Bottom Feeder vs Shrimp: Which Pool Vacuum Wins?

If you’ve been staring at the Bottom Feeder and the Shrimp Cleaner wondering which cordless pool vacuum actually belongs on your pool service route, I break it down in practical, technician-first terms. These are both pro-focused, battery-powered pool vacuums that skip cords and external pumps, so the real question isn’t “which is cooler” it’s which one makes you faster and more consistent across the kinds of pools you clean every week.

We get into the details that change your workflow: size and weight, cleaning path width, and how each unit handles steps, spas, fountains, and tight spots. I also compare battery runtime and what that means in the real world, including why a shorter runtime can still be plenty when the vacuuming speed is high, and how truck charging with a basic power inverter can keep you moving. If you’ve been debating whether 1.5 hours or 2.5 hours matters more, you’ll like this perspective.

Filtration gets a deep dive too. We talk debris bags and microns, aftermarket bag options, and the cartridge filter assembly upgrade that turns a cordless vacuum into a fine-dirt solution for silt, dead algae, and DE powder. I also cover the newer magnetic on-off switch and the design differences in the throat opening and thrust that affect suction and feel.

If you want to stop guessing and buy the tool that matches your debris load and service style, hit play. Subscribe for more pool pro gear breakdowns, share this with a tech who’s shopping, and leave a review with what vacuum you’re running right now.

• why the Bottom Feeder stays the pro benchmark for fast full-pool vacuuming
• size, weight, and cleaning path differences that affect daily handling
• battery runtime vs real-world productivity on a service route
• charging speed plus how to charge in the truck with a power inverter
• debris bag micron options, including aftermarket bags
• cartridge filter assembly for fine dirt, dead algae, and DE powder
• magnetic on-off switch upgrade and why it matters
• throat size, thrust ring, and why the Shrimp can feel powerful
•

