Onga Hammerhead

Very good cleaner I've had 9 years of service – I don't understand these negative reviews I've had this cleaner for 9 years, I've just replaced all the wearing parts & I can say it's the best cleaner I've had(two Aqua Droids previously) I added an extra length of house recently to improve the far end cleaning & it did the job. Show details

Stopped by the smallest thing – Our Onga Hammerhead requires frequent attention. If it encounters a leaf, twig, petal, tendril or any other non-water object, it stops. It is so bad that I have compiled an album entitled, 'What's stopped me now? ' If your pool ever gets any of the things mentioned above, do not buy a Hammerhead. Show details

I do not recommend this product too much darma constantly – I had to call out the Neptune pool Shop on four occasions under 12 months period, because the product wouldn't work properly,the suction Seal keeps falling out,so I decided to return it to the Neptune pool care shop Morayfield Qld ,where we bought it from and the sales assistant said to me I need to prove to her the last six months of the pool… Read more

water testing results before she can do any replacement, this product have three years warranty I had my purchase receipt and also receipts for all the extra charges I paid for but yet still that was not good enough.I had to buy a new suction Seal for,$79.90 it's beyond belief what we as customers have to endure,when the product is still under warranty. This is unacceptable . Not very happy with the product.

Affordable and does what it should – I bought this product after looking around for ages and ended up ultimately deciding on it from the reviews on this site, as nothing else matched it. Very easy setup with enough parts to suit all skimmers and vaccum plates, it just simply does what it’s supposed to do with no fuss. I guess it does spend more time closer to the skimmer box than… Read more

the far end, but that’s to be expected with the design. Still, it does go everywhere and picks everything up so no complains there.

This thing also is a genuine wall climber and easily cleans all surfaces, as well as getting up onto our large seat area which I didn’t think would be possible.

While we’ve only had it so far for a few months, I felt compelled to write this review as I’m stoked I chose this one over a heap of others on the market.

Anyone looking for a no fuss set & forget, buy this. And don’t get a robot like I was close too doing.

Onga Hammerhead pool cleaner – The cleaner does not cover all parts of the pool, especially further away from skimmer box. The rubber disc had a tear which is not covered by warranty as they claim it is wear and tear. Cannot believe a wear can cause a perfect tear. Lasted in for just 14months. My pool is perfectly clean, no leaves and chemicals monitored regularly Show details

Suction pipe in knots – I have owned Onga Hammerhead pool cleaner for six months. Overall I’m very happy with it keeping my pool clean. However it likes to tie itself into a knot or get caught on its own hose. I feel it needs a second swivel on the skimmer end to avoid this. Has anyone tried this? Or have similar problems / solutions? Show details

Basic but reliable – I have had two of these cleaners and they have been pretty trouble free over years. The lifespan for me has been about 3 years (with a few modifications). Yes, it get stuck in corners and yes, it favours the deep end of the pool. It climbs about 2 thirds of the walls and rarely cleans the steps. The front bumper gets rubbed down over time and so I… Read more

added a section of hard plastic tubing as a "fender" to provide a wear surface. The skirt required a few cable ties to stay on when it got older but all in all, it has been reliable and have continued until literally worn down. The good news is that all these parts can be replaced. All pool cleaners are over priced so this is probable the best of the bottom end of the price range.

Covers 40% of the pool at most – Purchased on basis of Choice review and some other user reviews. I was replacing a Barracuda G3, which was pretty good but worn out. Onga was a lot cheaper and I thought it would be OK, if not quite as good. How wrong can one be!!! I note a lot of positive reviews here so it may be something to do with the configuration of my pool, so I include… Read more

those at the end.

After 2 months and many, many hours of fiddling with its adjustments - hose length, weight positions, suction strength, return water flow direction - I have given up. It has never got to the bottom of the deep end where most debris collects and spends most of the time travelling round the junction of wall and floor, with an occasional sojourn across the middle of the pool. I can get it to do more by reducing suction - it has an easy adjustment for that - but it soon turns on its back and stays that way until rescued. I does suck up whatever it comes across: it just doesn't come across much ...

Instructions say not to push the hose sections together hard or they won't come off, but I've found the opposite is the case. I have to force them together as much as I can or they come apart, particularly annoying is the cleaner head falling off the hose. The only good point is that the hose fits my suction brush head whereas with the G3 I had to use duct tape. So I can do a manual pool clean more easily - but $365 makes for a very expensive hose fitting.

The pool is in-ground, concrete and metal construction with a vinyl liner from Albatross Pools in Melbourne. 4m wide, 8m long with 1m roman ends. Depth 1.2m to 1.8m. Walls 1.2m with floor sloping away from the junction, so the slope gets longer as you go from shallow to deep end. The cleaner keeps crawling along this junction until at some point around the deep end it detaches and floats off towards the middle, but never the deep end.

