Robotic pool cleaners and screened in porch?

[StumpedTechy]

I had posted about buying a vacuum for spot cleaning and whatnot that was like 20$ then I was looking even further and I saw they even have Roomba like automatic pool cleaners. Are they really that great and are they worth the price? We bought the Roomba for like 300$ years back and we love it and use it all the time. I am just wondering if these are as advanced and as good as that. I had a friend buy the Roomba replacement automatic grass clipper and he thoroughly hated it because it would miss patches and all kinds of stuff and it would run out of batteries before it was done.

The pool ones look like they plug in to an outlet and the cord floats and it just skims the bottom. So I am thinking it may be a very good thing. Is this going overboard or is it worth it? I was looking at a comparison guide for them and I kind of got lost since I am a new pool owner. I also have to wonder since this is a screened in area and only little things get into the pool if they are something I should use or just use a small mammal pool vac?

 

[Patrick_B]

Others may weigh in, but a robot seems a little much for indoor pools. But hey, if you think you'd like it and it's worth it, then go for it.

 

[duraleigh]

Cleaners that cost very little usually do very little work. Cleaners that cost a huge amount usually are intended for huge pools and perform the work accordingly.

Even in your screened in situation, I would not invest money in an inadequate cleaner.

Auto-vacs really do seem to fall into that saying, "You get what you pay for".

 

[Isaac-1]

If your situation is anything like mine (indoor pool surrounded by about a dozen sliding glass doors, etc.) you will be surprised just how much stuff gets into the pool, in my case it is mostly dust and dirt, but also some leaves, bugs, etc. I went a week without a pool cleaner in it this summer when my robotic cleaner died (lightning zap), and by the time the new robot arrived it was very visibly needing to be cleaned.

Ike

p.s. in the past I have owned suction side cleaners which were ok, but since switching to a robot a few years ago, I could never see going back. The coverage may not be as good as a traditional indoor Roomba, but it is close, the one I have is also not one of the latest designs, my current one was bought very cheap because it was a discontinued model, but was still one generation newer than the old one I had that died.