Features:

  • iSwitch technology turns pump on and off by sensing the presence of water
  • Plug in and leave the pump unattended for worry-free water removal
  • Strainer base filters debris to minimize clogging and keep pump from tipping over
  • Energy efficient, high flow, oil-free pump
  • Automatic freeze protection within the iSwitch technology to prevent pump damage
  • Auto On activates when water at, or above 2 1/8 in. has been detected. Auto Off activates when water at, or below 3/4 in. has been detected.
Great pool pump and doesn't tip over.

This has worked beautifully for us so far. One user mentioned cutting a small piece of screen wired to keep the small ports on the bottom of the pump from clogging. My wife had a great idea to use a mesh bag that onions/vegetables come in. The mesh is as small or smaller than screen wire and you just slip the base in the bag, seal the end with a twist tie and click the pump into place on top of it. This has kept all of the small debris from clogging the base of the pump & is very easy to rinse off the bag. Since the mesh is some kind of plastic it should last all year & maybe longer.

This thing sucks; in the good way

This thing sucks; in the good way. VERY powerful, gets rid of water fast. A little too powerful; I leave this on my pool cover in the winter as long as the temperature is above 32 degrees; as my own fault, the last pool cover we got was cheap and thin; this thing sucked the water right through it, emptying about 4000 gallons out of my pool one night. Oops. When the water gets low, it started to cycle on and off, but I figured out that if you just lift it higher than your output, it will reset. For instance, when I sucked too much water out and the hose higher than the pump it would cycle. I have been through 3 of the smaller type pumps, and wish I had this one to begin with. Maybe don't leave it on ALL the time is a suggestion.

Wayne WAPC 250 -- Very satisfied owner of pump to empty water off pool cover

Purchased Wayne's WAPC250 19 days ago, when my previously owned pool cover water pump, a Rule, began to malfunction after several years of usage. I admit some hesitation in getting the Wayne after reviewing some owners' comments, but the majority of buyers were quite satisfied, and I needed to move, so I ordered one. Glad I did. Assembly was minimal and straightforward - after the not obvious step of screwing the check valve into the motor housing SO THAT THE ARROWS ENDED UP ON TOP. This was essential to prevent any back flows. But when I screwed the check-valve all the way in, the arrows ended up at a 3:00 position instead of 12:00 - so I called the company for technical assistance. Explanation was that the check-valve and motor housing were manufactured separately and sometimes do not align exactly -- and either I should apply some teflon tape (like plumbers use, and it can be purchased at the hardware store, cheap) or the company would send me another check valve. They sent me another, which resulted in same issue. So I simply put on lots of teflon tape so that I could screw the valve and housing together and get a tight fitting with the arrows on top -- problem solved. With several recent heavy rains, I can report I'm fully pleased with how the WAPC250 operates. It's very quiet, and though it needs a couple inches of water to kick on, it keeps on sucking till the area around it is pretty much dry. I also adopted a suggestion from another owner - and inserted a 12X12 mesh bag (with small mesh, used for carrying vegetables or fruit) around the base plate before snapping the motor housing to it. This will keep debris from eventually clogging up the weep hole inside, necessitating some doable disassembly to clean out the hole and then reassembly. I've talked to Wayne's technical assistance reps several times, and found them to be helpful with advice. It's good to find a product made in the USA, and supported by capable people right here at home.

So far a good, well made pump that is getting the job done

I bought this for an under the cover pool pump. Even though it states it is for on top of covers the answers here on Amazon state many have used it submerged. It sits on our 2nd step under the cover so should not get too submerged but like any pump in the northeast will have to deal with freezing water at some point. I can come back and update the review after the winter and let everyone know how it made out. I've purchased about 5 or 6 pumps in the last 10 years for my pool. Most only last a single season. A couple lasted more than one. So far my initial impression of this pump is that it is well made and has more brains built into it than the other "dumb" pumps I've used. I'm optimistic it will handle the conditions and ice better than previous ones. If i get even 2 or 3 seasons out of it I'll be ecstatic so fingers crossed. To burn it in I only drained my pool to the first step and made sure it could pump things out ok. I placed it on the 2nd step and it made fast work of lowering the level down to the step (my pool about 35k gallons so 6 inches of water has to be at least 1000 to 2000 gallons.

Works great! If your pump is clogging, the problem may be the discharge hose!

I purchased this pump with great reservation as many of the reviews complained that the pump would stop pumping because the priming hole would clog and frequent cleanings were needed. My in-ground pool is surrounded on two sides by pine trees, and some of them are Larch that lose all of their needles each winter. I also have a lot of oaks nearby, so my pool cover collects both oak leaves and pine needles in large quantities. But I decided to give the pump a try anyway. Upon arrival, I placed the pump in the middle of my pool cover, complete with leaves and needles in the water. To my surprise, it worked well, although it took a long time to pump off the excess water. However, it only pumped the first two times the water level activated the pump. After that, I could not get the pump to work, even after a thorough cleaning of the pump and the priming hole. There was only a trickle of water coming out of the discharge hose when the pump was running. Then I found the real problem. I had attached a 5/8 inch hose 25 feet long to the check valve/reducing adapter and between the check valve, the reducing adapter and the 25 foot long hose, the pressure drop was so large the pump could not pump quickly enough to prevent the water level from rising above the priming hole. The back pressure would force pine needles and other debris into the priming hole. Also, the needles would accumulate at the entrance to the 5/8 inch hose, clogging it and further exacerbating the problem. Since my discharge hose only had a rise of about 12 inches, I replaced the check valve and the 5/8 inch hose with a 25 foot discharge hose 1-1/4 inches in diameter, as shown in the attached photo. What a difference! As soon as the water level activates the pump, it rapidly pumps the water off the pool cover in a matter of minutes. There is little or no back pressure and debris has no opportunity to clog the priming hole since the water level never has a chance to rise above the priming hole. I have been operating the pump for about six weeks now and it has activated numerous times with no issues. If there was a problem with back flow when the pump shut off, I had planned to install a plastic 1-1/4 inch check valve, but I don't think it's necessary. With this simple and inexpensive modification, I can rate this pool cover pump five stars and highly recommend it.

