Hayward Navigator 925CS in-ground automatic pool cleaner, $2
The Hayward Navigator automatic pool cleaner, as well as the similar-looking Hayward Ultra, comprise an important profile that you must be aware of if you plan to take full advantage of the world of opportunity around you!
Clean and unassuming on the outside, yet intricate and full of machinery, the automatic pool cleaner is a complex little piece of equipment that serves the rather menial purpose of wiggling and shuffling its way around the bottom and sides of a swimming pool, sweeping up dirt and debris as it goes. The automatic cleaner is connected to a pool vacuum hose, and it gets all the power it needs to operate from the energy of the incoming water as it passes through the cleaner's little turbine wheel, much like a windmill gets its power from the wind.
One look at this weathered old piece of pool maintenance equipment is enough to turn up the nose of anyone who doesn’t know what it is. It’s faded and chalky, and the bottom side looks like someone has been dragging it down the road behind a car. As you should know by now, though, in this business we depend on things not being like they seem.
Something interesting about this particular Hayward Navigator model is that it is intended for concrete pools, as evidenced by its grey (or ‘silverado,’ as they call it) color. It even says on the back of the cleaner FOR CONCRETE POOLS ONLY. To avoid any confusion, the Navigator intended for vinyl pools is maroon in color. I believe the difference is the little brown feet on the bottom. The same foot composition that ensures long life on a concrete pool may be so hard as to cause damage to a vinyl pool bottom. Note that I talk more about these pool cleaners in my Gallery entry on the Sta-Rite Great White GW9500, which does not differentiate between pool types.
Check out the photo below and notice the difference between our unit, and the barely used ‘reference’ unit I’ve included for comparison. Note that ours sports substantial wear on all of the bottom surfaces, accrued during its travels along the sandpaper-rough gunite surface of the swimming pool bottom. Note too that the little side ‘wings’ on our unit have almost worn themselves off from dragging along the pool bottom! Time for the dumpster, right? Well, not quite.... Keep in mind that the folks at Hayward actually designed this unit to wear down the various parts and pieces over time, and so every part and piece that wears down on the bottom of these units is routinely and easily replaced. In that sense, our little Hayward is another great example of how a characteristic that is relatively common and acceptable to the informed can appear worn out or broken to the uninformed! In other words, let everyone else pass on it, I'll buy it!
As for the logical question about who on eBay would actually be searching out old pool vacuums like this one, well, of course it might simply end up going to a guy looking for a deal on an otherwise expensive pool cleaner. But a clue to who else might want our crusty old Hayward can be found in the ‘exploded’ parts view below. These things are full of gears, shafts, springs and all kinds of other costly parts and pieces. So, let’s say your own Hayward Navigator recently broke, and you decided it may be a good idea to have a ‘parts’ unit on hand in case of future occurrences? Or… maybe you have a shop that sells and/or services these pool cleaners, in which case it would be nice to have several of these machines on hand. My point here is, you always have to ask yourself where the money is.
This Hayward Navigator 925CS automatic in-ground pool cleaner sold on eBay for $91.
