Cordless M5 Liberty

Jump to latest Follow Reply
lka674

lka674

0
LifeTime Supporter
Jul 12, 2012
106
Williamson County, Texas
I'm desperately trying to get my hands on that cordless M5 Liberty model. I've contacted Maytronics who said they would contact their TX distributors for me, but in the meantime I did my research and found out who their distributors where and they are going to get the SKU info input so that I can go into an authorized seller's store and special order it.... I know cordless got poor reviews on their first attempt. Just curious if anyone has talked to anyone who has used or has one?
 
I found it....had to special order it directly from Maytronics via a distributor, and it's on it's way. Will let ya know how it performs....if wimpy it goes back to where it came from......quickly! I have the Aquabot Turbo T4RC, and while it's a great cleaner, the cord is a real nuisance. I did speak to our regional Maytronics rep and he assured me that it's every bit as good as their corded M5....allegedly, they did significant changes from the one they put out 6 yrs ago that received poor reviews. The good news, I got it wholesale.....bad news.....still pretty pricy. I am crossing my fingers and am anxious to receive it and try 'er out!
 
Hey Ika,

I hope once you put that new robot through it's paces you'll write a review on it! I wonder if the pump motor will become weaker the longer it runs, or if the unit will just shut down when the battery becomes too weak to supply enough power to the motors?

Tom
 
Should have it by end of next week and I'll be happy to post a review and pics. I too am curious about the battery. Matronics said that the battery was the number one biggest issue with their first cordless, so there was a big focus on battery power and life.....we shall see.
I will get back to yall as soon as I get it and have a chance to see how it does!
 
Vette said:
What kind of batteries does it use? I'll be waiting on the review and PICS!!!
Click to expand...

The little spec sheet I found says it uses lith ion batteries, so at least new(er) technology.

3 year warranty on everything minus battery, 2 year warranty on battery. Has an interesting little gryoscope thing tethered to it to scan the pool area (I thought none of the robots actually scanned, but this one does? kinda jealous :) ) and provide a visual on battery level.

http://dolphin.maytronics.com/liberty.pdf
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
I really can't believe the battery would last 1.5 hours. I have a small cordless lawn mower with a good size battery and it loses power at 25-30 minutes. I don't think its motor is working any harder than the one in a cleaner. Strange the battery is warrantied less than the unit, I think I'd want 5 years on the battery. Think I'm going to try the Aquabot Breeze.... and hope the cord isn't an issue. Now if they could do a solar cell that would follow along on a short cord that had enough recharge juice, that would be nice... but would probably need to be the size of the pool!
 
Hi! Sorry so long since I've logged in here....hence the delay.

So here's the 411 on my little robot:

It really does a great job! The battery lasts for about 1.5 hours...which is plenty of time to clean my entire pool on the most complete setting. I usually get accumulated debris in both ends of the pool, so what I usually do is drop it in and then use the remote control to do a quick sweep of both ends and then put the remote down and let it run it's course. You don't have to do this though. My pool is spotless each time I use it...it climbs walls and everything. Best investment I've made to date! No more whipping tail like thing shooting out of the water and messing up my window panes on the house or shooting me in the face while I'm sitting on the patio! I hated that cleaner!

The drawbacks...and there are always some: You can't leave it in the pool...which means you have to plan to know you'll be around by the end of the day or so so that it doesn't sit in the pool overnight. I don't know what would happen if you did, and I have left mine in there for hours after the cycle was done, but not for any extended period....don't really want to risk it. It's sorta heavy and awkward to lift out of the pool and carry (at least for me that is). I can do it, but I usually whine for the DH to do it for me. You do also have to empty and spray out the 4 filters each time you use it. That's not a big deal btw, but it's just another thing to do and sometimes a pain when you forget to do it and it's time to clean again and you're in a hurry. I think I'm going to get an extra set of filters so I can swap them out each time. Also, it's another piece of equipment to store somewhere near your pool that has a GFCI outlet if you are worried about aesthetics of your patio and "stuff" lying around everywhere like we are. We improvised and put it behind our pool equipment wall under the panel box (which has the GFCI). Because that area is of course not covered, we manufactured a cover for it out of heavy brown tarp so it's hidden from sight and protected from the elements as the battery charger should not get wet. I learned this the hard way and forgot about our in-ground automatic sprinkler system (DUH).....It got pretty saturated and I didn't realize it for awhile, some of the connectors got some corrosion on/in them. I was able to clean it off as good as I can, and it still works....but every blue moon the charger gives me a little grief and I have to play with it before it will make it's connection to the robot. This could be remedied by replacing the charging box, but I just haven't gotten around to it.

For some these drawbacks alone would turn you off...but I hated the polaris or whatever that awful piece of equipment was that we had originally. For me the above drawbacks are nothing if you trade having to wash windows everyday from the streaks created by the other one and having to replace the tires and bags and floats too often (which are very expensive).

I haven't taken video yet. I do need to do that and will try to remember the next time I drop it in and get them posted. Hope this helps....it does an excellent job of cleaning...not wimpy by any means on suction. I'd recommend it. I also recommend the Solar Breeze pool skimmer by Solar Breeze Technologies. I have Crate Myrtles over my pool....need I say more. Couldn't live without this other little gem of a pool bot!

Happy Pool Cleaning!
 
