PORTAVAC: Portable Filtration System by Advantage Manufacturing - Overview

The PORTAVAC by Advantage Manufacturing is a self contained portable filtration system that can be used for a great many swimming pool applications. The best way to describe it to you is that the PORTAVAC is like having your pool equipment on a a dolly that you can move around.

Here are some specs on the PORTAVAC directly from the manufacturer:

1.5 HP self priming pump with oversized trap
150 Sq. Ft. cartridge filter
35' of 12 gauge insulated cord
Heavy duty tubed tires
Rugged 0.090 wall steel
Powder coated finish
On/Off switch with GFI

I will touch on these features some more later in this article. I wanted to highlight some uses for the PORTAVAC. First, let me make a distinction from the closest portable Vacuum type when compared to the PORTAVAC. This is not at all like the Hammer-Head, Riptide Vac, or Power Vac. Those types of portable vacuums use a fine filter bag on top to trap debris and work off of a Deep Cycle Marine Battery attached to the cart. The limitation of these types of vacuums is that they only trap dirt and debris down to about 60 microns, with the finest bag attached.

Save $100 on the PORTAVAC & $50 on the
Mini Vac II with discount code: "YouTube Portable"

The PORTAVAC uses a 150 sq ft cartridge filter, so it traps dirt and debris down to about 10 or 15 microns. This means that the PORTAVAC will pick up very fine dust, sand and algae dust where the other types of vacuums fail at this. You would use your standard pool vacuum head and a 1.5” pool hose attached to the PORTAVAC to pick up the dirt and debris. It is just like manually vacuuming from your pools existing filtration system.

There are a great many uses for the PORTAVAC and you can use it to vacuum out pools with poor running equipment, vacuum your Commercial accounts, pool start ups, green pool clean ups, pool openings, pools that get a lot of dirt from the winds, as temporary equipment, as a way to save your clients pool filtration system and much more.

The PORTAVAC is powered by a 1.5 HP standard pool pump. The motor is made by Advantage Manufacturing and it uses a Waterway wet end for the pump. The pump has a special propitiatory impeller that spins slightly slower but it still can pull 100 gallons of water per minute. The special impeller will allow the motor to give off slightly less amps – 15 amps or 1800 Watts  vs the standard 18 amps from a 1.5 HP motor. This is to ensure that the GFI or circuit breaker of the house does not trip due to high wattage being used on one socket.

Also included on the cord is a Leviton Portable GFI which will allow you to plug the PORTAVAC into a non-GIF outlet. If you plug it into a GFI outlet the Portable GFI will trip first, allowing you to simply reset the power from the Leviton Portable GFI instead of the socket or breaker.  This is a nice feature and the Leviton Portable GFI is also rain proof.

The On/Off switch comes in a waterproof alloy case so you can safely leave the PORTAVAC on your truck and even use it in rainy weather. The cord  is 35 ft long and there is a nice built in cord  loop  for easy storage. If needed you can add an outdoor heavy duty extension cord, but I have found the 35 ft to be an excellent cord length.

The Cartridge filter is a very large, coming in at 150 sq ft. Plenty of filtration for a day of vacuuming up pools. Figure that your standard cartridge filter is 320 sq ft to 450 sq ft and you only clean those every 4-6 months and you get the idea of how much dirt a 150 sq ft filter can hold.

The cart itself is made and assembled in Orange County Ca. And is welded together by an experienced welder who has over 20 years experience in making the PORTAVAC carts. It is a powder coated frame and comes equipped with rugged wheels to easily get it over steps and curbs. It is actually very well balanced and easy to pull back to the poolside.

You can purchase a hitch and transport the PORTAVAC on the back of your truck like I do in the video. The hitch can be purchased from Advantage Manufacturing or if you have an existing service cart, that hitch should work also (I have a T.Dula hitch on my truck and it fits on there nicely). If you don't need to transport the PORTAVAC but will park it at your resort, hotel or at home, you may want to look at their other portable filtration systems. To learn more visit my website page on Advantage Manufacturing:

https://www.swimmingpoollearning.com/portavac-advantage-manufacturing



eBook: https://www.swimmingpoollearning.com/swimming-pool-care-ebook