Polaris/Zodiac/Caretaker 99 in-floor pool cleaner spring retainer

Field tested for nearly 2 years! Still working well underwater in either PLA or ABS.

When an in-floor pop-up Caretaker 99 swimming pool cleaner no longer retracts and rotates, then the spring has probably corroded. Why spend $80-$100 on a new unit when you can spend $15 on a new spring and print a new retaining cap?

I made this for a client whose swimming pool has several Caretaker 99 threaded cleaning heads that stopped working because the springs failed. All of the Caretaker models seem to have a common end cap and spring, so this design should be compatible with all models.

Eventually the entire pop-up-and-rotate mechanism wears out, requiring replacement of the whole unit, but this repair extends its life significantly.

Replacement spring

Here is the compatible spring: https://www.leespring.com/compression-springs?search=LP059S01S316

Its diameter is a fraction of a millimeter larger than the original spring, and it has a slightly higher load resistance, but it has been working well after almost 2 years of operational use in multiple repaired cleaning heads.