I love this cover pump

After having to replace the pool cover pump sold by the local pool dealer again, for the 3rd year in a row, I decided to try this pump instead. It has worked wonderfully and stood up to things the other pump did not. The recommended pump was double the price of this one. This pump continues to impress me. The only issue is the on/off float doesn't work quite as well as I would like resulting in the pump cycling on and off quite a bit so I can't just put it on the cover and leave it. I have to plug it in when I want it, unplug it when I don't. It has done an on/off cycle all night when I forgot about it, something that is very hard on an electric motor, yet it's still going. This pump has with stood a lot of abuse and continues to pump. I have not been easy on any of my pumps, this one included, yet it hasn't stopped working in 3 years. I highly recommend this pump!

Nice looking pump that is working well on my pool cover

I have a automatic pool cover over my 16x38 in ground pool. It originally came with another pump, which worked for a little over a year, then became intermittent. I decided to try this one as it had good reviews. We've had a few big rains since I've gotten it and it has worked very well. If a huge downpour, it may fall behind some, but don't think a bigger pump would help as I think the limit is the hose itself. But those types of rains don't last long. In the summer the cover is only closed and pump placed on it when we go on vacation, or when a storm is coming. So not a lot of use then. Once too cool to swim, the cover is closed until spring, and the pump is installed from about Oct-April. So far so good. I have a lot of pine trees near my pool and in the fall they do drop needles. My old pump would sometimes clog because of these. So far that has not been an issue with this one.

Well worth the cost.

If I had not been limited to 5 stars, I would have given Many more. I recommend it highly I bought this pump in early October and have left it on the pool cover through many rain storms since. After the storm, there is very little water left. Yes it is expensive, but after struggling with a much cheaper utility pump for years, there is no comparison. This one does not clog on the little locust leaves my neighbor's tree drops on the pool cover, It does not tip over so I have to reposition it multiple times It has the automatic switch that turns it on when water reaches a few inches and turns it off so the pump will not overheat when the water level drops and it starts sucking air. It also has a check valve to prevent back flow. Although back flow is not a problem for me, I can understand why it may be for some folks if the end of a long hose is above the height of the pump. No back flow means no pump cycling due to the water coming back into the pool causing the pump to start again. This pump works so well it is a set and forget. I don't have to continually drag a pump and hose out whenever I need to empty the pool cover, as I can just leave it on the cover and it will empty most of the water automatically. It comes with a 3 year warranty - that I suspect I will not have to use, but time will tell. If you have not gotten the idea yet, I think this pump was well worth the price I paid and am sorry that I did not buy it years ago. One warning - as it says in the owners manual. It will survive a brief cold snap, but should not be left on the cover during the long winters we have here in Wisconsin. But be assured, as soon as it warms up in the spring, I will put it on the cover again to prevent the usual stagnant water that accumulates before it is time to open the pool.

Works like a champ

Update, working well through several heavy storms. I did have to open the base of the pump to clean, which is very easy. I have tons of pinestraw, seed pods and other debris constantly falling on cover interfering with the pump. I have to keep cleaning pollen and crud off water level sensor with small toothbrush, otherwise pump cycles on/off every 2 minutes, which is not a fault of the pump. Still maintain rating of 5 stars given the challeges this pump faces for my application. If there was a timer built in to limit frequent cycling that would be a welcome improvement. Works like a champ. Good base design keeps pinestraw at bay, it's quiet, auto switching works extremely well, comes with nice long power cord. i am however terrified of cover failing and this monster emptying my pool in 20 minutes. it's kept up with a few hours of downpours with ease. I pulled my cover taught after placing pump in center of cover (14x35 pool) and it improved my results. Wrinkles/air in your cover will hold water and cause frequent cycling which others are mentioning. Buy 50ft of decent rope with this purchase as the included...string doesn't inspire confidence.

Great pump so far, will update if this changes; much better initial experience than with Little Giant, Rule, and Swim Time pumps

This unit has been in the water for less than 3 days, but best experience of any pool cover pump so far. Will update this review if this changes, but for now, I'm very happy. Having purchased pool cover pumps from Swim Time (350GPH & 1250 GPH models), Rule, and Little Giant, I can say that none of them lasted more than 2 seasons. Living in a moderate climate and taking very good care of my equipment, expectation is that the equipment should last longer than a year. Anyhow, unit arrived and assembled quickly/easily. Only complaint is that the check valve must be installed to the proper orientation, which was problematic. Hand tight, the marking on said check valve was at the 3:00 position (instead of the described 12:00). Felt right away that this had "hit bottom" and that tightening with a wrench would result in damaging the valve. Ended up using enough teflon (plumber's) tape to make the mark moderately tight when oriented properly. Other than this (very) minor complaint, I have to say that everything else for the initial setup was great. Package even included a generous length of rope to use in properly positioning the pump on the cover along with very clear instruction manual describing operation in detail. I was honest to goodness thrilled to find exploded maintenance diagrams. Hats off and five star rating for this alone! Installed this pump on a cover with approximately 1.5 feet of standing water at about 5PM on a Saturday, the following Sunday morning, the cover had been fully pumped and the pump was off as expected. So far, it is fast, quiet, and works as expected. No priming issues, no GFI trips, no issues of any kind. Based upon this initial perception, would not hesitate to recommend this manufacturer over the others mentioned above.

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