Kreepy Krauly Dominator Care, Tyres and Parts Guide
The Kreepy Krauly is the suction cleaner most South African pool owners grew up with, and the Dominator range is one of its most common wheeled models. A Dominator that is looked after can run for many seasons, but it has a handful of parts that are meant to wear out: the tyres, the gears, the hoses, and the small parts that come in a Kreepy Krauly tune-up kit. This guide covers a simple monthly routine, which Kreepy Krauly Dominator parts wear and how to spot them, and how to decide between a tune-up kit and a new cleaner.
If your cleaner has already stopped dead, start with our guide to a suction pool cleaner that is not moving, which works through pump, baskets, filter and suction in order. This post is about the routine care that keeps you out of that situation, and about the parts themselves.
How a Dominator actually moves
The Dominator is a suction cleaner, so it has no motor or power supply of its own. Your pool pump pulls water through the weir, down the hose and through the cleaner. Inside the cleaner that flow turns a turbine, and the turbine drives the wheels through a set of gears. The cleaner rolls across the floor and up the walls, and the same flow carries leaves, sand and dirt up the hose into the weir basket and the pump basket.
That design has two practical consequences:
- The cleaner is only as good as the flow reaching it. Full baskets, a dirty filter, an air leak or the wrong suction setting all slow it down, and none of those are faults in the cleaner.
- Moving parts wear. Tyres grip the floor and gradually smooth off. Gears mesh thousands of times a day and their teeth wear or chip, especially if a stone gets into the drive. Hoses flex and age in the sun and the chlorine.
The Dominator Lite and Dominator Pro work on the same principle, but they are not identical machines. Treat them as separate models when you buy parts, which we come back to below.
A monthly care routine
Ten minutes a month catches most problems early. Switch the pump off first.
- Empty the weir basket and pump basket. Do this weekly in leaf season. A full basket starves the cleaner of flow, and a broken basket lets debris through to the pump.
- Check the weir hose and leader hose. The leader hose is the short section closest to the cleaner, and it takes the most bending and twisting. Look for cracks, splits near the cuffs and stiff sections. A loose joint lets in air.
- Check the hose length. The cleaner should reach the far end of the pool with a little slack, not drag a long tail of spare hose behind it. Too much hose tangles and makes the cleaner circle the same patch.
- Lift the cleaner out and look inside the throat. Clear any stones, twigs, acorns or hair clips. Something wedged in the turbine area is a common cause of chipped gears.
- Look at the tyres. Compare the tread with a new tyre if you have one, and check that each tyre sits squarely on its wheel.
- Spin the wheels by hand. With the cleaner out of the water, the drive should turn smoothly. Grinding, clicking or a wheel that turns freely while the others do not points at the gears.
- Check the suction setting. Put the cleaner back, prime the hose by holding it against a return jet until it fills, connect it, and switch the pump on. Watch it for a few minutes. It should travel steadily, climb the walls a little way and come back down.
- Backwash when the gauge says so. A clogged filter cuts flow to the whole system.
Setting the suction
Most installations have a regulator valve at the weir, a valve at the pump, or both. Too little suction and the cleaner crawls, stalls and cannot climb. Too much and it pins itself to the floor, moves in jerks or races up the wall and gulps air, and the extra strain wears the gears and tyres faster. Adjust in small steps and mark the position that works.
The wear parts and when to replace them
Kreepy Krauly tyres: with bump and without bump
The tyres are what turn drive into movement. Worn tyres slip on the floor and steps, so the cleaner spins on the spot or struggles to climb, even though the gears and suction are fine. Replace them when the tread has worn smooth, when a tyre has split or stretched and comes off the wheel, or when the cleaner slips on surfaces it used to climb.
Dominator tyres come in two styles. A tyre with a bump has a raised section that lifts the cleaner briefly as it turns, which helps it change direction and cover the pool rather than travel in the same line. A tyre without a bump rolls smoothly. Your cleaner was set up with a particular combination, so note which tyre goes on which wheel before you remove the old ones and replace like for like. If you are not sure, check the manual for your exact model.
Gears and gear repair kits
If the turbine is turning but the wheels are not, or the cleaner moves in fits and starts with a clicking sound, the gears are the usual suspect. Gear teeth wear down over time and can chip if debris gets into the drive. A gear repair kit replaces the worn gears without replacing the whole cleaner. Fitting one means opening the body, so take photos as you go.
Hoses
A cracked or stiff hose leaks air and bleeds suction, and an old hose that has taken a set curls and drags the cleaner off course. Replace damaged sections rather than taping them, and replace the leader hose more often than the rest because it works hardest. With the pump running, lift sections of hose to just below the surface and watch for streams of bubbles to find a leak.
Tune-up kits
A Kreepy Krauly tune-up kit bundles the smaller parts that wear together, so you can refresh a tired but sound cleaner in one go instead of replacing parts one at a time as each fails. Contents differ between models and kits, so check what is included against the parts your cleaner actually needs.
Worn parts or a suction problem?
Before buying parts, rule out flow. A quick way to tell the difference:
- The cleaner is slow everywhere, and the weir mouth pulls weakly. This is a flow problem. Check baskets, filter pressure, the water level at the weir and the suction setting.
- Strong suction at the weir, but the cleaner spins on the spot or slips on the steps. Look at the tyres first.
- Strong suction, the turbine is turning, but the wheels do not drive or the cleaner clicks. Look at the gears.
- Bubbles at the return jets. Air is getting into the system. Check the hose joints, the pump lid O-ring and the water level.
Tune-up kit or a new cleaner?
A tune-up kit, tyres, gears or new hose sections are normal upkeep on a Dominator whose body is sound. That is usually the better choice when the cleaner is otherwise in good condition and the parts for your model are still available.
Think about a new cleaner when the body is cracked or warped, when you are replacing several major parts at once and the total is heading towards the price of a new unit, or when parts for an older model are hard to find. If your pool has heavy leaf fall or a pump that already struggles, it may also be worth comparing other types of cleaner; our guide to choosing between robotic, suction and pressure cleaners sets out the trade-offs.
Matching parts to your model
Parts for the Dominator, Dominator Lite and Dominator Pro do not always interchange, and a part that looks close can fit badly and wear quickly. Before ordering:
- Read the model name on the cleaner's body or in the manual, rather than going by appearance.
- Take a photo of the old part next to something for scale, and of the cleaner from the side and underneath.
- Note which tyres are fitted where, and whether they have a bump.
- Measure your hose run and count the sections you have.
Where to get parts and help
Kreepy Krauly cleaners, including the Dominator Lite and Dominator Pro, are in the automatic pool cleaners department of our online shop; see current prices there. For tyres, gear kits, tune-up kits and hose sections, WhatsApp us on 081 577 5051 with the model of your cleaner and a photo of the part, and we will tell you what fits and what it costs.
If you would rather not open the cleaner yourself, we can look at it for you. Clients on our weekly pool maintenance plan have the cleaner, hoses, baskets and filter checked as part of each visit, and worn parts can be fitted once you have approved them. For a cleaner that keeps failing because of a problem elsewhere in the system, such as a leak in the suction plumbing or a pump that is losing prime, our pool repairs service covers the diagnosis and the fix, with parts quoted before they are fitted.