History of Pool Cleaners

Automatic pool cleaners have come a long way over the last few years. According to Richard K. Cacioppo author of The History of Pool Cleaners that the first files for such a device was filed in 1798.  A patent however was not issued. John Pattison was issued a patent for his "Cistern and Tank Cleaner" in 1884. In 1912 the first patent was issued for an actual pool cleaner.  It was issued to John Davidson for his "Cleaning apparatus for Swimming Pools and the Like".  There is no evidence that it was ever built.  In 1937 Roy B. Everson received a patent for his pool cleaner.  It was the 1st pool cleaner to resemble today's cleaners.  It used rollers and brushes to create movement.

The 50's saw a large amount of patents issued for pool cleaners.  In 1965 Howard M. Arneson was issued a patent for the Arneson Pool Sweep.  This was the first pressure side pool sweep. Those of you my age might remember one of these in you pool.  It had tentacles that sprayed pressurized water out of them and pressurized water out of a spout in top.

The 1st patent for a robotic type cleaner was issued to Robert R. Meyers in 1967.  Today's automatic cleaners come in 3 major types, pressure side which operate off a return line of the pool pump or a booster pump. Examples of these are the Polaris and the Pentair Legend. The next type is suction side these either connect to the skimmer or a dedicated pool sweep line.  Examples of these are the Hayward Pool Vac, The Pool Cleaner, and Kreepy Krauly. The 3rd type is robotic cleaners that operate independent of the pool's filtration system. Examples of these are the iRobot, Hayward Tiger Shark.

The 4th type that needs to be mentioned is the battery operated hand held vac.  Many consider these a step back in technology.  However they have been very popular with consumers.  I use one on my pool route to clean fountains.  Examples of these are the Pool Blaster and the Watertech Catfish.  Amazingly a patent was not issued for this type of pool cleaner until 2004.