Ika674, are you still in this forum? I recently bought an M5 Liberty. It was brand new, but bought via Craigslist, thus Maytronics will not honor ANY warranty. My unit is broken now after working for 4 times. Refused to turn on, and when connected to the charger it says "No Connection". Do you have this problem at all? Thanks.
 
cmdrdata said:
Ika674, are you still in this forum? I recently bought an M5 Liberty. It was brand new, but bought via Craigslist, thus Maytronics will not honor ANY warranty. My unit is broken now after working for 4 times. Refused to turn on, and when connected to the charger it says "No Connection". Do you have this problem at all? Thanks.
Click to expand...

Hi there! Sorry you are having trouble. So yes...very early on when we were new to using the cleaner, I too had no connection alert twice....it was due to the plugs getting wet at some point. I think my husband accidentally dropped it in once without the cap on. :hammer:

Anyway...the way I corrected it the 2 times it happened was as follows and now that we follow the attaching and turning on/off protocols that I've set up it has never acted up again.

Unplug the battery pack from it's electrical source.

Completely unscrew the pod cover...take it all apart and then disconnected all the wires inside (they have connector clips...it's easier than what you think). I then let it stay open for a little while to ensure that it's completely dry inside. Do not touch or mess with the mother board that is inside the base. (This step I did just to be thorough...you could skip this step and just try the following steps first to see if that does the trick and then if it doesn't, come back and start all over again including this step)

Next, I removed the power cord from the battery pack. You have to unscrew it from the base....took it apart and cleaned both the connector cord and the port itself on the battery extremely well with Q-tips dipped in rubbing alcohol and a soft bristle brush....there was some corrosion b/c we keep ours outside and our sprinkler got the battery pack once or twice. While I was doing this, I also cleaned the connection port on the pod itself the same way.

After you know everything is dry, reassemble the pod in reverse order from how you took it apart.

Reattach the power cord to the battery pack (but not until you have successfully cleaned up any rust/corrosion that you can see)

Plug the battery pack into the electrical source. (do not turn the battery on yet)

Attach the power cord to the pod and then hit the ON button on the battery pack.

The battery pack should eventually cycle through some lights and then eventually start blinking just a red light indicating that it's charging. It will turn green once it's fully charged....about 4 hours or so.

If in fact this sequence of instructions works for you and you do get it to charge completely.....when you go to remove the pod from the power supply, be sure and always turn the battery pack OFF first. I hit the button on the battery and the lights start blinking and then eventually stop and not until that point do I remove the pod from the power cord. Likewise...when I pull the cleaner out of the pool to recharge it....always attach the pod to the battery pack first before turning the battery itself on.

Try this...in the exact order I've indicated and hopefully it will work for you too.

If all else fails, I would say that more likely than not...it's not a cleaner problem you are having but rather a battery pack/power cord problem. I would try contacting the company back and seeing what it would cost to get a replacement battery and power cord.

Good luck and let me know how it turns out!
Laura
 
Hi Laura, Maytronics (true to their warning , saw it after I bought it) WILL NOT honor any warranty since I bought my brand spanking new Liberty from the internet. They let me register it, but no support. I can get my Liberty to work if I opened up the pod, disconnect the 4-wire connector from the battery to the pod, plug it back in, and all will work as normal. I can then put it in the pool and it will clean all the the way. Upon finishing, the Liberty turn itself off. I then put it back in the caddy, connect the charger, plug the charger into the wall and then turn the charger switch. That's when I get the No Connection issue. This problem is repeatable. It is a great cleaner and I am doing a rough schematic diagram on how this power sequence is supposed to work. Will post it later and hope to be able to fix it myself soon (pod circuit board surgery!)
 
Mine was repeatable too...that's when I discovered that there was corrosion on the power cord where it attaches to the battery. Did you remove the power cord yet? You have to unscrew it from the battery. The port on my battery was covered with rust and corrosion as well as that end of the power cord. Once I cleaned it up and then made sure I followed the steps on attaching and unattaching the cleaner from the battery as you and I have figured out it started working just fine. I did call Maytronics way back when mine used to do this too and described the problem. (I bought mine from them directly) and they agreed it was likely a battery/power cord problem but they wanted me to send them my entire cleaner! I couldn't go without one for that long of a period so I just decided to punt....until it does it again that is! Let me know if you figure out that yours in fact is an issue with the circuit board and if it can be fixed....maybe it's just a fluke that what fixed mine was cleaning the cord and port on the battery!
Good luck! Sorry I couldn't be of more help. I will try calling them today to see if they will send me a new battery and cord without returning the whole darn thing. I will also ask what they would charge for those items if it wasn't under warranty (mine still is).
 
Also....next time you open the pod and reassemble...try plugging the battery power cord into the wall BEFORE attaching the power cord to the pod....make sure that the blue ON button is not lit and then attach the pod and hit the ON switch. This is what I sorta also discovered could be where the break happens...the times it happened to us before occurred when we attached the pod before plugging in the battery to the wall...I just started doing the opposite and it happened to work for me...but again, it could have been a number of things and so I just started doing all the steps...overkill Im sure! LOL.
 

Enjoying this content?

Support TFP with a donation.

Give Support
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread Status
Hello , This thread has been inactive for over 60 days. New postings here are unlikely to be seen or responded to by other members. For better visibility, consider Starting A New Thread.
Top Bottom
Back
Jump to latest Follow Reply