Onga Hammerhead

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 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.

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 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.

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 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 su...

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

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

My hammerhead pool cleaner I bought 2.5 years ago. It is a breeze compared the the ones I have owned over the last 20 years. It sucks up the small palm nuts that used to block my previous ones, and never misses a beat. Needs to be properly installed in the first place, with long enough hose and the weighting correct and then you can sit back and relax. I added a cyclonic leaf catcher to the hose this time and now as a senior, I no longer have to risk toppling over trying to empty the skimmer box, and as it is a clear jug, I can see when it need...

I had a different pool cleaner prior to buying this one and I spent so many hours trying to get it to cover the pool properly, was so frustrating as it wasn't cheap. Plus the genuine pool hoses were forever breaking and splitting and were expensive. From the first day I installed this it took off and I never had to touch it. Did a great job. I even took it with me when I moved house as I couldn't be without it. Over the years parts start to wear but it still keeps going. Plus the hoses it comes with don't need replacing. Cant kill it.

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 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.

Received it very quickly from bestpoolsupplies.com.au
Installed with only a little modification required to fit the threaded adapter into my skimmer box top.
Kept getting stuck in the corners of our small 7x3m rectangular pool, but but following the suggested fixes, I've managed to get it moving fairly randomly.
Key was getting the weights in the right place to allow part of the hose to sink.
Very happy with the product and the supplier.

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 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.

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

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 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!

Product worked well until it began laying on its side, like a few others here have found. I pulled the body apart and found a 2 cent plastic ball supposed to be a flotation and stabilizing device had ruptured and was full of water. Quite useless really! I used a soft pool ball as a replacement, put it back together and " bingo", It's back doing what it its supposed to do. Ridiculous prices for replacement parts ie, New bodies, for $160 plus dollars and you get a pathetic 2 cent plastic ball again. Same problem. So far, so good.

I have had an Onga Hammerhead pool cleaner for a while now and it is useless. It never sits flat and continually gets stuck at various points around the pool. I have a kidney shaped pool. I have tried altering hose lengths, moving the weight around and still nothing. Would not recommend.

I've had this pool cleaner for a couple of years now and it was working well. Then it wouldn't stay upright and was ending up on its side. So I pulled apart the main body (which is only held together by snap-click connectors) and found that the little plastic ball inside had holes in it and was full of water. I couldn't find the replacement part anywhere on the net so I rang Onga head office.

The guy there told me he was fairly new, and that there was no replacement part for it so I should try ringing a pool shop to see what they could recomm...