POOL BLASTER Max Cordless Pool Vacuum for Inground & Above Ground Pools

I have owned this model of the Pool Blaster Max for well over a year now. During the summer and fall of last year, it saw a great deal of action and performed better than expected. Here is a review of its performance and then I'll follow up with the REST of the story. This unit has a unique on/off switch. It is a water tight seal that is a dial. As you screw the dial in, a switch is struck and the unit powers on. This plug is also the charging port so out of water, you unscrew the plug completely which reveals the charging port. The unit provides more than enough suction to pull in and filter the floor of our pool. The pool is 45' long and 22' wide with a bench, shamu shelf and stairs. All of these corners are swept clean with no problem. The charge runs for about 45 minutes of run time and requires 4 hours to charge. We are able to fully clean all corners and floors on one charge. Now the rest of the story. This year the unit was not holding a charge. I called the mfg to ask if the unit is serviceable and they said it was. I stated that I believed that the batter had died and was asking for the specs so I could order one. The customer service individual asked for the purchase date and I confirmed via my Amazon purchase that it had been more than a year. I had no problem with it being out of warranty and simply wanted to purchase the right replacement battery. Without any prompting, the customer service rep stated that he has issued an RMA for me to return the unit for free service and shipping to my home. I sent the unit via usps for 12 dollars and in less than two weeks it was returned to my home via UPS in fully repaired state. I am not sure if the batter would have cost me more or less than 12 dollars but the experience with this company "Water Tech", has certainly given me far more than what a 12 dollar battery would have been worth. I even went to Costco and purchased this year's model as a backup. I can't say enough good things about the product and the customer service behind this device. You will be very pleased with how well it performs as well as the value you will get.

Our home is in the Phoenix, AZ area and we experience Haboobs (dust storms). Our new pool was completed on July 1, 2023. The pool has an in floor popup cleaning system. While this sytem works well, it is incapable of removing the fine particles mainly because the finer particles get stuck in the low areas between the pebbles of the Pebble Tec flooring. The only way to remove the dust is to sweep the pool multiple times while the pool is running until you've stirred enough stuff up that it eventually gets sucked into the pool's filter system. On that note, I purchased this vacuum to see if I can reduce the amount of time needed to remove the dust from the pool after a Haboob. I also purchased, on the reviews of other's, the ultra fine filter liners. Firstly, the vacuum is simple to use. Honestly for me, the most difficult thing to on this product is plugging in the charger. It is oddly shaped and is a bit awkaward to get positively engagaed. The amount of suction created by the vacuum is enough to where the vaccum will stay engaged on the vertical walls. My pool/spa combo is ~15K gallons, and the battery lasted easily for its debut run while I didn't notice any reduction in power for the roughly 15 minutes it ran. First impressions. I was shocked by the amount of debris that was captured in the filter bag. I didn't even try to clean the fine filter liner bag. Five came in the package so I just pitched this one. The vacuum's filters did a good job at trapping at what I would condsider >90% of the silt. As some reviews commented you can see the ultra fine silt being blown back into the water, but the amount removed versus the amount bypassed is heavily weighed on the removed side making the total efficiency worth it. Longevity is an unknown at this point in time. I did have an issue with a rectangular piece of plastic that resides in the "foot" of the vacuum popping out and being captured in the filter bag. I am not sure what its purpose is, but probably not going to do anything in the grand scheme of things. I see the "foot" as being a consumable, but there is no part# listed in the manual, which, could make this a pita at a later date. Also, the main filter needs to be cleaned after use. In my case the fine filter bag liner took the abuse. The main filter was easily cleaned with the spray feature in the kitchen sink. In the end, this vacuum will easily reduce the time needed to remove the junk blown into the pool post a Haboob. My first impressions are positive and at this point in time I would recommend this widget.

Update: My original review is below. Since I wrote the review, a customer service rep contacted me via the comments section. She offered to immediately send me a replacement vacuum and a label to return the old one. I got the new one in 3 days. In my opinion, that is fantastic customer service and this would be a 5 star review if it had happened without me having to make 2 prior attempts. I think it's a great vacuum, and my only complaints were the short time the vacuum worked and the initial lack of customer service. I purchased this on July 24. We used it about once a week for four weeks, maybe 30 minutes each time. The first two weeks were on the same battery charge. After that, it died entirely by the end of each 30 minute use. After the fourth use, it wouldn't charge any more. While it worked, it did a great job of picking everything up and was a lot easier than using the vacuum that plugs into the skimmer. I read a lot of reviews before buying this, and knew that the battery has been a problem for a lot of people, but there are also a lot of people who didn't have problems. We followed the directions in the manual exactly, and never left the unit on the charger for more than 12 hours and always let it dry fully before plugging it in. I've called the customer service number twice. The first time the woman said that I could pay to send it in and they would have it fixed at no charge. She said they only pay for shipping if it's within 30 days. I told her we were at day 34 (and if I'd called when it first failed it would have been within 30 days), so she very kindly said if I emailed a receipt that she would email me a prepaid shipping label. However, after a week of waiting I've received no response. I called back and spoke to a different woman. While we were on the phone I forwarded her the email I sent to the first woman with the receipt attached. She verified she received it. This one said she'd send me a prepaid label by 5pm. It's now the day after with no prepaid label (I have been checking to make sure it didn't go into the spam folder), so I guess I'm not getting a response from her either. A product that fails isn't a big deal if the company stands behind their product. It doesn't seem like this company does.

