Hayward RC9740WC SharkVac XL Automatic Robotic Pool Cleaner

I have been looking for a pool cleaner that will take care of my pool without all the maintenance cost, time untangling and cost of keeping the sweep working. I just bought the SharkVac and I am very happy with it. These are my first impressions. The "concept" takes a little getting used to but once you see it work you stop worrying. The "robot" cleaner moves around the pool cleaning most of the bottom and sides of the pool. Some of the older reviews address "turtling" the cleaner on its back in the pool. I have not experience that with this new unit. I wish they had come out with this years ago. PRO's MUCH CHEAPER than the POLARIS! 1. NO HOSES, NO BOOSTER PUMP and the associated cost of maintenance with those items. Very expensive. 2. IT ACTUALLY WORKS! It gets everything out of the pool. Silt, Sand, leaves it gets it all. 3. Drop it into the pool. In the two hour cleaning period it covers my entire pool which is about a 40 X 20 pool. When it is done, you pull out of the pool and store it on its cart. 4. Same concept as the little robot-vacuum cleaners for your floors, it learns your pool as it goes. 5. Your cleaner is only in the pool when you are cleaning. It actually makes it nicer for swimming. 6. The electricity used to clean the pool is like running a light bulb for 2 hours. It does not take anywhere near the amperage draw of the booster pump used by polaris. CON's 1. I am worried about the cord wearing out. The instructions tell you to remove/lift the unit from the pool using the cord. It think it would be much better to have a plastic hook that attaches to your pool poll to grab it by the handle to remove it. I have nothing to base this on but it just seems logical that all the weight of the unit as well as it being filled with water will eventually stress the cord connected to the unit. 2. It doesn't clean the steps but it says that right up front. 3. You will still have to brush the sides once a week or so. While the unit does go up the sides it requires gravity to keep the brushes on the surface. The farther up the side it goes, the less contact with the wall it has. This is NOT a major problem as 5 minutes with a quick brushing will clean the steps and any remaining material on the side of the pool. 4. You HAVE to clean the unit after each use but a quick hose out after each use will keep the unit in like new condition. 5. If you want it worked on you have to send it to the factory or to an "authorized" dealer There are no user serviceable parts in the workhorse (sealed) section of the unit and I agree with that 100%. I would not want to open the guts of the unit especially since it is sitting in water. THINGS I AM GOING TO WATCH 1. I don't know how much the replacement parts will cost. There are some components that will need to be replaced (I think about once a year) a. Two paper filters that filter out small stuff. b. Two brushes on the front and the back. d. Two scrubber pads (you can probably replace those with material purchased at the hardware store very cheaply) 2. I am going to watch the wear and tear on the power cord. It is reinforced with Kevlar but any crack or hole in the connector could cause a short in the sealed motor unit. I hope this helps you make your decision. A strong buy recommend from me if you are looking for a pool cleaner. Update: I have had the unit for about a year now and here is an update to my review. Algae - I got a little algae this winter in the pool. Make sure you kill it all before you try to clean up the dead algae using the cleaner. The algae feeds on the paper filters and you have to soak them in Chlorine to make sure you kill the algae or you will have a pool full of it. Replacement Parts Fear - I was afraid that the paper replacement filters and the rubber rollers would be expensive. They are NOT. Only 40 bucks for a pair of each. Amazon does NOT carry the rollers. Dumping stuff back into the pool. Some folks complain about material coming out of the unit and falling back into the pool. This will happen if you lift with the handle and point the unit down to let the water drain out, which is the expected way to remove it from the pool. If you keep it flat lifting both the front and the back at the same time out of the pool you should not experience that problem. I know this is not the perceived way to take it out and it makes no sense to have to do it but it is a work around. In Florida most of our debris is small dirt or sand so the problem is not as noticeable. I don't know why they are having problems with leaves unless the leaf is slimy and stuck to the bottom of the pool. I get small leaves in my pool once and awhile and it picks them right up. overall the cleaner is performing up to expectations and I have to say I am much happier with this than I was with the previous 3 Polaris units that I had.

