IÂm amazed this thread is still alive almost a year after I started it! I will say now that IÂve had it a year it works pretty well. It would work better if my husband also used it but he will not. So considering itÂs being used only every other shower, itÂs keeping the shower reasonably clean. I was out of town for 2 and a half weeks and noticed buildup on the doors, from no one having used it at all for that time. So now the shower will have to be cleanedÂbut itÂs the first time in many months! I think I will ask my husband to do it since he is the one that wonÂt use the machine! WeÂll see how far I get with that. I am not obsessively clean so itÂs good enough for me if it looks clean. I think how well the machine works must be variable, and have a great deal to do with a combination of how hard your water is plus how it combines with whatever soap you use. We had some stains in the molded fiberglass bottom of the shower that are gone now, too; that took several months to happen. We had tried everything on those without success. It is not perfect at keeping the mildew away but I find that is cropping up high up on the tiled wall where the spray does not reach. Not much of an issue.

jamrock; With your situation, I would suggest that you purchase a canister vacuum cleaner. You have a lot of hard flooring to vacuum. You say that you have area rugs. If they are room sized and thick, I probably would suggest a canister with a power nozzle. If it is something like an oriental rug, you could do fine with a turbo brush attached to the end of a suction only canister. I do not know what size home you have, but the small canister vacuum cleaners, like the Simplicity Jill and Riccar Sunburst have bags which may fill up quickly if you have a lot of dirt to pick up. Not every Tacony(Riccar & Simplicity) canister vacuum cleaner is made in the USA. The Simplicity Jill(Riccar Sunburst) is made in China. I would suggest that if you like this canister, but do not want to spend the money, I can suggest the same vacuum cleaner under a different brand. With the cost of it, you could purchase three of them. Recently, Big Lots was selling the Oreck Quest refurbished canister @$99. That is a "so-so" price, but Oreck's regular retail price is too high for what you are getting. Bissell also markets a small canister with an electric power nozzle, which could fit your needs. It is called the CleanAlong. Look at canister/canister with power nozzles under the Riccar/Simplicity nameplate, for small to large canisters. Also, take a look at Miele's more affordable S2 series or the higher priced S6, then the TOL S5 series. Each series will have what you need. BTW, what vacuum cleaner are you using now? Are you happy with it?

Nothing cheaper than using BBB...bleach, borax & baking soda. Sam's has 182 oz jugs of bleach for about $7-$8/3 jugs, as well as 15# of baking soda for $5-$6. Haven't had to use borax myself, so haven't priced it. Muriatic acid from Lowe's or Home Depot runs about $9-$10 for 2 gallons. Conditioner/stabilizer/cyanuric acid is about the only thing I get from a pool store, runs about $20 for 4 lbs., but you don't use much on a regular basis. Read up on the BBB method on poolforum.com, especially the stickies on the top of each forum.

Automatic pool cleaners are really intended for maintence and are not going to fix your pool by themselves. If it hasn't been opened in a year or more, I imagine that you have a pretty rough task at hand. Get as much of the debris that you can out of the pool yourself (try dipping it out with a leaf bag net). You will probably have to add water to the pool so that the filtration system can work. The water needs to flow in the skimmers. Then you are going to need to balance the water chemistry. Take a water sample to a local pool supply store. They should be able to test it and let you know what you need. Buy yourself a test kit so that you can test it at home. All pools look pretty bad at startup. (Even new pools usually turn green before we get them balanced right.) Hire a professional to open your pool for you if you are nervous about it. Then get an automatic cleaner to help keep it clean. Check the water chemistry every few days and adjust accordingly. Also, you may want to look at automatic chlorinators or salt-water chlorinators to help you keep the water chemistry balanced. Just a suggestion, try to get those leaves/ debris out of the pool this year before they reach the bottom. A little bit of skimming each time you are at the pool goes a long way! Good Luck! -Renee