I am only exaggerating a little bit when I say this may be the best purchase I’ve ever made. This thing is like a dirt devil dust buster for the pool, and it works 100 times better than I expected. I didn’t even know my pool was dirty, I have a filter (that we upgraded and were considering upgrading again to try to make the pool cleaner) and I screen the pool all the time, but this thing picked up SO much stuff I didn’t even see. (It was honestly a little gross 😂). There is a done of pollen and tree leaf degree that is too small and easily disturbed to get with a screen, but this thing picks it up no problem. I even bought a silt filter for it since I didn’t know how phenomenal the filter it comes with is. The one in the box will honestly do it all. It’s amazing. I know this is the updated more powerful version to the one I looked at a few years ago, but I’m willing to bet that the old one would have been fine for our smaller pool back then, and I’m kicking myself for not getting this sooner. I’m so glad someone talked me into this instead of a bigger pump. It seriously does clean for like an hour, even though I would have been totally happy with half that time. Even if this thing only lasts this one season, I would probably buy again next year just because it does such a great job and makes my life so much easier. I have been sending a link to this to everyone I know with a pool. 100/10 would aggressively recommend 😂😂 We do have a fairly small above ground pool, it’s only like 16ft, but I think this thing would be great even up to a slightly larger one. I think it would take too long for someone to clean like a huge in-ground pool, but for spot cleaning it would be great for that too. Also, I would actually look at instructions for rising out filter, because I just flipped the thing inside out, and it looks like you aren’t supposed to do that.

Having read other reviews I thought I'd try this on our 15 foot by 20 foot in ground pool. The first thing I noticed after unpacking it was the small size of the collection bag, and the fairly narrow diameter of the nozzle - which suggested it wouldn't do well on any reasonably sized leaves. Even so I decided to use it after a dust storm to see how well it coped. The results were disappointing. First, the collection chamber is tiny - even if it had worked well, I would have had to empty the bag every few minutes. Second, it got stuck on quite small leaves, which blocked the intake and wedged open the small plastic return valve in the vacuum tube - meaning that when I took the vacuum out of the water and switched it off, a large amount of dirt and water came back out of the tube onto the pool surround. In operation, the unit is buoyant, which means you have to keep a downward pressure on the pole to keep it in touch with the bottom and sides of the pool. It was only truly effective for a few minutes, after which as the filter bag became clogged by dust particles, it started to leave large streaks across the pool bottom. As others noted, it has a weird connector for recharging which was difficult to use - but other than that first charge, it won't be an issue, because I'm unlikely to use it again. Given that I've already used it once, and the filter bag is full of gunk, I guess I can't return it. But if I could, I would. I would not advise anyone to buy this unit. Save your money and go with a bigger, more capable unit. This might be OK for a small above ground pool, or a spa. For an in ground pool of any size, it's really not workable.

as a pool vac, I give it 5 stars. Plenty of suction, lasts a long time on a charge, relatively light weight, I love it. There are some things that aren't great with it. It's hard to plug the charger into the unit, you can't leave it charging for much more than the 4 hours. The button to turn it on is a PITA, the wheels aren't big enough for it to roll smoothly (I pot some small, wide rubber bands on the wheels to increase circumference, it helped). Even with all those things, I am happily buying another one. I bought the 1st in 2023, it died today, (no more suction). I used it mainly to clean my in-ground spa and spot clean pool. I'm going to try the smaller (cheaper) one. Should be good enough for my needs. Plus, I see it has a better on/off button. Bottom Line: If you're thinking about it, buy it. It's awesome.

