Arctic Splash Water Table review
So, here it is, June in Tucson... slowly getting hotter than a mutha outside during the day. The mornings and evenings are great though, so we like to spend a lot of time out in the yard with Cole since he's just learned how to walk and the lawn helps break any topples he may have.The thing is, we didn't really have any outside toys for him yet, other than Ringo's dog toys. Nasty. So, it was time to find a safe new outside toy that Cole could play with. While we were in L.A. visiting my brother's family, Cole discovered our niece's water table toy. It had a cool water wheel that he was fascinated with and occupied his attention for quite a while. After looking around online for a bit, we found this "Arctic Splash Water Table" which seemed pretty nifty. It came with some little arctic animal toys too (penguin, polar bear, and walrus), which he could also play with during his baths.
Overall, not a bad buy. My only gripe about it is that there are three pieces that make up the iceberg water slide on it. These pieces don't clip together or anything, so they're really easy for Cole to knock over whilst thrashing about in the water. I also thought the little arctic animals would be able to go down the iceberg slide thingie, but only the penguin fits. The others fit through an "ice cave" which goes through the base of the assembled iceberg.
The table is pretty sturdy too. Cole hasn't climbed up on it yet, but it seems like it will easily support his weight and that of the water.
This toy would be much better with some kind of moving parts, like my niece's water wheel, and if the slide pieces snapped together somehow. Cole still loves it though, he has a great time dumping water from the filler bucket onto his head.
I guess I'd give it about a three on the suck-o-meter. If the pieces clipped together I'd only give it a two.
Oh yeah.. it also doubles as a water bowl for Ringo sometimes. Score!
Pool Devil review
I hate cleaning our pool, it's as simple as that. My dream is to have the pool always be sparkling blue and ready for me to dive in without me having to raise a finger to get it ready. If you share this dream with me, I think you realize, like I do, that it's time to wake up.
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.
I wish.
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.
Kreepy Kruiser pool cleaner review
It gets 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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
