Best Pool Cleaner For A Vinyl Liner or Above Ground Pool

"What pool cleaner do you recommend for a vinyl or above ground pool?" - We do get asked this question a lot. And there are good reasons for that.

When people come to us with the issue of mysterious holes in their vinyl liners we run a checklist that includes their pool toys, cleaning tools and if they use an automatic pool cleaner.

Pool cleaners are not always the culprit of the demise, but more often than not they contribute with it. Vinyl pools are very particular, in that the surface is more delicate than others, and having the right pool cleaner will prevent unnecessary repairs or a premature replacement.

What Pool Cleaners To Avoid?

Generally speaking, if a pool cleaner has been designed to work on a concrete pool, it is not a good idea to use it on a vinyl liner.  They might have pointy or rough components, and they could have very strong suction. Both, over the time, can slowly damage the liner.

Also, pool cleaners that state that they work on any surface are another sign that tells that it is possibly not the best option for your liner.

So, What Do You Recommend?

Based on our experience, looking after thousands of customer pools, we realize that there is simply one pool cleaner that we will recommend, with ease of heart, for a vinyl pool: The Hayward PoolVac XL. Simple.

Here is why:

• It was designed from the ground up for one pool surface: vinyl pools.
• It is lightweight, which reduces wear and tear on the liner.
• The components at the bottom of the cleaner are soft.
• It has exceptional floor coverage.
• It will not get stuck. This is very important for above ground pools because most other automatic cleaners do get stuck around the ladder.

Basically, there is nothing else like it in the market for a vinyl liner, especially for above ground pools.

Because of its popularity, Hayward added extra options that allow the cleaner to be used on other surfaces. However, it was simply designed for vinyl surfaces.

The Hayward Ultra XL is some kind of acquired taste. We find that once a customer gets one, they don't change to any other cleaner ever. It is like there is no way back.

In addition to this, it is a cleaner that operates very quietly, has a great warranty, and because it has such a large customer base all its parts are widely and easily available.