I placed this order, along with a separate order for the sand and grit filter. I have a Intex 22-ft. above ground pool to maintain. Pros: * Unit does pretty much what I expected it to do. It's NOT gonna pick up leaves or twigs- mainly made for sediment pickup. You will still need to scrub down some areas of the pool where silt has caked. * Ran unit pretty much continuously for about 1.5 hours before battery fade kicked in. * Wheeled floor brush is fairly easy to maneuver across the bottom of pool. Cons: * Unit does not do too well with small stones or acorns. * Don't even think about vacuuming up leaves with this unit. Not gonna happen. * Intake "valve" is pretty much a small rubber flap. I see future replacements with this part. As it weakens, sediment will probably wash back out from the filter, so make sure the unit is away from the water before switching off for filter change/cleaning. * Filter needs to be cleaned frequently in the process. Admittedly, I had some heavy sediment buildup in some areas of the pool which resulted in cleaning the filter about every 5 minutes. Just rinsing with hot water, filter is pretty easy to clean. Things you should know: * Filter that came with the unit is made of a felt-like material. User will need to exercise care while cleaning. Scrubbing WILL tear it. * 4 hour charge will give you about 1 hour of continuous use. * Optional sand/grit filter is more of a fabric. It works- but in my opinion, diminishes the suction compared to the original. If you decide to buy an extra, go with the regular filter. I really doubt you will see much difference in ease of use. * Unit is as loud as a regular vacuum cleaner out of the water, but relatively quiet with underwater use. Finals: * Happy with unit after just one use. Should make periodic cleaning much easier than chasing down sediment with a net, which usually doesn't work anyway. 4/5 stars is pretty darned good. 5/5 stars is perfect, and not much is perfect. UPDATE: Okay...I've been using this vacuum 1-2 times a week since I bought it. While it does still work, it appears to kick around more grit than it actually picks up. I thereby drop a star on this item. I can't understand why somebody doesn't make a GREAT above ground pool floor vacuum. Surely somebody can make a unit that fits on your back with a battery-powered motor, extension wand/hose, and a water release at the back, filtered through a standard A or C filter. It only makes sense and could make somebody some bucks...

Spoiler alert - it was pollen, not mustard algae. We're new pool owners, we bought our house in SC last year from some neglectful owners who let the pool fall into disrepair. For reference our pool is 20 ft x 40 ft, 8 ft at the deep end, 3 feet in the shallow. We spent countless hours and money getting the water clear, and when we finally did, we noticed all of this stuff on the bottom and walls of the pool. Some of it would gather in small circles, some of it would collect in larger masses in the deep end. Some of it was mustard colored, others were dark brown. Everything I read indicated mustard algae. We spent the whole summer in a vicious circle of shocking, vacuuming on waste, filling the water back up, only to have this stuff reappear right as we were done vacuuming. We were using an old suction vacuum with a long hose, which frankly sucked, and not in a good way. It was such a hassle and giant production for no results. The pool was never in a state where we could just jump right in, this stuff was always there. We closed the pool for the winter and had someone come in to open it this spring. The stuff wasn't on the bottom when we uncovered it, but as soon as we turned the filter on, it came on in and settled just as before. We told the pool guy our story. He said it's probably not mustard algae, it's just pollen and fine sediment, and our old vacuum with the giant hose was just stirring up the water. The vacuum wasn't strong enough to suck up the fine debris, it's just moving everything around in the water, which then resettles. The sediment is too fine to be filtered out through the filter. I finally found this vacuum and decided to give it a try. We were AMAZED. It actually picked up ALL of the fine pollen & sediment, did not stir up the water, and since it doesn't have to connect to the filter, you just take all that stuff right out of the pool. It didn't come back after vacuuming. I'm literally in disbelief. The cons: the filter is hard to clean. It's made of fine fibers so bugs and things get caught in there. The charger is annoying. And yes, the vacuum is made of plastic so if you drop it, it will probably break. The vacuum is not for leaves or things much larger than tree nuts (which it does fine with) but we didn't buy it for really big debris. I can't speak to longevity as we've only had it a week, but we bought the 2 year warranty. I figure I have to replace my $1,000 iPhone about every other year, so, ya know, perspective. If I need to replace a $200 vacuum that works this well every 2 years, well, that's a lot less than the amount of money we wasted on shock when we thought we had algae. I hope this helps someone. It turned my very demoralizing situation totally on its head. Pool season here we come!

We have a 15x30 foot Oval above ground pool with a depth of 3.9 feet. We installed it approx 2 years ago. I didn’t like using the supplied standard vacuum that attaches to the skimmer and uses our sand filter to clean the sucked up debris.So I bought a cheaper rechargeable vacuum (Intex) it was only about $125.00 , I found this vacuum convenient, however it didn’t really do a good job. I was frustrated with the amount of debris it would kick up in the water and not “suck up”. I didn’t want the cost of a pool robot vacuum and I really dont mind vacuuming the pool myself. I stumbled upon this vacuum. I have only used it once, but I am very impressed with the suction and the size of the vacuum head itself. I just finished cleaning the pool and removed a lot of debris that my old Vacuum would not have picked up. I dont need to use it multiple times to realize it is a great product at a fair price. I believe you get what you pay for and this is a great product priced reasonably well.

Fonctionne tres bien

Gets patches of dust and dirt out of pool without stirring it up . Lightweight and easy to manoeuvre.

Very powerful vacuum, more than I expected and battery life is good.

Easy to use, works very well