Robotic cleaners vs brushing it manually

[ymee]

Guys

Other than the time it takes to manually brush a pool, is there an advantage to the robotic pool cleaners? Just bought a home with a pool and trying to justify spending money on one

Thanks

 

[JasonLion]

Welcome to TFP!

The robotic cleaners not only brush, they also vacuum. Still, those are both things you can do very well manually if you feel like doing so.

 

[RobbieH]

Plus side - all the sand and junk is removed by the robot without you needing to do so. The robot works if you do not have provisions for a suction or pressure side cleaner. They do a good job (not great) at keeping everything brushed (more on this in a bit).

Down sides - They aren't good at removing lots of leaves. They are harder to clean out than a Polaris or Kreepy Krawly type thing. The pressure side cleaners with the big bags on them are worse at removing dirt and silt, but better at removing leaves.

On the brushing - if you have any bad spots in your plaster like I do, they won't get deep enough into it to keep black algae out, even at proper FC levels. Don't ask. This is what my wire brush is for.

If I were to get a robot again, I'd get one with a remote control. There's been times I wanted to clean specific spots but the robot didn't seem to want to get them. I either have to move it manually, or just get out the whale tail and sweep it.

 

[techguy]

This may depend on your pool construction

With my steel wall AG pool, my Aquabug/DiverDan does a great job vacuuming the floor. It does not have brush.

I still need to manually brush my side walls, and floor if it gets fuzzy.

 

[vinper]

do they make remote control ones?

 

[RobbieH]

Why yes they do.

 

[ymee]

thanks guys

 

[blakeusa]

They keep a lot of dirt and material out of your filter saving on time cleaning your filter --- especially if you have a cartridge filter.

And the chlorine in having to kill off all the dirt in your filter after vacuuming.

All the debris ends up in the bag, not the filter which you take out of the bag and wash it off for another day.