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.