New EVO 614i Robot Pool Cleaner Review

caycarem said:

Thanks for the update! what filter did you get, Fine/ultra fine?

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I assume it is fine. Came in the box and I did not ask for anything else.

Jimrahbe said:

TAM,

Thanks for the feedback...

Not sure how well the robot is going to work with your table.. But... I guess it can't be much different than your Dolphin.

I like the fact that it won't get stuck on the main drain, and the hefty cable and swivel..

Good luck with your new toy..

Thank,

Jim R.

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Thanks!

Table caused occasional issues with it trying to go around.

Will see.

I got my EVO614IQ about a month ago. It seems to work very well in picking up fine debris and leaves. I purchased it at Marina Pool and asked for the free swap from the standard to the ultra-fine filter.

The canister is super easy to clean out. Just dump out the loose debris and shake out the dirt and fine debris. Then, wash it with a hose for 30 seconds to clean out the remaining dirt/sand. It seems to pick up the finest debris like dirt/sand very well as there is always a layer of fine sediment at the bottom. Also, I don't see an issue going 3-5 cleanings before cleaning out the canister. Suction seems to remain good.

One general observation is it only vacuums when driving forward and the unit only reverses to reposition after hitting a wall. I kind of wish that it would vacuum when going backwards and drive in reverse longer to get to the next obstacle instead of just using reverse to reposition (I think Dolphin vacuums when in reverse and continues to next obstacle.) It would seem to be more efficient from a time perspective since it takes a while to reposition and turn around after hitting an obstacle. However, one strong suit is the it will traverse my entire length of the pool in a straight line without stopping (about 37'). I think Dolphin would not go that long of distance before stopping in its algorithm.

If approaching the wall at a diagonal, it has a built in gyro to adjust the angle when on the wall to climb it perpendicularly (not sure if Dolphin does this). It will also occasionally get onto my tanning ledge and climb my steps but doesn't clean them consistently. The tanning ledge is about 12" in depth, so water shoots out like a fountain from the unit when it reaches the tanning ledge. I've encountered that it sometimes will flip over onto it's back once or twice when encountering a wall on the tanning ledge at a diagonal angle, which causes it to get stuck. This is rare though.

Note there are two modes, floor/wall (includes water line) - 2:30 hr and Floor only - 1:30 hr. Water line cleaning only occurs every 5th or so step when hitting a wall and is random. When it climbs to the water line, the unit travels maybe 6" to the right (sometimes very little to none). Based on this approach, full water line cleaning of the entire water line would take probably 50+ cycles. It would be nice if there was a water line only cleaning mode added in the future. Due to this, I don't really see a significant advantage of water line cleaning.

Using the remote in the app is somewhat useful to pick up some debris that the automated mode missed. It seems to be fairly responsive with just a little lag (1 sec. or less). The lift system option on the app is neat if you don't want to pull the cleaner to the surface. I rarely use it in practice though. It's easy enough to just pull the cord.

Overall, the cleaner tends to clean roughly 90% of the debris if the pool is very dirty. For regular maintenance, it tends to pick up almost everything (rectangle pool with angled steps and angled tanning ledge w/ no deep end). I have only had an issue one time with cord tangling. This was due to the cord loops getting tangled. The cleaner tends to rotate in equal amount of clockwise and counterclockwise rotations to minimize tangling. I think the key to prevent tangling is to not fight the natural loops that have developed in the cord from the factory and try to preserve those loops when putting the cord and cleaner in the pool. This allows the cord to stretch out from it's coils when traversing the pool. What's interesting is at the end of the cycle, the cleaner will rotate several times in a circle to try to unwind the cord. I'm not really sure this is necessary as the cord isn't tangled before the rotation begins.

The overall scheduling in the iAqualink app works great too. It's easy to program what days and time of the week you want the cleaner to run and allows you to select the cleaning mode (floor or floor/wall). The schedule repeats weekly so there is no need to reprogram it weekly (better than Dolphin system). Have anyone noticed that after daylight savings time went into effect, the system time is behind by 1 hour, causing the schedule to run 1 hour late? To check the system time in the iAqualink app, click the settings gear icon, and click on the System Information menu item to see the system time. For me, it is 1 hour behind actual time. Before daylight savings time (DST), the time was accurate. It's an obvious DST bug.

My report on the first couple of runs of my new 614iq.

The bottom of the pool was covered in thousands of little seed somethings about the size of a grain of rice, which would clearly show where the robot did and did not go. I used the leaf rake to remove most leaves before the first run, but left some (soggy) oak leaves and some magnolia leaves on the bottom as a test. I had a "bathtub ring" of North Carolina's world famous pollen all around the pool, which would show if and how well the unit cleaned the tile at the water line.

The little seeds showed that the unit cleaned maybe 80%-90% of the bottom of the pool. This is probably as much as you can expect from a device whose navigation algorithm is known as a "drunken walk."

The unit picked up most, but not all, of the oak leaves. It didn't pick up any of the magnolia leaves, which wasn't a surprise.

Echoing what others have said, the biggest disappointment was the water line cleaning. At best it cleaned 10% of the water line. When it came up to the water line, it either stayed in place or sometimes moved 6 inches or so to the side. (My Dolphin Premier would move 2-3 feet sideways. I'm fiddling with some ideas to see if there is a way to have the unit "lean" sideways when at the surface so that the brushes will move it sideways.)

