Intex Auto Pool Cleaner

I always envied people who have those $1000 robotic pool vaccuums but I always thought they were way too expensive for what they did. I came across this one and I couldn't believe how cheap it was, I was convinced it must be a cheap P.O.S. So I rolled the dice and bought one. I was SHOCKED at how NOT "cheap" this thing actually was once I got it out the box and ready to use! I hooked it up to my aftermarket sand filter, dropped it into my 16' above ground Intex pool and it went to work right away zooming back and forth across the bottom of the pool! Within a couple hours, I came back and the entire bottom of the pool was clean and debris free! I extracted my new little buddy, popped the clasps, opened his belly, and revealed it was FULL of dirt, leaves, sand, and debris that I didn't even know was IN there! Now I hook it up and run it for a couple hours, once a week, and my pool is cleaner than it's ever been! And I'm MORE shocked than ever at how LITTLE I paid to have this luxury. I can't imagine why people pay $600+ for pool cleaning robots. Granted this one doesn't have any active brushed that spin or anything like that, it's a very simple jet powered vacuum cleaner that uses the outlet pressure from your existing pool filter to propel it around the pool floor and it uses Bernoulli's principle to create a surprizingly strong vacuum to suck debris up from under it. the debris get's trapped inside the unit by the removable filter screen which allows the water which get's sucked up into the opening on the underside to pass through it, and the trapped dirt stays inside until you empty it. The clean, filtered water then get's ejected out the one of the nozzles on either side of the unit like jet ski, causing the entire unit be thrusted forward. After about 10-15 seconds (enough time for it to travel from one end of the pool floor to the other) the internal mechanism automatically switches the output direction of the water from the back, to the nozzle in the front, and the unit starts to move in the opposite direction. It repeats this back and forth movement indefinitely, and because of the slight resistance of the hose pulling on the unit as it travels, it causes it to make a slight "arc" as it moves, this ensures that it covers the entire bottom of the pool in a period of time and it doesn't just move back and fourth over the same area. Think of it as "organized chaos", sort of how a Roomba can vacuum your entire carpet while seemingly moving in a random pattern. Bottom line is, I LOVE this thing, and I can't BELIEVE I paid less than $80 (with shipping). It works GREAT. does exactly what it claims, and it feel like it's built so well that it should last at LEAST 5 years (or more) without a problem. Definitely a GREAT purchase.