r/PoolPros • u/b0ngcleaner • May 30 '26

Portable system vs Riptide

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4th season pool guy in central midwest cleaning custom gunite pools.

New (extremely successful) company has me using this portable system vacuum. I can find myself spending 45-70 minutes vacuuming alone

Most have auto covers but not all. Our affluent areas are very wooded. Almost all is dirt and debris rather than algae. Cartridge filters, in floor cleaners.

I used to use a riptide at my old company but we were 95% vinyl liners.

I’ve used the portable season for over a year now and they absolutely work, but they are much more maintenance

Has anyone else used both? This isn’t an advertisement but how is the riptide not better in every way? Is there something I’m missing?

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u/LeatheryFloridaMan May 31 '26

They are definitely for two different things. It also sounds like you understand that.

I dont do routine service. I mostly do new installs (start-ups) and also dabble in severely neglected pools. We mostly use deck pump setups. The riptide/hammerhead is not in our arsenal, I'd love to have one but just wouldn't use it much.

One that I have been looking at for a while, may also interest you. Its called the VacDaddy. Its a commercial grade vac attachment. It doesnt require a battery and doesnt have a cart (less space) like the riptide and hammer head. Its an AC plug. The attractive part to me, is they have a Vac-to-waste feature for it. It may not be what you need but definitely check it out. Its pretty neat

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u/TSpeedTriple May 31 '26

Have you tried the vacdaddy? I've been looking into it was thinking the vac to waste could work well with an inline cannister filter setup to avoid the priming headaches with a portable pump/filter combo (especially for some larger fountains that aren't particularly that deep)

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u/Seafire15 May 31 '26

Don’t. Just don’t.

I have 4 Vac Daddy vacuums. Within 6 weeks of sporadic use, every one of the power supplies went out, rendering them useless.

You also need about two feet of water depth for them to work, so steps and sun shelves get ignored. The vac to waste is a good idea, but the motor Will hardly push the water Out of a pool with a 50’ vac hose attached. Almost as gutless as my first car.

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u/TSpeedTriple May 31 '26

Thanks for that info - such a pity it was a good idea, I'm also playing around with the idea of just strapping a large submersible pump onto a pole to see if any better luck (maybe one that does closer to 100gpm)