Pick the best pool vacuum type: here’s how

Backyard swimming pools have become staples of the summer season—and so has cleaning them. The best pool vacuums are an essential tool for pool maintenance, and keep your pool in tip-top shape all summer long.

If you're looking for a cleaning solution, you'll need to familiarize yourself with the different types of pool vacuum cleaners. We'll take a look at the four major types of pool vacuums—robotic pool cleaners, suction-side cleaners, pressure-side cleaners, and manual pool vacuums—and wade into the pros and cons of each to help you decide which type is best for you.

Manual pool vacuums

Manual pool cleaners are the most budget-friendly and simplest option among commonly recommended pool cleaners. These pool vacuums often look like a typical vacuum cleaner, only the vacuum head is at the end of a telescoping pole.

Manual pool vacuums can have their own canisters for collecting debris, connect to your pool's pump via a hose, or even feature a combination of both. This lets you vacuum the bottom of your pool just like you'd vacuum the floor of your home, assuming your household vacuum cleaner is about 10 feet long.

While manual pool vacuums might make up the cheaper option here, they will definitely cost you in other ways. For starters, it's a great workout for your arms and back. You're moving a huge pole back and forth through water, which can be exhausting. It also takes much longer than other options, which is less time spent relaxing poolside.

Even if you want to hurry the process, it's not recommended: The manual pool vacuum really only gets the dirt that's sitting sedentary at the bottom of the pool—moving the vacuum head around quickly will kick up debris, creating obfuscating clouds and putting a lot of the dirt out of suction reach. Also, water adds a ton of resistance, so moving things around slowly will be a lot easier on your back than trying to muscle through as fast as you can.

Suction-side pool vacuums

A suction-side pool vacuum cleaner leverages your pool's pump and filter to provide the suction and skim out debris. These automatic suction pool cleaners come with either two or four wheels and patrol your pool to vacuum up anything it comes across. Since these models use your pool's pump and filter, it'll draw quite a bit more electricity than the stand-alone robots, but will otherwise be a much cheaper option.

As with other pool vacuums that leverage your pool's pump, after each use, you'll need to backwash and empty the filter and manually remove anything stuck in the skimmer.

Suction-side pool cleaners are one of the less expensive automatic options for keeping your pool clean, but they can take a long time to complete a full circuit. Additionally, by using your pool's filter, they'll create some extra wear and tear, necessitating more frequent replacement than you otherwise would. Keep this additional maintenance in mind when pricing out your options.

Pressure-side pool vacuum cleaners

Like the suction-side options, pressure-side cleaners also rely on your swimming pool’s pump and filter, only they use the pressurized water pushed out of the pump instead of the water getting sucked into the pump. Since it's not able to send debris through the filter, this type of pool vacuum often has its own canisters or filter bags, which can be a lot cheaper to replace than the big one in your pool's pump. This also means you won't have to backwash your pool's filter after use (though you will have to clean out its filter bag each time).

These models also draw a ton of electricity from the pump. While often more expensive than suction-side cleaners, depending on the cost of filters, pressure-side pool cleaners can be the slightly cheaper option over time.

Robotic pool cleaners

Robotic pool cleaners are No. 1 in terms of ease of use for pool owners—so naturally, they cost the most. This is the best "set it and forget it" option available: These automatic pool cleaners require little to no effort and will have your pool looking spotless in a few hours. These devices have their own filter bag or capture canister that needs emptying after each use and either depend on battery power or can just be plugged into the closest available socket via a suitably long extension cord.

Since they don't depend on your pool's filter or pump, these robots are often significantly cheaper to maintain over time, both in terms of replacement filter costs and power usage (in fact, it's actually encouraged you don't run your pool's pump while they're going, to ensure nothing is kicking debris up and away from the robot's suction).

Also, unlike other cleaning methods, robotic pool vacuums often don't require a long garden hose that's affixed to part of your pool. This can be a boon if you want to use the pool vacuum while swimming around since it means you won't have to avoid a long plastic obstacle the whole time.

While robotic pool cleaners are the best option for routine pool maintenance, many units have a lot of trouble with larger pieces of debris. Depending on the unit, even something the size of an acorn can cause problems, either blocking the unit's suction or simply being left behind as the device focuses on more manageable morsels. Most can't handle larger items like sticks, which a good suction- or pressure-side cleaner might be able to manage.

Nothing says summer like cool, clean water

For some, the hard work of manually cleaning the pool makes the payoff of a refreshing dip all the more appealing. For others, the convenience of a robotic pool cleaner might make more sense. Whatever you choose, your pool's lining (and your feet) will thank you.

If you're looking for other ways to make this summer feel more like other summers, check out our other summer fun articles to learn which pool is right for you, which products are the most splurge-worthy, and which ones shoppers are swooning over.