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Transcript

Coaching Program For Pool Pros

Bottom Feeder Speed And Build

Size Weight And Cleaning Path

Runtime Charging And Truck Power

Debris Bags And Filtration Options

Cartridge Filter For Fine Dirt

Magnetic Switch Upgrade

Throat Design And Real-World Suction

Price Gap And Product Strategy

Best Uses For Each Vacuum

Extra Batteries Or Own Both

More Podcasts And Final Thanks

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Hey, welcome to the Pool Guy Podcast Show. I recently put a video up where I compared the bottom feeder to the shrimp cleaner, both by the same company, and there was a lot of questions I've gotten over the last few months regarding which one should you get for your pool route, the bottom feeder or the new shrimp cleaner. So I'm gonna unpack that a little deeper here. The video is only four minutes. This is gonna go a little bit more in depth so you can make a more educated decision. Are you a pool service pro looking to take your business to the next level? Join the pool guy coaching program. Get expert advice, business tips, exclusive content, and get direct support from me. I'm a 35-year veteran in the industry. Whether you're starting out or scaling up, I've got the tools to help you succeed. Learn more at swimmingpoollearning.com. The bottom feeder is the two go-to cordless vacuum system out there on the market. Now, yes, Kokito has several models now. There's some that are maybe that are made for pro use to some extent. They're more robust models, and they are of course cordless, similar to the bottom feeder. They do have internal lithium-ion batteries. The bottom feeder, of course, and the shrimp have the external battery. And really, there's nothing that compares to the bottom feeder as far as being cordless and being totally independent from any kind of plug or anything of that sort. You could just drop it in the pool or spa anywhere, and then vacuum. And this is what makes the bottom feeder such an impressive vacuum system because of the speed of use. By the time you get your system hooked up and connected and dropped into the pool, you're pretty much halfway done vacuuming a pool with the bottom feeder. And for those who never use one, you could probably vacuum a 15,000 gallon pool that has light debris within probably about three or four minutes. That's how fast it works and how effective it is. And I mentioned that the cohitos can't really compare to it because this is a professional system that's made out of aluminum. It's got real parts, real motors, very similar to what you would find in the riptide or hammerhead as far as the motor goes. And the power is about half or so of the riptide. It's got an 18-pound thrust motor, I believe, compared to the riptide, which has a 35-pound thrust motor. But you really don't notice a huge drop-off in power between the bottom feeder and the larger vacuum systems, unless you're vacuuming up pools that were trashed by a hurricane or a major stand-in and a wind event here in Southern California. The bottom feeder is sufficient for probably about 90% of people out there that are looking for a vacuum system. So again, nothing has been comparable to it until, of course, bottom feeder came out with the shrimp cleaner, which is kind of like the baby brother to the bottom feeder in many aspects and many ways, but it also is a vacuum system that stands alone by itself, and it may be something you'll gravitate towards after listening to this podcast, choosing between the standard bottom feeder or the shrimp cleaner. I'll start by talking about the size of the unit. The bottom feeder is relatively compact, in my opinion. It's 18 by 11x9, and the shrimp is 12 by 8x9. So the shrimp is kind of like the bottom feeder with the sides cut off, and it's a little, of course, less wide and long, but it has the same height as the bottom feeder. The bottom feeder weighs 18 pounds fully assembled. That's with the small pole connector, the battery on the back, and the and the machine itself. And the shrimp weighs about 14 pounds. You can really tell the difference in weight, I think, when you pick up both of these side by side. The bottom feeder, of course, has a wider cleaning path because it's wider, and the shrimp is not quite as wide as the bottom feeder, so it doesn't have quite as wide of a cleaning path. Here's where there's a big difference between both of these cleaners, and that is in the battery. They both use a PO4, Light Pole PO4 rechargeable battery. The bottom feeder, of course, is only rated for 1.5 hours of runtime, and this is because the battery has been made to be extremely safe. And in doing that, of course, there's a little bit of reduction in the cleaning time of the previous bottom feeder battery, but there are some advantages to the new battery before the bottom feeder. The shrimp has a two and a half hour runtime, it's a smaller unit, uses less power, so to speak, and so it's going to have a longer runtime than the bottom feeder. So the bottom feeder again has a 1.5 hour runtime. I did mention that you can vacuum a 15,000-gallon pool in about three to four minutes. So it's definitely sufficient for your pool route to get through the whole day without charging it. And by the way, you can recharge both of these batteries about 1500 to 2,000 times. So it has a very long lifespan as far as that goes. Now, as far as recharging it, you can actually recharge it in your truck as you're driving, which is a nice feature for the bottom feeder. Also, it has a much faster charging speed than the shrimp. So the battery, if it's nearly fully exhausted, will recharge in about two and a half hours. Whereas the shrimp, even though it has a 2.5 hour runtime, it takes about six hours to fully charge the shrimp battery. I'll mention about the car charging for the bottom feeder. You just need a 400-watt power inverter for your truck. This is a 12 volt to AC 110 volt AC car inverter. So basically, if you have a cigarette lighter port or charging port, I'm dating myself by saying cigarette lighter, you can plug this in there. Then you would plug the bottom feeder charger into the plug that's there, it's a regular full-size socket, and then you would charge the bottom feeder while you're driving. It's like$35 for the 400 watt version of it. And that that is sufficient to charge your bottom feeder in your truck while you're driving between stops. And you could fully charge the bottom feeder, probably as you're going through your route, if you have some drive time in between pools. So I