Lasted just one summer. $500 down the drain. Fast customer support, but they would not tell me how to replace the cord (it tied itself in knots and now just ties itself back up each time). I have tried to fix the known cord memory issue Hayward tells you about in their video on YouTube. Lasted just one summer. $500 down the drain. Fast customer support, but they would not tell me how to replace the cord (it tied itself in knots and now just ties itself back up each time). I have tried to fix the known cord memory issue Hayward tells you about in their video on YouTube. Hayward said I would have to pay a service technician, but there are no certified support centers anywhere near me according to the Hayward web site. The worst part is, they would not even talk to me about it without my proving that I had purchased it - even when I have to pay to have it fixed!? I told them up front that it was out of warranty, so they could have just said it has to go to one of our service centers, but instead they made me prove I had purchased it. What if I did not have the receipt? Anyway, I guess this one goes in the trash - $500 down the drain after just one season like so many others I have read about. I will say that it did work well most of the time, but I had to run it twice to get everything up (I have a big pool 36 X 18). Please understand that I don’t write bad reviews often – and know things will break when used. My issue is that something like the cord should last more than a year and I should not have to prove I purchased it if it is out of warranty for the company to even talk to me about it.

I'm giving this a 5 star rating, but read the caveat below. I switched to this pool cleaner after using a 'regular' (i.e., suction driven) Hayward pool vac for several years (10,000 gallon kidney pool). I used it for three years and it was fantastic. Does an amazing job of pickup up leaves and pretty much anything else from the pool, and leaves it spotless. The coverage is excellent, and it climbs walls with ease. The built in filters catch everything from large leaves to fine particulates, and mean that I almost never have to clean the leaf catcher on the pool pump. The robot is easy to empty, and hosing off the two enclosed filters takes a couple of minutes. The only real downside is that it is heavy to lift out of the pool - it helps to get it onto the top step and let the water drain out of it before lifting it completely out of the water. Even then it is not light! The only downside - mine died after three years. I stripped it down and it looks like there is some corrosion around the seal to the main drive motor. I'm going to do a full strip down. In the mean time I got myself a replacement - and the price has come down quite a bit. I wouldn't bother with the crazy expensive newer versions - this one works great. One other thing - after two and a half years I replaced the wheels on the original one because they had warn down - it was still cleaning OK, but kept getting suck on the raised pool drain. After I put new wheels on it it was back to normal.

