Bought a Blue Pearl robot last summer through Woot, and after one year of happy use, it seems to have suddenly broken entirely. Our best guess is that it's the drive motor -- it will barely go forward, won't go backward, won't climb walls, etc. Of course, the warranty just expired 3 weeks ago.
The repair will cost more than we paid for the unit, and then it's only warrantied for 6 months. (Not enough time to make it through the next pool season!) Might actually be able to replace the motor ourselves, but the whole water + electricity thing is worrisome, it will still cost over $400, and then we might only get one more season out of it and have it break again. (We've heard that their drive motors are notoriously breakage-prone.) It doesn't seem logical to us to spend $400 per season for a pool robot!
What to do? Toss it out and get something else next season? Have it repaired and pray it makes it through another season? Give up on robots altogether?
We can't afford a $1500 robot, which is why we went with the Blue Pearl in the first place. I had expected it to make it at least 2-3 seasons! * sigh * I'm not looking forward to hand-vacuuming this fall ...
The repair will cost more than we paid for the unit, and then it's only warrantied for 6 months. (Not enough time to make it through the next pool season!) Might actually be able to replace the motor ourselves, but the whole water + electricity thing is worrisome, it will still cost over $400, and then we might only get one more season out of it and have it break again. (We've heard that their drive motors are notoriously breakage-prone.) It doesn't seem logical to us to spend $400 per season for a pool robot!
What to do? Toss it out and get something else next season? Have it repaired and pray it makes it through another season? Give up on robots altogether?
We can't afford a $1500 robot, which is why we went with the Blue Pearl in the first place. I had expected it to make it at least 2-3 seasons! * sigh * I'm not looking forward to hand-vacuuming this fall ...