Fully meet my expection

Worked as advertised for a while. Minor issue: There should be one-way valve on the pickup so dirty water does not fall back into the pool every time the unit shuts off to empty the tank. Major issues: the one-way valve on the drain line is flimsy and poorly mounted. It fell off and I lost it. The assembly hardware is not stainless; the first time I neglected to dry and disassemble the unit after use, fastening screws rusted badly, and the motor lost suction power. I shall discard it Sep 13 2003, about 18 months after purchase.

It works well, doesn't filter well, it uses a net on the discharge hose to filter water. It seems to me there should be some filter material in vacuum tank.

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I have a 320 gallon plastic pond. The vac removed most of the sludge and algae, but took several hours to clean. Has plenty of suction. Be careful to turn on the switch in the right direction. Follow instructions. After initial cleaning, I believe it will take less time from now on. Product is worth the money.

The instructions for this unit appear to have been written in China by someone not well versed in English. Some of it makes zero sense, and they never even mention what the cloth filter is for. (I assume dry vacuuming.) This machine is a WET DRY vac with a timer which allows 22 seconds of suction, then it turns off for 30 seconds or so, then it automatically turns back on. This allows for the drainage of the tank. There's a drainage flap which closes when the vacuum is in suck mode. You can also set it for continuous suction for cleaning up dry dirt or water off a floor.I've used it twice for our pond. The hose extensions that attach to the flex hose handle push into each other with a friction fit. MINE CRACKED AND SNAPPED THE FIRST TIME I USED IT. I need a new section of hose extension. I will contact Amazon.The suction is "ok", it does suck. The key to the best suction and flow seems to be to have the suction end as close to the elevation of the intake on the vacuum as you can. The farther it has to lift the fluid, of course, the slower the flow becomes. The accessories for the pond end of the extension are kind of OK but they need a wider one for large ponds without a ton of obstacles. The brush tool is about 3" wide and the other pond tool is about 4" wide which is the one I use.I tried to get a replacement tube section through Amazon, but they were unable to replace the cracked tube, so I ended up returning the whole thing. (It pays to take some photos as you unpack certain things so you can more easily re-pack if necessary.) There was no US contact or even Chinese contact information in the instructions.If the manufacturer would have beefed up the flared ends to handle the stress, this would not have happened. The handle is good, but not the tubes. The vacuum wand tubes are brittle and thin. Be careful handling, and especially whilst inserting the tubes together.

Given that most pond vacuums are over $300, and I got this one for less than half that, I'd say it's fine for the price. I've used it once on my 1,300 gallon koi pond that contains two 18" koi and for ~6" goldfish. I have a lot of plant life overhanging my pond so leaves and debris are a constant battle. The bottom of the pond is lined with large stones (football to grapefruit sized) and small river stones (like large gravel). The deepest part of my pond is 4' deep and the shallowest is less than a foot. I plan to use this vacuum every week or so to touch up the areas that accumulate muck and get any leaves off the bottom. It will not work as a substitute for draining the pond 2x a year and power washing the rocks and pump / filter house.- Suction: it's decent. It moves a lot of water but the suction seems to decrease as the tank fills up. It will pick up leaves and muck but doesn't do much to suck the algae off the rocks. It did pick up a few of the smaller pieces of gravel as well but I just took those out of the tank at the end of the job and tossed them back in.- Draining: I used it in both the continuous mode and the alternating suction/drain mode. Both modes had good drainage. The drain hose is quite short though, about 3', so you may need a longer one. It worked for me since I have two drains in my driveway adjacent to my pond so I just let the water drain right into those. The machine comes with a mesh bag to put over the end of the drain should you wish to drain the water back in to the pond after filtering out any solids. I chose to dump mine right into the drain as part of a small water change.- Construction: the unit is pretty sturdily made. The wheels work fine and the vacuum hose is long and similar to what you'd get on a small shop vacuum. The top latches open and closed easily. The pump unit in the lid has a cloth basket thing to keep any debris that accumulate in the tank from clogging the pump. The vacuum comes with a bunch of attachments for the hose end but I didn't find them very useful, since the pond bottom is made of irregular surfaces and thus the tools don't really make contact with it. The extension pieces for the hose that made a long handle are made of quite slippery plastic so they tend to fall off easily; I may try to rough them up with sand paper a bit to make them hold together better, or just tape them together since I found myself using all the extension pieces together when vacuuming. The power cord is a bit short so plan to use an extension cord.- Cleaning: it was very easy for me to dump any debris left in the bottom of the tank after use. I was easily able to disassemble the hoses and handle and rinse them with a hose before storing. You may want some velcro cable ties or a big mesh bag to store the hoses with their attachments.I hope this review helps you. I agonized over whether to buy this unit, since it had no reviews and I couldn't find any reviews anywhere else on the internet. Thankfully, I think this vacuum will suit my needs.