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After changing tiles, I have lots of tile/thinset debris on the bottom of the concrete pool.

Robot cleaner does not pick it up, since they are too heavy for it.

I did try to manually vacuum it by placing a hose into a skimmer. While a suction from a skimmer is ok, and it does pick up some of it, the system (pool pvc pipes) get clogged with tile debris, which tells me it is not the right way to go.

Did some diving and cleaning manually, but it just too much to clean by hand.

I can see that there are autonomous vacuum cleaners such as this, but not sure they are going to do any better than my dolphin..

What are the other things I can try, or maybe I am missing something and there are known ways to do it which I have not tried without clogging the pool system?

1 Answer 1

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You have two choices:

  1. Drain Pool and it hit with a scooper, shop vac, and broom. If refilling it isn't a big deal this is definitely the fastest way by far.

  2. Buy something like a pool leaf eater . You will still have to scoop out the big stuff. I have used a simple plastic dust pan to do this. This process will keep you swimming but could take 10 vacuums over the course of a few weeks to get everything out.

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  • #1 is somewhat an expensive option: it is quite problematic to drain the pool since it cannot go directly to a storm sewer to avoid chemistry in a local creek, and it is about $1000 and 4 days to refill it all back by the "house water". As to #2, how does it work? Does it have batteries or connect to ... outlet/skimmer?
    – tolitius
    Jun 10, 2013 at 20:07
  • It works just like a pool vacuum, except it is bigger and has a bag that houses the large debris - instead of sucking to your filter.
    – DMoore
    Jun 10, 2013 at 20:14
  • Looks like there are many different "pool vacuum" kinds :) So it does take the "sucking" power from a skimmer, but all the debris go to its bag instead of a skimmer?
    – tolitius
    Jun 10, 2013 at 20:20
  • That is it. Only issue is if you have "heavy" objects they might not get sucked up. I have had to clean a few pools when I lifeguarded (when punks threw crap in at night) and if it was really bad we had to drain. If it was kind of bad we would dive with a a scoop and then hit it with a leaf eater. If you are talking about tile scraps and plaster - a shopvac has issues with those. You are going to have to just scoop it up little by little and hope they break down a little so vacuum can get them.
    – DMoore
    Jun 10, 2013 at 20:26
  • "leaf eater" stirs the water, and most of the tile pieces fall right back to the bottom rather than stay in a bag.
    – tolitius
    Jun 13, 2013 at 14:22

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