UPDATE 08/11/2014: I am knocking off one star because the fins on the wheels eventually crack where they are connected to the circular portion of the wheel itself which causes the bottom of the unit to sit too low because of the semi-collapsed fins and it therefore scratches the liner. You can see the scratch lines on the bottom of the unit as well. I ordered a new set of 4 for about $40 and all is well again, but, there are visible wheel marks and scratches to the paint of the liner. I don't think it tore anything or made any holes but this is a warning that you should inspect the pool floor at the end of every couple of runs. Don't leave it in after it finishes either because the chlorine in the pool will dissolve the wheel fins even faster. Had mine almost 2 seasons before this began. FWIW - the scratches for me are camoflaged by the design and color of the liner so no harm done for me anyway. I have never had any type of automatic pool vacuum before so after doing EXTENSIVE research for a couple weeks online, reading about every review of every robotic cleaner on Amazon, I finally found one with no apparent red flags (other than reports of it flipping over which mine has never done) and generally good reviews. I have an 18x36 rectangular in-ground pool with a 3 foot end and a 9 foot end. Like one reviewer stated, don't place it in the water and watch it "try" to work unless you're only curious. Just put it in, leave, come back in an hour and a half or so, and amazingly, the pool is almost 100 percent clean. If it's not clean enough on the first cycle, just run it again. On the first cycle it usually leaves about 8 viewable bugs on the liner but that is out of the hundreds that were there prior. If I run it a second time, there will be 1-2 bugs left. I really don't get leaves too often so I cannot comment on that but as far as it having the capability to clean the pool, all the way down to 2 little bugs that even a human might miss, I will never ever manually vacuum my pool again except for when opening of course. Opening is just too dirty of a job for any automatic pool vacuum. PROS: 1. Entire pool cleaned with about 10 total minutes of labor each cleaning. This includes taking out the electrical box, plugging it into the wall, plugging the vacuum cord into the electrical box, placing the vacuum in the pool, turning on the electrical box, removing the vacuum when finished, removing, spraying, and replacing the filters, and placing the filter box back into the vacuum. I leave it poolside where I pull it out so I don't use the caddy. 2. There is a caddy version, and a non-caddy version for about 50 dollars cheaper. The caddy is a great idea if you would otherwise have to carry it any distance once you remove it from the water but I leave mine poolside where I remove it so I don't even need the caddy. Besides, when not filled with water it probably weighs around 15 pounds so it's easy to carry around after draining. 3. Plenty of cord from the electrical box to the wall outlet, and, the electrical box to the vacuum to clean every corner of an 18x36 pool. I know it would do a 20x40, 10 foot deep pool as well because I demoed it in my neighbor's pool and he's buying one now. 4. Suction suction suction. I bought an electric, stand-alone filter robot specifically so all the debris doesn't go into my pool filter, and, so it's much more powerful than the other water pressure-driven models. As this cleans, you will see it drag in debris from about a 1 foot perimeter around the 4 borders of the vacuum itself. That's how powerful it is being electric rather than water pressure-driven. I'd NEVER buy anything but an electric robotic cleaner after seeing this. 5. It climbs walls even though it says it doesn't go all the way up. I've read quite a few mixed comments about it flipping over, not climbing walls well enough, etc. It seems to me that the reasons for all the inconsistency in the reviews regarding this topic is due to the different layouts of people's pools. Some have tighter corners while some are rounder. Some pools are deeper and some shallower. Some have steeper inclines and some are more gradual, etc. I figured this all out after watching mine perform flawlessly within the contours of my pool. I can see how that would happen in some pools but not mine. Also, this is one of the reasons I bought it from Amazon - so if it should have to be returned for some of the poor performance I heard described in some of the reviews, I knew I'd have no problem returning it at all so I did not feel like I was at risk in the slightest by trying out this vacuum. Anyway, so get this - one day I hear some gargling water sounds behind me, and I turn around to look at the pool, and this vacuum climbed the slope in the deep end which it always does, got to where it would have to orient itself straight up and down facing the sky, continued climbing the 3 foot vertical wall, came out ABOVE the water line while sticking to the wall, TURNED LEFT and cruised horizontally across the liner, half in and half out of the water, cleaning even the dry 6 inch part of the liner that's ABOVE the water. Unbelievable. I know it's not designed to do this, but I'm thinking that since it's a learning robotic cleaner, it only stops trying things when it learns it shouldn't or cannot do it, and my pool is so friendly to this vacuum it stops at nothing. I have only witnessed this activity once in the wild, but again, I don't watch it while it does its job so it may do this regularly. I was baffled when I witnessed this, like seeing a freak of nature occurrence happening in the wild in real life. You will understand more of what I mean here after you watch it think things over when determining its next move. It looks really kind of stupid, but like I and another reviewer said, don't let this negatively impact your opinion of how it performs. Just leave it, come back later, avoid seeing its seemingly stupid logic and behavior, and see how well it cleaned. Don't base ANYTHING off of watching it work. 6. Due to the wall-climbing capabilities I've witnessed in my particular pool, I don't even need to brush my walls anymore - just the steps. 7. It is dead silent. CONS - read carefully because as for me, these cons are no big deal at all and would not effect my HIGHLY recommending this product: 1. Cannot use on my 3 stairs but I know of none that can. 2. You do have to get the garden hose and spray the bugs out of the 2 included filters but it takes around 5 minutes to clean them, hose down the unit, and place the filter bucket back in, but it beats the heck out of what would otherwise be a half-hour manual daily project for me, saving me 25 minutes each day (that's 3 hours saved per week). 3. Every now and then you can see a larger bug make it around - not through - the filters, and pop out of the top back into the water, but, that could be due to me not ensuring the filters are placed in the unit properly. This happened a few times right when I got it and it really doesn't seem to happen any more but I don't watch it so closely now. Besides, as long as the pool is clean when it's done, it has effectively served its purpose. 4. It does have to be plugged into a wall outlet since it runs off of electricity, and you have to take the electrical box out, plug it into the wall, and then plug the cord coming out of the vacuum into the electrical box. I place my electrical box in a storage cabinet right by the wall outlet, take it out when it's time to use, and put it back when I'm done and it takes about 1 minute. I will leave it out overnight if there's no rain in the forecast saving that extra minute however. It does look like it can be left out because it's of excellent construction and it looks to be waterproof but don't take my word for it. 5. You have to remember to take it out of the pool when it's finished cleaning as leaving it in the water overnight is not recommended. 6. If you do wind up using the caddy, the heavy-duty rubberized cord is somewhat of a pain to re-string around the built-in hanger on the caddy. It takes about 1-2 minutes to wind up and always gets twisted. Since I stopped using the caddy I just leave the power cord out the whole time now but it runs nicely from the power outlet on the house to the pool beneath my outdoor carpet and wicker patio set so you really can't even see it. It takes some thought to figure out your own unique way to set everything up depending upon your backyard setup in order to make it as labor-free as possible as I have done. 6. When you're finished with your cycle and it's time to take it out, the initial weight with all the water in it is probably around 40-50 pounds which isn't a problem for me, but remember you will be bending over to lift it out which makes it a bit more difficult for some. If you hoist it up a bit and let it drain for about 15 seconds it will go down to about 15 pounds. At the same time, you really only have to hoist it up about 6 inches from the water line where it's weightless, to the top edge of the pool, so even though 40-50 pounds may be heavy, you're only lifting it 6 inches and it has an excellent spring-loaded heavy-duty handle designed for this purpose. 7. I have a drain that comes up about 2 inches from the liner in the deep end, and it will on occasion get stuck on it but never for more than 5 minutes before it learns how to free itself. I've used it every day, probably 30 times in total so far, usually only run 1 cycle per day unless people are coming to swim in which case I run 2 for near perfection (and I'm a neat freak) and each time the performance has been excellent. I could not be happier with this product and I HIGHLY recommend anyone to at least give it a try. I can almost guaranty that there is no other robotic pool cleaner that is better for a cheaper price out there. Try it out on your own pool to see for yourself. Now I just have to see how long it will last. I will post an update when it dies, chronicling the remainder of its time here in my pool so be sure to check the "track updates" box if you comment or if you're interested.

