INTEX 28001 Auto Pool Cleaner - Grey/Black

I was rather nervous of buying this - it seemed too inexpensive to be reliably good - but I set it to work yesterday and it is a truly excellent piece of equipment. It seems sturdily made, and has been scuttling around our 16 foot, round, above-ground pool all night with no problems, leaving the pool floor spotlessly clean. A truly great piece of equipment and one that is very satisfying to use. When I cleaned the unit out, the filter was full of extremely fine particles that had been lifted from the pool floor.The specifications in the instruction book say the pump must have a capacity between 1600 and 3500 gallons per hour. Our pump is at the bottom end of this specification at 1600gph, and it works perfectly.It is easy to set up, use and clean out. It moves surprisingly fast around the pool floor and has never got stuck (I lifted out the pool step-ladder first). Other reviewers have said that the pool floor must have no wrinkles at all and be perfectly smooth. However, our pool has quite a lot of small wrinkles because of the uneven ground underneath, and the device rolls over them with no problem.The only possible downside is that the connecting hose exerts a slight pressure on the movement of the unit so that it does not travel so frequently to the side of the pool opposite the hose connection. But as soon as people go in the pool, the debris is moved around anyway, so it is a very minor problem. In summary, I am delighted. A machine that works extraordinarily well for a reasonable sum of money. Highly recommended.

I wouldn't recommend this for two reasons. Firstly, it is not a true hoover. It basically stirs up the dirt on the floor without going through the filter. It relies on the general pool filtering to so if you, for example, get a lot of algae on the floor, you won't be able to backwash it out. Secondly, do not assume, if you have an Intex pool that the inlet connections will work. I have a pretty standard 10 foot Intex pool and it doesn't connect to the right outlet. The screw in hose connector will only screw into my inlet not my outlet points and only without the microfilter inserted. At present I have reversed my inlet and outlet hoses for the pump, but as this is not a vacuum in the true sense and only stirs everything and the filter is pulling water from higher up in the pool so it isn't cleaning effectively. The only thing that makes it so exciting is that it moves around the bottom of the pool by itself, but the novelty doesn't outweigh the practicalities.

We first purchased one in 2021 and have just purchased another as the wheel has snapped off. This is our fault as we did not pack it away last year and it was left outside in all elements. The pool cleaner is fantastic and our intex pool has been up a month and not having a working pool cleaner has made a huge difference with the amount of debris that is collecting at the bottom of the pool. They remove so much and keep the bottom of the pool leaf free. They really do remove a lot of detritus!

The filter failed and ripped and I'm getting slightly annoyed with intex not providing all the parts including a new filter. It worked while it did, but Id suggest a very good pump and not the one that came with your pool.

I purchased this to work with a 20ft round frame pool with a 2100gal/hour sand pump, I've upgraded from a prior 15ft pool where I could whirlpool the debris into the centre and then sweep it into a net, this daily exercise was a pain and with a bigger pool, a bigger pain. We've had it a month.You just lower the cleaner into the pool, attach the hose to the pump water outlet (the sand filter needs to be clean to work well) and the cleaner uses the water outlet pressure to move around the pool and create a slight pressure drop in the unit to gradually pick up the annoying small bits of debris in the pool. It moves backwards and forwards, seemingly missing most of the bits, but after you have left it a few hours on its own, hey presto, it has collected all the bits which can be dumped out of the unit when you pull it out of the pool, leaving the bottom lovely and clean. As we have a pool heater, it has the added advantage that it pipes the warmer water to the bottom of the pool, so getting a more even pool temperature (all these above ground pools normally send the water only to the top).So, it's relatively cheaper than a creepy crawly, it seems to have all the right attachments to work with Intex pools, it moves the water around the pool and looks cute as it changes direction very gradually cleaning the pool for hours on end while I don't have to sweep up.Things to watch out for. It seems to need the bigger pool attachments that come with the 1.5" hoses on 18ft and above pools. It is driven around the pool by pressure, with a filter cartridge pump you probably don't have enough pressure to get it working. Backwash the pool sand before use. It has an extra filter on the pool attachment, that also needs to be cleaned, otherwise it will stop working. Finally, if you have any significant lumps underneath your pool, it can get stuck on them. But so far, it has been a lot better than sweeping up the debris each day, we put it in the pool when not swimming and it has saved me 15 minutes a day of cleaning for a month, so well happy.N.B. Review update. I purchased this for £55 on Amazon, for some reason it's gone up nearly 50% - so check what else is available too.