don't think the 1.5 hour runtime is a deal breaker by any stretch. Again, you clean pools faster with it, and you could charge it in the car. And if you get home and charge it in two and a half hours, you can do that as well. The shrimp does have a longer runtime, so if that two and a half hour runtime appeals to you and you don't use the vacuum system as often, you don't have heavy debris pools that you would need the bottom feeder for. You may want to go for the shrimp for the longer runtime, but just be aware of the longer charge time after the fact. As far as debris bags, I believe the shrimp comes with a 120 micron bag. The bottom feeder comes with two bags, a small and medium bag. They're both 100 microns, but you can get their 57 micron bag that works on both cleaners. The 57 micron bag is pretty good. It'll get fine leaf debris and some sand and silt out of the pool. But of course, any dirt above 57 microns will pass through the bag, so just be aware of that. You can also get aftermarket bags for the cleaner. There's a lot of aftermarket bags, clear pool products makes bags, Mako bags. Uh, Reggie makes really good bags as well, the Mako bags. So you can get those and that they work perfectly fine on the cleaners. The new cartridge filter assembly actually works on both cleaners. And I would say that on the shrimp, it was kind of funny when I tried it on there. I had my doubts about it working on the shrimp, but it actually works really well on the shrimp, and in some respects, I think it works better on the shrimp than the bottom feeder. And I'll explain that in a second when I talk about the throat of the cleaner. But the cartridge filter assembly definitely is something to consider with both the bottom feeder and shrimp. This is a new version of the cartridge filter that actually threads on to the head of the bottom feeder of shrimp. So there's a new threaded halo that you install. By the way, this product is patent pending, and this threaded halo, you thread it, you put it on the bottom feeder of shrimp, and then you can put the cartridge filter assembly on and take it off in a matter of seconds by threading it on and off. The bags also fit right over the new threaded halo, and so you can go from bag the cartridge essentially in about 10 seconds. This is a great tool for dirt, and it a vacuum dirt down to 10 to 20 microns in a pool. Essentially, it turns your vacuum system into a device that gets dirt, dead algae, DE powder out of the bottom of the pool. Anything that is fine enough to pass through the bag will not pass through the cartridge filter. And the nice thing about the cartridge filter on top that I found from using it is that there's really no flow restriction as the cartridge starts to get full of dirt. You can vacuum up probably one or two handfuls of leaf debris realistically, because everything stays in the center core of the cartridge, and that's one of the reasons why it's not really designed for heavy leaf debris. But the average amount of leaf debris with dirt, it'll pick up no problem. But since it's a cartridge filter, all the water actually passes through very rapidly back out, and there's no restriction on your suction. And you can buy the cartridge filter assembly if you have a bottom feeder or shrimp separately. You can actually buy the bottom feeder and shrimp with the cartridge filter assembly shipped with the cleaner or the unit itself, and I think it's a great device to get dirt out of the bottom of the pool, and it really takes the vacuum system to the next level. One thing I really like about the shrimp is the new magnetic on-off switch. And the good news is the bottom feeder now comes shipped with the new magnetic on-off switch. This is a great upgrade over the old bottom feeder switch. And if you've had frustrations with the old switch, you're gonna love the new magnetic switch for the bottom feeder, which the switch came out first for the shrimp, and everyone's raving about the new magnetic switch. I think this is definitely making a big difference out there having both of these now with the magnetic switch, and so you don't have to choose between one or the other. They both come shipped from the factory with the new magnetic switch attached. I did mention that the cartridge filter assembly seems to work really good on the shrimp, and I think that's because of the five-inch throat. So the shrimp does have a smaller throat or opening than the bottom feeder. The bottom feeder has a six-inch opening, and to use the cartridge assembly effectively, you have to put the what's it called, the thrust ring. That's what it's called. The thrust ring in there, and the thrust ring actually will allow the cleaner to have more suction. So basically, the thrust ring is like a rubber, big rubber o-ring or gasket that you put inside the throat of the bottom feeder close to the propeller blade, it just creates more torque or force, pulls up more debris from the bottom, and with that on there, the cartridge assembly works really well. It's also you're supposed to use it also in shallow water as well to create more suction. But the shrimp with the 5-inch throat, with the propeller right up against the side of the throat itself, it really is like it has a thrust ring built into it. And so I find that you you're not going to notice, first of all, any power drop-off because the bottom feeder technically is about 75, actually, the shrimp I should say is about 25% less powerful than the bottom feeder. But you don't notice a difference in power at all because of the smaller throat on the shrimp and the more thrust it gets by having the propeller right up against the aluminum side of the opening on the bottom. And so with the cartridge assembly on top, the shrimp does a great job of pulling up that dirt rapidly just as well as the bottom feeder. I really like the smaller throat on the shrimp. And if you're not using this in pools with like massive leaf debris, this may just be sufficient for you on your pool route. And the question is, I think, well, why would they make the shrimp if it's gonna take sales away from the bottom feeder eventually or split the sales between the shrimp and bottom feeder? Now the price point, the difference I think is like$400 in price, roughly, between the shrimp and bottom feeder. Of course, the shrimp uses less material, so it does cost a little bit less to make. So there's still profit there for the bottom feeder with the shrimp. And yes, the shrimp is probably going to cut in the bottom feeder sales, but since it's the same company, logically they lose