The SharkVac took awhile getting here, but, it was worth the wait. Why did I wait so long to get a robotic vacumn cleaner for my pool? Finally got fed up with the manual vacumn and then having to backwash after. After just 1 two hour vacumn cycle with the SharkVac the pool was crystal clear. Easy to use, easy to clean. The first time around it focused on the front of the pool and didn't do much of the back end as I would have liked. 2nd time around it worked on everything. The specs say it doesn't climb up the walls, but it does. It climbs up and does a great job. It gets braver as it goes on, climbing higher. Doesn't do the steps but I'm okay with that. There's only 3 of them and I just sweep whatever is on them down into the pool. Takes all of 1 minute. I noted that when it backs up there is some debris that comes out but easy enough to scoop up with the net. I researched a few machines and settled on the Hayward because of the positive reviews and because I have other Hayward products that have worked well. Love this machine, sorry I didn't get it sooner.

I've done this Robotic Pool Cleaner dance in the past. I purchased this because it was listed at a "special" price and had mostly good reviews. I was very excited to receive it and give it a try. The first day I used it I thought it was working good. My pool doesn't get very dirty this time of year, but it did pick up some grit and debris. The next day I watched it a little more closely. There were several times where I would find it floating on top of the water like a whale blowing water through its blow hole. After several minutes of doing this the motor would stop and the SharkVac would slowly sink back to the bottom of the pool. If this was the only issue, I could probably live with it. On the 3rd day I watched the SharkVac repeatedly get stuck on the same area on the steps. Eventually it would back up and then move forward and get stuck again. After an hour or so of watching this, I said that's enough and I processed a return through Amazon. I got the SharkVac cleaned and dried out, packaged it back up and shipped it back. My refund was processed without any problems. I've since purchased the Dolphin Triton from Amazon and, while it's about 2 times the cost, it works great. It climbs the side all the way to the top and cleans the steps. I had an experience like this a few years ago with a Dirt Devil Robotic Pool Cleaner. If you've purchased the SharkVac and you're happy with, that is wonderful, but as for me, I've learned, that when it comes to Robotic Pool Cleaners, you get what you pay for.

This cleaner is easy to use and clean, and I've decided to stick with it though I have the following problems: Many times the cleaner may be found "belly up" at the bottom of the pool, or flipped sideways. As you don't track the whole operation unless you are spending an hour or more, you are left wondering when it actually stopped cleaning. To get better coverage of my pool (which has no straight edges) I have had to try multiple locations to start the cleaner. I haven't really seen it climb walls any higher than a little bit more than its own body width. And it cannot clean the steps (does not climb). The pool looks relatively okay after cleaning so I decided to keep this product. Can't ask for perfection from a robotic cleaner at that price tag I guess... ======================== After 1 year of operation, I am not happy with this product. It almost always goes belly up in the pool and I need to pull it up and retry cleaning. Somehow one side of this product is heavier than the other and dropping it slowly into the pool causes it to land sideways. Odd design decision.

We purchased this product in February to prepare for the southern summer. We did not use it until the first of June 2016. After 6-8 uses it began to malfunction. We called Hayward who was as helpful as wings on an ostrich. We have been routed to 3 different companies that sell Hayward products for warranty work. Though all have been nice, none have been able to help us and have even told us they themselves are having trouble with Hayward. Hayward Technical Support doesn't have a clue as to why it starts rising to the top of the water and spews water instead of running around the bottom of the pool like it did for the first few times it was used. The rep actually told us maybe it was because our chemicals were not balanced in our pool, which we knew was incorrect. It is almost like the computer chip in it has gone bad. The warranty is only good through a local service center, but we haven't been successful getting help there either. I feel like spent a lot of money on what we thought was a great product, got a lemon and no one cares because the sale is compete and they got their money.

It doesn,t do the sides or steps & that is one of the reasons I wanted it