Side by Side Comparison of: Little Giant Outdoor Living vs Doheny's

The pump was delivered quickly. It was placed on second step of my inground pool before it was covered for the winter. We ran the pump to remove water to proper level for winter and it pumped quickly and efficiently. Hopefully it will continue to work as needed throughout the winter!

Yes finally something that works for our cover on our inground pool. My others have burnt out, not htis brand. So far I am impressed and have had no problems whats so ever with this. Had it for the beginning of the summer.

This item worked exactly as advertised. Took longer than expected to drain my cover but that is probably on me! Guessing I miss judged the amount of water on the cover. Any way not a deal breaker at all. This was so easy to use hook attachments to pump then the hose place it and plug it in! No more trying to siphon by sucking on old dirty hoses! It is rare these days one buys an item that lives up to expectations!!!! Thank you!

This pool cover pump does exactly what it says. I don't get alot of rain in my area but it is only me and my wife covering our 24' foot pool every Sunday. So it is hard to cover the pool without getting water on top of the cover. I use the pump to take out the water, but it does weight it down just a bit and may lower the water level a little bit. It also does fit your standard water hose to easily set up your drainage point.

I recently purchased a pool cover pump from 1 of the pool supply stores in my area. I used it once and it came apart. When I went back to the store they couldn't exchange it because they were out of stock, and I'm glad that they were. I went on Amazon and purchased the Little Giant Pump and it is everything that I expected and more. Heavy duty construction, completely sealed unit, a very simple cone shaped filter for debris that screws on securely and it pumps fast! The other pump was $20 more than this one and was a complete piece of junk compared to the Little Giant. Highly recommend this pump.

Love love love this little giant pcp550 pool cover pump. Bought the house with the pool and needed to purchase all the new equipment for pool care. Did a research and found a good mix of reviews - decided to take a chance on a small but better choice of a pump. So easy to use with a garden house, just connect a garden house, plug this little giant in and there goes the water. It does take a little time to pump the water out, but we just leave it and do other house chores. Once it pumps the water out in 1/5hr -2 hrs depending on how much water needs to be pumped out - unplug and pull out and store. Job done! This is in deed a true little giant only about 2x3x6 inches and weights about 5lbs - but so powerful!

Pump was exactly as described and bolt right in place of my old Hayward. Pump is extremely quiet and the lid on the skimmer basket is easily removed and installed. Shipping was estimated 3-5 days and I received it in less than 24 hours. Great seller and I am very happy with the product.

This is a great pump for the money. I purchased it to replace a Hayward pump on a sand filter and installed it yesterday. So far it has excellent pump circulation and strength. I would purchase again.

This pump FAR exceeded my expectations. Fit an finish were both excellent. It was a direct fit replacement for the Hayward that it replaced, and it is MUCH less noisy than the Hayward. When I turned it on, I thought that something was wrong with it because it was so much more quiet, but it worked perfectly. It pumps with very good pressure and volume, and it a tremendous value. I don't post a whole lot of reviews unless a product either exceeds or falls short of expectations. I put this in the greatly exceeds category. You are going to like this pump.

Used this pump for one season so far and it worked great. fairly quit in comparison to my old Hayward pump as well.

5 star for now, just got is a month ago. As someone said in previous review, can't hardly hear it run, all the old fittings fit perfect, kinda scary everything worked out so good. If it last half the amount of time the old pump did I'll be happy, besides I paid half the price of a Hayward and it came the next day(didn't pay for next day delivery) I was very skeptical right up to the second I hit the purchased button and I am thankful for all the previous reviews, without that I may not have bought this.

After my 8 year old sta-rite started to leak internally, I purchased this pump and it's been running about a month without any issues. 15 minute swap as all the original adapters, hoses, etc. fit perfectly. The only wrinkle in installation was my old pump had a NEMA twist plug and this is a standard three prong. I just switched the electric cord from the old pump and installed it into new pump. This pump is very quite compared to my old pump, it looks solid and well made. Only time will tell how reliable this pump. It does not have on/off switch just like my old pump.

Draining the pool cover with this pump and it's doing a good job

Not the fastest pump but does it job nicely and is forgiving if I forget to turn It off right on time. It does leave those last couple of inches bit that is rarely a problem; evaporation does the rest.

The outlet fitting supplied with the pump has the wrong thread type to fit the pump properly. It only threads on by one turn, this is not enough to prevent damage to the fitting when moving the pump around the pool cover. I had to purchase a different fitting to make the pump operate properly. otherwise the pump works as advertised. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0013KCOIW/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_0

This little pump is just what I needed to get the water off my cover. Keep in mind it's small size. If you want your cover pumped off in 15min use a bigger pump (and pay the extra price). I've seen reviews on this that complain about how long it takes. What do you expect. Give it time to do it's job and it will do it. For the price, I can afford to be patient. I put it on and check on it every 15min or so. I've even used it in the pool at the end of the season to lower the level beneath the skimmer/return outlets.

