No matter what type of pool you have, you'll need to perform regular maintenance on it. Potentially, the biggest task you'll face is keeping your pool clean. Unless you want to spend hours of time scrubbing your pool instead of swimming in it, you should take a look at automatic pool cleaners.

Automatic swimming pool cleaners are available for both inground and above ground pools. Prices vary quite a bit so, even if you're on a tight budget, you should be able to find one that's right for your situation. Pool cleaners come in three basic designs: suction side, pressure side and robotic pool cleaners.

Suction side swimming pool cleaners attach to your pool's plumbing on the suction side, usually at the pool skimmer. Some pools have a vacuum port especially for a pool cleaner. Suction is created on the underside of the pool cleaner by your pool's filter pump. Dirt and small debris is sucked up into the cleaner and through a hose to your strainer basket and filter, where the dirt and debris are trapped. This design makes suction side cleaners very much like pool vacuum cleaners.

Suction side cleaners are available for all pool types. One advantage of suction side pool cleaners is that they rarely require any additional parts or adapters to connect to any swimming pool. The popular Kreepy Krauly pool cleaners are suction side cleaners.

Pressure side cleaners, as you might guess, are hooked up to the pressure side of your pool's plumbing system. This is the side that is returning clean, filtered water to your pool. Pressure side pool cleaners use the power of water pressure to push dirt Pool cleaners and debris into an attached bag. One advantage of pressure side swimming pool cleaners is that they don't put extra pressure on your pool's filter system. They also help distribute clean water throughout your pool.

Pressure side cleaners are almost always automatic inground pool cleaners. Primary pressure side pool cleaner manufacturers are Polaris and Letro. The pressure side design tends to be more expensive than suction side.

Robotic pool cleaners are self-contained units that you put in the pool as and when needed. They are normally plugged into an electrical outlet using a really long cord. A transformer provides low voltage to electric motors inside the unit. One motor vacuums up dirt and the other moves the unit around the pool. Some models swim around randomly, while others can be programmed to follow a specific pattern.

Robotic pool cleaners can be used in any type of pool. They have their own self-contained filter, and they also put no resistance or back pressure on your pool's filtering system. They can also save money because they don't require you to run your filtration system for pool cleaning. However, robotic pool cleaners can cost more than the other filter types. Aquavac, Dolphin and Aquabot are all robotic pool cleaners.

One of the top features of owning your own swimming pool is being able to swim whenever you want. Automatic pool cleaners help out by doing the dirty work for you and letting you cool off and relax.