some bottom feeder sales, they get some shrimp sales, and I think at the end of the day, since there are competing vacuum systems out there that aren't anywhere as robust as the shrimp, and I'm kind of calling out Coquito because they do make some really good battery-powered cleaners, but they are more or less you know on the lighter side as far as their abilities and of course their longevity. Although they do have some more robust ones like the Orca that are out on the market. So if there's already a market for a smaller vacuum system, the bottom feeder, of course, decided that if there's a market for these already, why not make a robust, small vacuum system that doesn't really compete directly with those small little battery-powered cleaners, but will probably take the place of them over time because pool pros like to have professional equipment, they want to have long-lasting equipment, and they want to have equipment that works really well. And the shrimp really will take the place of any coquito vacuum that you're gonna use out there on your route. Of course, it's more expensive, not really that much more expensive than the Coquito Orca, but it's gonna be more expensive because it's a real product made out of real materials, and therefore there is a market for the smaller vacuum system, and that's why bottom feeder created it for that market. And yes, it's probably gonna take some sales away from the full-size bottom feeder, but the shrimp definitely will hold its own out there as a standalone vacuum system, apart from the bottom feeder itself. Let me talk a little bit about handling since I'm comparing to the coquito vacuums. The shrimp does handle really well, it moves very rapidly. You can pick it up and move it, and you can position it really well in the pool. You can vacuum steps faster, spas, water features. Interesting, the bottom feeder actually will vacuum down to about three inches, will vacuum in three inches of water, and the shrimp is only rated for four inches of water, and so the bottom feeder actually vacuums a little shallower, but really three to four inches of water. Most water features are gonna have more water than that. The level probably will be about eight inches or ten inches usually, and most of the fountains and water features. So I don't think you're sacrificing anything going with the shrimp if you're gonna use it for water features and fountains, because four inches of water is still a great depth for operation versus three inches of water, and I think both of these are great as far as shallow water. The bottom feeder, of course, is bigger, it's wider, so it's gonna be less useful if you're going for speed out there. So to be more comparable to the coquito vacuums, the shrimp definitely is because you can drop it in in vacuum spas, steps, and you know, above-ground spas rapidly. The bottom feeder is not bad in those situations, it's just bigger. So if you're gonna spot vacuum spas and water features and fountains and above-ground hot tubs on your route, the shrimp definitely would be the cleaner for that. The bottom feeder is more for a full-size vacuum system, this in the same category as a hammerhead and riptide. It's just an all-purpose vacuum system for large leaf debris in the pool, as well as dirt now with the cartridge filter assembly. And so that's the main difference, I think, between the bottom feeder and shrimp. The bottom feeder is just made to be a pure vacuum system. You can use in spas and water features. Yes, the shrimp is made as a spot vacuum tool. You know, if you have automatic cleaners in all your pools, you can definitely get by with the shrimp. If you're in an area where you don't get a lot of wind and you just have a light amount of leaf debris or medium amount of leaf debris, the shrimp definitely is perfect for you. If you're using the coquito vacuum out there in your pool route, the shrimp will definitely work just as good in all those pools using the coquito vacuum in. And it's more versatile than the bottom feeder in some respects for that reason, because of the size of it. But in all respects, the bottom feeder is just as good as the shrimp, it's just a bigger unit than the shrimp is right now. And the shrimp definitely does have a market pool guys that want to get a vacuum system that don't use it that often. The shrimp would be a perfect tool to purchase to use on your pool route. There are already several pool pros out there that have both the shrimp and bottom feeder, and they use both of them on their pool route. And as I mentioned at the end of the video, there's really nothing wrong with having both of these because they are different. You know, the bottom feeder would be great if you're gonna use it to vacuum out an entire pool, the shrimp for more spas and water features. And if you have both of them, if you do the math, you have four hours of cleaning time between both of these. Now, with the bottom feeder, I should add at the end here that you can easily swap out the battery. So if you wanted to have two batteries, you can increase your runtime this three hours. They actually have a three-pack battery also for sale. You could buy three batteries for it, which would give you four batteries, and that would give you you know a tremendous amount of time to clean pools with those extra batteries. But one extra battery I think would be sufficient, that would bring it up to three hours of runtime. You can have both of these batteries fully charged in about five hours. So getting extra batteries for the bottom feeder, not a bad idea if you want to increase the runtime. But again, if you have both of these on your pool route, you'd have four hours of runtime, which would be plenty to clean spas, water feature, fountains, regular pools on your route. It's really nice to have the option of the shrimp now. The bottom feeder used to be the only battery-operated cordless cleaner that was reliable. Now you have the shrimp. So now that there's two options, of course, you're gonna have to make an educated decision on which one to pick for your pool route. And ultimately, you can't really go wrong with either of these two cordless vacuum systems. If you're looking for other podcasts, you can find those on my website, sewingprolearning.com. If you go to the website on the banner, click on the podcast icon. There'll be 1900 podcasts for you to download and listen to. And if you're interested in the coaching program that I offer, you can learn more at poolguycoaching.com. Thanks for listening to this podcast. Have a rest of your week and God bless.