The most frustrating pool cleaner on the market – They describe the Hammerhead pool cleaner as the "ultimate in carefree operation". How is this possible? From the moment I purchased the Hammerhead pool cleaner it never worked correctly. It would get stuck in the corner or only clean half the pool or none at all. Even after purchasing the deflector wheel kit which was supposed to prevent it… Read more

getting stuck in the corners the problem continued. It would never sit flat & most of the time it would just pulsate in one spot and not move. Admittedly when it did randomly decide to actually clean after being pushed out of the corner it worked very well picking up all the dirt and debris, but that was only on rare occasions and only half the pool. I've lost count of the amount of time spent messing around with trying to get it to work correctly. I tried moving the hose weights, varying the suction flow rate, adding and removing hose lengths, increasing & decreasing the pool pump speed, adjusting the water outlet angles but all to no avail. It shouldn't be that hard. Even searching the internet for a golden solution or something I may have missed. The company website is non-existent. Looking at other reviews on product reviews I'm not the only person facing the same issues. I was expecting better.

Over priced under performer – I bought this based on the product reviews and a youtube video titled " Onga Hammerhead pool cleaner in action". It seldom gets out of the deep end and prefers to "live" in the nearest corner. I have spent more time "adjusting" it than I care to mention. I hope that one day some newcomer to this market does some great R&D and develops a product in… Read more

this space that ACTUALLY WORKS. The trouble shooting guide says it all. There plenty of problems that can arise and you the customer get to spend a lot of your own time trying to make do with a product that fails to be "automatic". It's a pity that this handsome, quality plastic disappoints so badly! This industry needs a major disruption and the party has gone on far too long.

Some adjustment required – Initially I had a problem with the cleaner - it wouldn't stay flat on the pool bottom. The cleaner would lean backwards and stop, or sometimes stop on its side. To fix this, I tied a small rubber ball to the front hose segment, one hand width from where it joins the cleaner body. The extra buoyancy in that location made the cleaner balance… Read more

correctly, in shallow and deep water, and vacuum the pool bottom and walls properly. I can see some people have had this same balance problem, so I thought this review would help.

Second time round .. working better than the last one – This is the second Onga hammerhead I have purchased .. seems to be working better than the last ... bought a deflection wheel so it doesn’t get stuck in corners but the wheel seems to catch on everything else like jets etc .... still a good value cleaner does its job ... happy so far … Update 4/3/23 Still working great , pleased with overall performance for price .. Show details

owned one for 4 years cleans half the pool – This is a great no fuss cleaner. Throw it in the pool and let it go to work. Does a better job than hand vacuuming, the oscillating action really picks up the fine dirt. Gets chocked on some leaves and twigs, but rarely needs any cleaning. Biggest problem and the reason I won't buy another one and mine just died. Is that it only really cleans half… Read more

the pool. The jets force it to the skimmer box end fights to get away. This is probably an issue with jet placement by the pool companies rather than the hammerhead design.

Gets stuck. Supplier unable to help – Bought this cleaner six weeks ago. I have a small fibreglass pool and it kept getting stuck in the corners, not moving for as long as the pump is on. I have subsequently purchased the deflector wheel which has not helped - the cleaner still gets stuck. Contacting the distributor (Pentair) did not help. They came back with the same suggestions… Read more

that were in the manual. When those ran out they advised me to keep trying, that some fibreglass pools "have problems with suction cleaners."

I have no option but to chuck it and buy something else.

Not the best ... sometimes works most of the time it doesn’t – Very frustrated with this cleaner ... was working ok , i still had to mess around with it ... now it’s useless ... plate won’t lie flat hardly moving ... I have done everything re troubleshooting ... don’t waste your money .. sick of spending hrs on this with no result and still a dirty pool Show details

Was good until the plastic perished in under 3 years – Initially It worked pretty well after we got the weights sorted out but the skirt fell off rather than wore through and then I noticed the darker plastic bits were all perished, discoloured and sticky. Pentair blamed my “pool water chemistry” so not a warranty issue for them to deal with ...it was in a salt water pool , never over chlorinated and… Read more

under a pool cover most of the time and I didn’t have this problem with my previous pool cleaner (zodiac) after 10 years let alone 3 years. I expected to get a bit longer out of the cleaner and was disappointed with Pentair. Won’t buy another one!

Good value pool cleaner – Bought it to replace my Polaris, which needs its own pump and controller regularly got stuck or just didn't move at all and needed its expensive mesh net cleaned and periodically replaced. So far in terms of cleaning the Hammerhead been absolutely great and the the 'dust tracks' that left by the Polaris have essentially disappeared. The cons are… Read more

it sometimes gets stuck in one right hand corner and momentarily sucks air, and also it seems to produce very loud 'hammering' on our pool surface (quartz). Any advice in this regard?

Doesn't Sit Flat on Floor of Pool – This can't sit flat on the pool. Change number of hoses, weight distribution etc. Piece of junk and no help from my previous review. So frustrated. Should pick up leaves and dirt but doesn't. I would also like to thank the makers of this for not taking time to answer what should be a concern to your product. This has been on this website for 2 weeks + and no reply. Pure class. Show details

Garbage, Gets Stuck on Steps, useless – Purchased this to replace my Aldi one that died after 4 years. Garbage. Doesnt pick up dirt nor leaves. Doesnt sit flat on pool floor, despite trying every option with weights and house length. Connections to Skinner box all poor, just vibrates off. Gets stuck on stairs and in corner. 4 times price of Aldi Force but useless. Will bin it and try buy the aldi one when it comes on sale. Show details