diff --git a/dask_kubernetes/operator/kubecluster/kubecluster.py b/dask_kubernetes/operator/kubecluster/kubecluster.py
index 62ab7707f..fc6ae443a 100644
--- a/dask_kubernetes/operator/kubecluster/kubecluster.py
+++ b/dask_kubernetes/operator/kubecluster/kubecluster.py
@@ -33,10 +33,8 @@
     TimeoutError,
     format_dashboard_link,
 )
-from kubernetes_asyncio.client.exceptions import ApiException
 
 from dask_kubernetes.common.auth import ClusterAuth
-
 from dask_kubernetes.common.networking import (
     get_scheduler_address,
     wait_for_scheduler,
@@ -45,12 +43,16 @@
 from dask_kubernetes.common.utils import get_current_namespace
 from dask_kubernetes.aiopykube import HTTPClient, KubeConfig
 from dask_kubernetes.aiopykube.dask import (
-    DaskCluster,
+    DaskCluster as AIODaskCluster,
     DaskWorkerGroup as AIODaskWorkerGroup,
 )
 from dask_kubernetes.aiopykube.objects import Pod, Service
 from dask_kubernetes.exceptions import CrashLoopBackOffError, SchedulerStartupError
-from dask_kubernetes.operator._objects import DaskWorkerGroup, DaskAutoscaler
+from dask_kubernetes.operator._objects import (
+    DaskCluster,
+    DaskWorkerGroup,
+    DaskAutoscaler,
+)
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
@@ -485,7 +487,7 @@ async def _wait_for_controller(self):
         """Wait for the operator to set the status.phase."""
         start = time.time()
         while start + self._resource_timeout > time.time():
-            cluster = await DaskCluster.objects(
+            cluster = await AIODaskCluster.objects(
                 self.k8s_api, namespace=self.namespace
             ).get_by_name(self.name)
             if (
@@ -503,7 +505,7 @@ async def _watch_component_status(self):
         while True:
             # Get DaskCluster status
             with suppress(pykube.exceptions.ObjectDoesNotExist):
-                cluster = await DaskCluster.objects(
+                cluster = await AIODaskCluster.objects(
                     self.k8s_api, namespace=self.namespace
                 ).get_by_name(self.name)
                 self._startup_component_status["cluster"] = cluster.obj["status"][
@@ -743,25 +745,15 @@ def close(self, timeout=3600):
     async def _close(self, timeout=3600):
         await super()._close()
         if self.shutdown_on_close:
-            async with kubernetes.client.api_client.ApiClient() as api_client:
-                custom_objects_api = kubernetes.client.CustomObjectsApi(api_client)
-                try:
-                    await custom_objects_api.delete_namespaced_custom_object(
-                        group="kubernetes.dask.org",
-                        version="v1",
-                        plural="daskclusters",
-                        namespace=self.namespace,
-                        name=self.name,
-                    )
-                except ApiException as e:
-                    if e.reason == "Not Found":
-                        logger.warning(
-                            "Failed to delete DaskCluster, looks like it has already been deleted."
-                        )
-                    else:
-                        raise
+            cluster = await DaskCluster(self.name, namespace=self.namespace)
+            try:
+                await cluster.delete()
+            except kr8s.NotFoundError:
+                logger.warning(
+                    "Failed to delete DaskCluster, looks like it has already been deleted."
+                )
             start = time.time()
-            while (await self._get_cluster()) is not None:
+            while await cluster.exists():
                 if time.time() > start + timeout:
                     raise TimeoutError(
                         f"Timed out deleting cluster resource {self.name}"