I agree that using the cord to pull the unit towards you to lift it out of the water is simple and easy, but the Lift System has the advantages of ejecting water to make the unit lighter and the treads running to help "drive" the unit up and over the coping.

Overall I think the Dolphin Premiere did a better job of cleaning the pool (and especially the water line), but the Premier wouldn't pick up leaves and would dump debris into the water when lifted out of the water. The Premier wouldn't hold as much debris as the 614iq does, and opening and cleaning the Premier, especially the cloth bag in fall/winter/spring, was much more of an anal trauma. On balance, I'm going to stay with the 614iq.

JoeSlayer said:

Note there are two modes, floor/wall (includes water line) - 2:30 hr and Floor only - 1:30 hr. Water line cleaning only occurs every 5th or so step when hitting a wall and is random. When it climbs to the water line, the unit travels maybe 6" to the right (sometimes very little to none). Based on this approach, full water line cleaning of the entire water line would take probably 50+ cycles. It would be nice if there was a water line only cleaning mode added in the future. Due to this, I don't really see a significant advantage of water line cleaning.

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The robot pretty much goes straight up the wall, which means it is only cleaning an equivalently small portion of the wall as it does of the water line. I wonder if there is any reason to run the Floor/Wall mode.

Chuck_Davis said:

The robot pretty much goes straight up the wall, which means it is only cleaning an equivalently small portion of the wall as it does of the water line. I wonder if there is any reason to run the Floor/Wall mode.

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Most robotic cleaners follow a similar pattern on cleaning wall surfaces randomly. I think eventually, after enough cycles, the cleaner will clean the majority of the wall and waterline.

Jimrahbe said:

Cay,

Not sure these will help, but here they are...

Suction hole in bottom of Robot
View attachment 559334

Output into basket
View attachment 559335

Impeller without shroud
View attachment 559336

Impeller with shroud
View attachment 559338

Notice seal on top of basket
View attachment 559339

Thanks,

Jim R.

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Jim nice pics. How do you remove the shroud off the impeller? Mine seems to be on there pretty tight and don’t want to damage it.

JoeSlayer said:

.........If approaching the wall at a diagonal, it has a built in gyro to adjust the angle when on the wall to climb it perpendicularly (not sure if Dolphin does this).

.........Note there are two modes, floor/wall (includes water line) - 2:30 hr and Floor only - 1:30 hr. Water line cleaning only occurs every 5th or so step when hitting a wall and is random. When it climbs to the water line, the unit travels maybe 6" to the right (sometimes very little to none). Based on this approach, full water line cleaning of the entire water line would take probably 50+ cycles. It would be nice if there was a water line only cleaning mode added in the future. Due to this, I don't really see a significant advantage of water line cleaning.

Click to expand...

I've been fiddling with some flotation to see if I could get the 614iq to sit at an angle when at the water line, like the Dolphin Premier does, and as a result scuff along sideways for 2-3 feet per pass.

Apparently the gyro is fighting me. If the tilt goes beyond a certain point the brush on the high side stops spinning in an attempt to straighten up the unit. It would be this high-side brush that would push the unit to the side.

Oh well.

Chuck_Davis said:

I've been fiddling with some flotation to see if I could get the 614iq to sit at an angle when at the water line, like the Dolphin Premier does, and as a result scuff along sideways for 2-3 feet per pass.

Apparently the gyro is fighting me. If the tilt goes beyond a certain point the brush on the high side stops spinning in an attempt to straighten up the unit. It would be this high-side brush that would push the unit to the side.

Oh well.

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That was a good idea. Too bad the gyro is trying to correct it. It would be good to submit feedback to support to see if they can adjust the angle in the programming when performing water line cleaning.

Jimrahbe said:

Joe,

It just unscrews... It is also used to holds the shell, or case, to the bottom of the robot...

Standard ... Rightly tightly, Lefty loosely..

Jim R.

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Thanks. So to confirm, is the entire black shroud plastic is threaded to the base of the robot? I tried twisting it now but it didn’t turn.

I see that Marina has 2 filters for the 604, does anyone know which part number came with the vacuum originally?

I'm in the market for our first robot cleaner. We are building a rectangle vinyl pool. There is a lot of pollen debris where we live and will be installing an autmatic cover. Based on your recent expericnces with this new robot, would you buy it again or would you purchase something else?

Jimrahbe said:

V,

I am still in love with my EVO, but I do not have an autocover, and have no idea how well it would work when closed.

My initial thought is that if you leave the cover closed most of the time, you'd only have to put it in the pool once a week or less..

Again.. I say this with zero Autocover experience...

Thanks,

Jim R.

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Thanks Jim, good to know you still love it! Probably a good robot to start our pool experience with!

So glad to find this thread. I have an old Polaris 380 that my golden retriever unfortunately “retrieved” a few times. In addition to the costly hose replacement , the unit was not cleaning good any longer.
I had been considering my first robot and have pretty much decided to go with it. I had actually found Marina pool and spoke with them before finding this site. They did indeed recommend the Evo. I was quoted the same price as what the web shows, but are you guys saying they will do better than that $849?
Glad to hear it still seems to be doing well for most. How good is it or any other unit on steps? I really never had much luck there with my Polaris so not a huge deal, just curious.
Look forward to this site and any further info!

BamaPt said:

So glad to find this thread.

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Same here, and so glad there is a robot which will provide some competition in this space. Hopefully it will have greater longevity than the Maytronics products (Dolphin et al) which will only increase the Evo's value, and force Maytronics to up their game.