now.

2) Nothing in particular. I'm pretty much like everyone else, so actually I can probably provide more realistic reviews than pinkys-up fancy people can about everyday things. Hey, if you're looking for reviews of insanely excessive flashy stuff like a gold backpack, diamond encrusted bluetooth headset, or luxury frisbee, you are SO at the wrong place. But while you're here, send me your address so I can come shoot you in the foot, or at least drive by your mansion and shake my head in dispapproval. I'm pretty good at that.