Water Wand

If you own a cartridge swimming pool filter you know how tedious cleaning it can be, so any device that makes the job easier should be a blessing... then there is the Water Wand. I had thought for about $20 USD the device could pay for itself after a couple of uses, however, I felt the device wasn't worth 20 cents letalone 20 dollars.

In theory, the Water Wand should be a timesaver over traditional spray hoses in cleaning inbetween the cartridge pleats. The Water Wand aims to provide faster cleaning times by targeting 8 pleats at a time rather than the usual 1. However, in practice I found it difficult to miss a pleat given the varying thicknesses of the pleats on my cartridge. If that were the worst of it, I probably wouldn't complain much since it would still provide quicker cleaning times.

Connecting the Water Wand to a garden hose could be a bit painful if you're not careful. The Water Wand has a swivel connector that attaches to the hose and I found myself being pinched on more than one occassion when attaching it and detaching it. I would have preferred a fixed connector like most garden hose attachments. Despite this shortcoming, if the Water Wand performed well enough I wouldn't have cared.

As soon as the Water Wand was properly connected to the hose I turned on the water supply. The water pressure exiting the eight nozzles was barely enough to dislodge the smallest particles from the cartridge and it probably would have taken me about a month to clean the cartridge at this rate. I immediately noticed why... most of the water was bursting out of the flow control switch on the Water Wand rather than out of the 8 nozzles. I thought for sure that the unit had to be defective so I returned it for another one only to experience the same exact problem with the second unit.

Based on the fact that neither of the Water Wand's that I received even came close to working as advertised, I'd rate this product a 0 out of 10 considering I had to revert to using the same hose nozzle that I've been using for several years. It might not be the fastest method of cleaning the cartridge but it's certainly dependable and performs far better than the Water Wand.

Update (09/18/2006): The makers of the Water Wand have released this Technical Bulletin that is meant to address the leaking issues that I experienced when using the Water Wand product. Since I returned my Water Wand units I can not confirm whether this solution will correct the problems that I experienced.

This review is copyright Phil Schwartz
April 2006.

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If you own a cartridge swimming pool filter you know how tedious cleaning it can be, so any device that makes the job easier should be a blessing... then there is the Water Wand. I had thought for about $20 USD the device could pay for itself after a couple of uses, however, I felt the device wasn't worth 20 cents letalone 20 dollars.
	In theory, the Water Wand should be a timesaver over traditional spray hoses in cleaning inbetween the cartridge pleats. The Water Wand aims to provide faster cleaning times by targeting 8 pleats at a time rather than the usual 1. However, in practice I found it difficult to miss a pleat given the varying thicknesses of the pleats on my cartridge. If that were the worst of it, I probably wouldn't complain much since it would still provide quicker cleaning times.
Connecting the Water Wand to a garden hose could be a bit painful if you're not careful. The Water Wand has a swivel connector that attaches to the hose and I found myself being pinched on more than one occassion when attaching it and detaching it. I would have preferred a fixed connector like most garden hose attachments. Despite this shortcoming, if the Water Wand performed well enough I wouldn't have cared.
	As soon as the Water Wand was properly connected to the hose I turned on the water supply. The water pressure exiting the eight nozzles was barely enough to dislodge the smallest particles from the cartridge and it probably would have taken me about a month to clean the cartridge at this rate. I immediately noticed why... most of the water was bursting out of the flow control switch on the Water Wand rather than out of the 8 nozzles. I thought for sure that the unit had to be defective so I returned it for another one only to experience the same exact problem with the second unit.
Based on the fact that neither of the Water Wand's that I received even came close to working as advertised, I'd rate this product a 0 out of 10 considering I had to revert to using the same hose nozzle that I've been using for several years. It might not be the fastest method of cleaning the cartridge but it's certainly dependable and performs far better than the Water Wand.
Update (09/18/2006): The makers of the Water Wand have released this Technical Bulletin that is meant to address the leaking issues that I experienced when using the Water Wand product. Since I returned my Water Wand units I can not confirm whether this solution will correct the problems that I experienced.