Polaris Vac-Sweep 360

The 360 is the exception in the Polaris pressure-side line: it does not need a booster pump. Everything else about it matches the 380 — three venturi jets, all-wheel belt drive, a 2¼ inch vacuum inlet, a single-chamber bag, three wheels with two on one side and one on the other. The difference between the two models is which pump pushes the water, and on a 360 the answer is the filter pump you already own.

That is the reason to consider it over the Vac-Sweep 280 or the 3900 Sport, both of which need a second motor on the pad — a Polaris PB4-60 or a Pentair LA01N — running every hour the cleaner runs.

Polaris's own page says both things

Worth knowing before you shop, because it has confused a lot of buyers.

The 360's product page on Polaris's site carries a promotional block headed "Powered By a Required Booster Pump", which reads: a compatible Polaris booster pump is required to power your cleaner. It sits a few inches below the same page's specification table, where Requires Booster Pump is answered No, and below the page's own description, which says the cleaner works "without the need for a booster pump."

Three primary sources agree against the promotional block: the specification table, the product description, and the in-ground cleaner family brochure, which lists the 360 as the only one of the four pressure-side models not requiring a booster. The block is template text that appears on the pressure-side cleaner pages generally. The 360 does not take a booster pump.

What it needs instead

Not needing a booster is not the same as needing nothing. The 360 comes ready to thread into a 1½ inch female fitting on a dedicated return line, and that line is the requirement.

If the pool has one, you also want a diverter valve on it, because that valve is how you set the cleaner's speed. If it does not, Polaris sells adapter kits and they are worth naming, because "my pool has no dedicated line" is usually solvable:

• Two or three return lines — the eyeball fitting connection kit, 9-100-8001, which puts a wall fitting and a pressure relief valve into a second line and an eyeball regulator into a third
• A 1 inch plastic pipe cut flush with the wall — the 1 inch stub pipe connection kit, 9-100-8002
• A 1½ inch plastic pipe cut flush — the 1½ inch kit, 9-100-8003
• A directional eyeball with no 1½ inch threaded socket behind it — the eyeball adapter connection kit, 9-100-8005

One more, for when the cleaner is out of the pool: the UWF eyeball fitting, 6-511-00, goes into the empty wall fitting so the pool circulates properly in the meantime. Leaving the return open is a common oversight.

And a plumbing rule that gets missed on pools with panels: plumb the cleaner line upstream of solar heating, ozone generators and anything else that induces air. Air through the cleaner upsets its balance, and the effect looks like a mechanical fault.

Twenty-eight to thirty-two, and check it before first use

Polaris puts the wheel speed check in the setup instructions, not in troubleshooting, and almost nobody performs it.

The cleaner has to run between 28 and 32 RPM. That is a different window from the 3900 Sport's 30 to 36, so do not carry the number over from another Polaris. To measure it:

1. Mark a tire on the single-wheel side with tape or a leaf tucked into the tread.
2. Turn the pump on and hold the cleaner below the water line — the count is wrong if it is out of the water.
3. Count that wheel's revolutions for one minute.

Below 28 — check the filter screen in the quick disconnect, then the skimmer, pump basket and filter, then the hoses and swivels for leaks, then open the diverter valve further.

Above 32 — close the diverter valve first, and only then unscrew the pressure relief valve until the speed comes down.

The order matters. The diverter valve is the coarse control and the relief valve is the trim. Nearly every entry in the manual's troubleshooting table ends with "check the wheel RPM," which is a fair signal about how many complaints are a setting rather than a fault.

The hose is a measurement, not a length

The end of the feed hose must land within 6 inches of the farthest point of the pool, longer or shorter, measured with the pump running and pressure on. Cut the excess from the first section, the one attached to the quick disconnect, not from the end.

Then the three floats go on at fixed positions: one against the back-up valve, one at 4 feet and one at 7 feet upstream. Getting that wrong is the reason a hose tangles, and a tangled hose is the reason a cleaner covers half the pool.

If the hose is short, buy a section rather than improvising. And lay the hose out in the sun before you start, which relaxes the coils and is the cheapest thing on this page.

The belts are the part that is not covered

Polaris's current warranty covers the cleaner for one year and the frame for five. The wear list that is covered for nothing at all names bags, tires, sweep hoses, sweep hose scrubbers and belts.

That last one lands harder on a 360 than on the rest of the line, because this is the belt-drive cleaner — the 280 is shaft-driven and the 3900 Sport runs a stainless chain. Two belts, small and large, sold together as 9-100-1017, and the diagnostic is one you can do in a minute: with the pump off, spin each of the three wheels by hand. They should all turn together. One that spins alone has lost a belt or lost its tension.

Note also that the older printed manual gave the frame ten years. The current Polaris warranty statement sets five for the frames of all its in-ground pressure-side cleaners, and that is the figure that applies to a cleaner bought today.

The rebuild kit is warranted differently

A detail buried in the warranty statement that changes the arithmetic on an aging 360.

Purchased replacement parts carry ninety days. The exception, named specifically: Factory Rebuild Kits for Polaris pressure cleaners are warranted for one year.

The 360 kit, 9-100-9060, is a pre-assembled base plus tires, wheels, bearings, belts, gears, turbine, thrust jet, in-line back-up valve, bag, head float and sweep hose. What it does not include is the frame and the hoses — which is to say it replaces nearly everything that wears, and reuses the two things that mostly do not.

So on a cleaner with four or five worn items, the kit is not only cheaper than the parts individually. It is the version that comes with four times the coverage.

The conditions people trip over

Three that are not obvious, all from the manufacturer's own documents.

Chemistry is a warranty condition. Polaris lists pH 7.2 to 7.8, cyanuric acid 30 to 100 ppm, total alkalinity 80 to 120 ppm and 100 to 150 for vinyl, total dissolved solids under 1,500 ppm not counting salt, and hardness under 800 ppm. Outside those, a failure is excluded. The pH and alkalinity calculator covers two of them.

Take the cleaner out before you shock. The manual says to remove it before any chemical shock treatment, and the warranty separately excludes damage from introducing chemicals upstream of the cleaner hose. A cleaner left in during a shock dose is sitting in the strongest water in the pool.

Freeze damage is not covered, and the winterizing step has two parts people do half of: drain all the water out of the cleaner, and take the universal wall fitting out of the pool wall. The removal tool for the second, if it will not come by hand, is 10-102-00.

Fine tuning, once it runs

The thrust jet on the back of the body sets the direction, and eleven o'clock is the factory setting. Polaris's own instruction is to leave it there unless the pool shape demands otherwise — a cleaner that has stopped covering the far end is more often a hose length or a wheel speed problem than a thrust jet one.

For the sweep hose, the adjustment screw on the feed pipe turns counterclockwise for more motion and clockwise for less, with the pump off. Aim for a gentle sweep. If it is spraying over the deck, tighten the screw, check the scrubber, and consider the TailSweep PRO accessory.

And one check that catches a real fault: with the pump running, turn the cleaner upside down and look into the vacuum tube. All three jets should be flowing evenly. Fewer than three, or uneven, is an obstruction — and it shows up as a cleaner that has quietly lost its suction without anything looking wrong.