We needed to get a pump like this for our above ground pool cover. It seems to accumulate a lot of rain water, no matter how we tie down the cover. So over the winter, we pump off the water as it builds up. This season, it was put to the test when there was at least 200 gallons of buildup. I just dropped the pump in the water with the hose attached and plugged it in. I saw about an inch drop and hour, which seemed slow, but it was a lot of water and it eventually pumped it all. The downside is that is is somewhat slow and that it lacks an automatic shutoff. When siphoning, it seems to be only a tad slower than the pump itself, so I do think it could be faster.And when it is out of the water/done pumping, it doesn't shut off, leaving you to constantly check on it. Overall though, it was a great price and it is something that will be used here and there, so I can cope with those issues.

I have a solid safety cover so I need a pump that comes on whenever water accumulates to prevent too much weight from accumulating and damaging the cover. Unfortunately my experience so far with pumps like those is they have a short life (if they turn on intermittently) or the trigger to turn them on when the water level rises is unreliable. As a result I use an intermittent pump and they frequently fail - typically once to twice per year!! (They have a 3 year warranty though and the manufacture just sends me a new one for free each time to their credit) Anyway, I use this pump as a back up when my main intermittent pump fails and I'm waiting for a replacement in the mail. This pump worked great. The biggest problem for me, of course, is that I have to turn it on and off manually. It failed after I left it on too long while draining my cover. That was my fault but it was on for only 30-60 seconds after water was drained. That killed the pump which is disappointing. That is the only reason for 4 four stars.

Worked great

Works great and is a lot quieter than my last pump. It tends to leak at the strainer when the pump is off. I am going to tighten it a little more but my past experience is a little too tight can be a nightmare to remove.

This is a good pump but not great. If not for selling our home soon I would have invested in a better one. This pump does not have an on off switch! So if you choose this one also invest in a timer. This pump also seems to run louder then most.

I got this because it had the right performance characteristics and for the price, I had to give it a try. I had to modify the pipe, but it was needed in any event. It works and is quiet but the pump needs a lot of time and effort to reprime after the filter has drained. This is a bit of a nuisance. Otherwise, it is quiet and gets the job done.

Working like a charm after a few months. We plumbed it in without any problems. Just had to buy a couple of couplings and it was good to go. No problems so far and we run it constantly. Be a five star pump if it had an on/off switch but I knew it didn't going in.

"Very Quiet" and flow not as strong as hayward power flo, Has no problem pumping it up 30 feet up on the roof thru the heaters, no change still quiet. Flow about the same as the hayward when going thru the heaters. had it about 60 days no problems.

It works OK - Because of its small size, it took a very long time to remove the water. I should have purchased one that does a larger volume of water over a shorter amount of time. To take the water off my pool cover took almost 2 days.

For the money it's a good pump! You have to have at least 21/2" of water or more for the pump to work properly which isn't that good! The hose connection is made out of plastic, not brass and the threads can easily strip while connecting and unconnecting the hose which over time will most likely need replaced! In the 27 years I've owned countless pool pumps from the high end $175+ range all the way down to the $15 range and I've found this pump to be a good, realative long lasting (2 to 4 year range) pool cover pump for the money!! No freels just a basic pump that pumps water!!

Its not a very fast pump as it took a few hours to get the water off the cover and it has no protection method if it doesnt detect water and it states in the manual to be careful not to let it run dry as it uses water for its cooling method. This combined with the long time it took to emtpy the water from the cover make it a so so purchase.Its great for the price and worked for me since my old pump died and I didnt want to spend too much money to get a new one to use once a year, but since it takes a long time and you have to monitor it so it doesnt run dry it was a bit of a pain. Good if you are in a pinch and need a cheap solution to get by. Not good if you are looking at something for long term...

I got this pump to get the rain water off the top of our pool cover in the winter and spring. The pump pumps alright, but the water better be deep. The filter on it does not allow the opening to get down to the water. I took that filter off and put on an old Polaris filter. It still has to be maneuvered and propped to get a good angle for pumping. Even then, it can't get all the water. This pump could have been designed a whole lot better. It almost does the job. Just leaves a couple of gallons to evaporate.

The instructions that come with this pump advise that you are not supposed to use it in less than 2 inches of water. If you pump more water out of your pool cover, you risk burning out the motor. (As such, you should not leave this unattended too long.)For my wife and I, leaving 2 inches of water on the cover doesn't work, because it's too heavy to pull off the pool. (I'm referring to the winter cover, not a solar cover, for which we have a roller system to pull it off.)Otherwise, it's a nice little pump. Lightweight, so it's not a big risk throwing it into the middle of the pool cover, and it pumps at a respectable rate.The intake screen is good for filtering out a fair number of leaves and other debris, but has it's limits. I tried collecting the water from the winter cover to one end, before pulling it off the pool, and there were too many leaves for it to pump anything. At first, I thought the pump wasn't working, but when I put it into the clean water without any leaves, it did exactly what it was supposed to do.In the end, we'll stick with the normal, oil-filled sump pumps we've always used. More expensive, but much less finicky.

This pump does the job if you babysit it and hold it in place, but it doesn't have a float switch and so can't be left alone to pump water whenever the water level rises like some of the other pumps from Little Giant (the similarly-sized Model 500-APCP or the bigger APCP-1700). It also has a weirdly-shaped intake for a pool cover pump: it doesn't sit flat with its intake on the bottom, which is very strange compared to even pumps from the same maker.Other manufacturers also offer small pumps like this that include a float switch, at the same price point. I'd suggest looking around first before buying this one.

Poor pressure vs. the same size (1-1/2 HP) Hayward pump that it replaced. It loses prime daily, so I can't trust it to run, even if I'm gone for a weekend. Should have stayed with the Hayward, but thought I might get lucky and save a couple hundred bucks. Live and learn.

Lasted exactly two years. Previous pump went 6 years. Likely will try a different brand.

Questionable customer support. My nice way of saying NONE!

This pump took some work to get going. It works great when it's running, but takes a while to prime, I'm talking like 5 or more minutes. My other pump was the same HP and primed much quicker. Once everything was set up it's been great, my only gripe is the time it takes to prime.

The pump ran great . But had to return it because i orderd the wrong one . Have to get a smaller hp motor

A very good pump, but no on off switch like my old one.This pump needs to be grounded and covered, as it is not a beside the pool pump.I built a pump hose for it and I'm very happy with it so far

Very weak, not really worth it unless you have to transfer a small amount of water, better to save your money for a nicer on/off one

Did not hold up.

Lasted one season before it stopped working consistently. To get it to work now I have to manually spin the little rotor until it frees up enough to work for a while.

has to be totally submerged to really work well.

I cannot understand why an engineer would design the intake of a pool cover pump that will not totally drain the water, I was very disappointed in Little Giant for this model. What are you supposed to do with the rest of the water? A curious thing to me is that this pump in not on Little Giant's website yet, my old pump still is. I returned this and had to buy my old model from a local pool store for considerable more money.Two stars because, well, it does pump if the water is deep enough.

If you look at the picture of the pump and imagine how it would lay on the pool cover, you can see that there has to be at least an inch of water on the cover for this pump to start picking up. When I have an inch of water on my cover, that is a lot of water and really weighs down the cover. This pump cavitates at about 1 " of water or less and the suction rate (even when fully submerged) is pretty slow. I'm disappointed, not recommended.

Bought this pump in June 2015. Hooked to pool in July of 2015. Ran it part of 2015 swim season and 2016. Just went to start the pool this year (May 2017) and it no longer works. It seemed to work fine for a season and half but apparently that's all you can expect out of it. I'm a little disappointed because the last pump we had lasted 10+ years. Guess I just expected more than 1.5 year life span...which technically was less than 8 months of use and it was stored inside a shop while pool wasn't in use!

This pump worked beautiful, did an excellent job cycling the water, etc. The problem is, it is less than 2 seasons old and when I went out to start it yesterday, nothing. It wouldn't start at all. It just died. I could understand if it was showing some signs of wear or something, but nope, it just decided to go on a permanent vacation during a heat wave. Since it's the beginning of August, I guess I might as well just close the pool, which is sad since my son is having a wedding reception here in a couple weeks and wanted the pool, guess not. So disappointed in this pump. Moral of the purchase, if you buy one, have a spare waiting. S***ty, s***ty, s***ty.

total waste of time and money

It was really good when it was working. But, a pump that does NOT pump water off the cover is EXTRA FRUSTRATING. there WAS NO INDICATION that it was going to burn out. It just stopped working.

I'm so bummed... Finally summer hit and I set up our pond. I set the pump up and the pump doesn't pump but drips tiny drops at a time. NEVER a constant flow. I am unable to use this product.

It worked the first time, I used the product, but after a month, it stopped working. I will contact the company to see if they can help me with their product.

Wouldn't work on the first try and at least 3 subsequent tries. The pump would run but would not pump water out of the hose. I then tested it in the kitchen sink and the water trickled out of the hose connection. I'm sure that the product I received was defective but having been burned once I decided to return the product for a refund rather than take the chance at being disappointed again.

Died after 1 month, past the return date. Out $61.99 with no recourse

Terrible company and Terrible product. I recommend avoiding them at all costs

Worked fora few months.Then died. Response was BS. Never had a pump work for less then a season. Garbage!!!

I purchased this pump as a replacement for the Intex Pool I purchased. It came right away. The fittings fitted perfectly with my old pool. It worked great up until around 5 months later.Then, it stopped suddenly, working the night before perfectly well.Couldn't get a refund because I was over the 3 month limit. They want me to pay shipping back to them in order to receive another pump since it still has a 1 year warranty.I'll send it back and see how it goes, then update later.

Shipped back after 5 days stopped working that was June 17th still waiting today is June27th still know answers.

Motor runs no pressure from beginning! totally inadequate, needs to be replaced, looking to get refund. Manuel instructions not helpful. Needs to be condensed to make sense. Need manual separate for inground and above ground pools.

Bought this pump a couple months ago and highly Don't recomend it . It's very weak and doesn't pump well. The proof is right in front of me as I'm writing this review and looking at the pump strugle. Buying cheap some times ends up being more expensive. Now i have to buy another better stronger pump