I've had two Hayward Aquavac 500's that I was extremely pleased with. Both lasted about 4 1/2 years each. It was discontinued or I'd buy a 3rd! Second one just died, I did a ton of research and decided on Dolphin Nautilus CC Pro. I tend to run robots about twice a week. My pool does not get very dirty with large debris unless stormy. So the first couple of times a ran the new bot and then get in to swim, I see a couple of "large swaths" that the bot missed. Now, it's not super obvious when you look at pool after the cleaning cuz like I said, pool doesn't get super dirty, but I see the missed sections when I get it. BUT, then a week later pool gets much dirtier and ran the Dolphin and there are tons of untouched pathways crisscrossing the pool, deep end, shallow end, all over.
So I call the store I bought from, which I'd rather not name at the moment, and I believe they are a brick and mortar store that also sells online. They tell me that perhaps it's not the right fit for my pool and they'll let me send this one back and "upgrade" to a better bot! Paid 1100 for this and they're suggesting a 1500-1600 bot. When I shopped, I was on the Maytronics site, put in info that my pool is 16x32 vinyl and it produced list of bots that would suit my pool PLUS I spoke to a human at this business before I bought to help me narrow down and he agreed on this CC Pro being fine for my pool. So I feel like this is a bait and switch kind of move. He also told me that I shouldn't expect a bot to cover the entire pool and that's not what they're for! They say if I just want to return this and not upgrade that I have to pay to send it back. Then I called Maytronics and spoke to a woman who took all of my info and no one has gotten back to me. It's been days.
So my questions for anyone here:
Is it not reasonable to expect a robot to clean the whole pool? My Haywards did...both of them. The Hayward had two run times...1.5 hours cleaned bottom and sides and 3 hours cleaned bottom up to waterline. So if I only wanted it to pick up bottom dirt I'd set the lower and if whole pool really needed it I'd set for 3 hours. This Dolphin model only has a 2 hour run time and cleans whole pool including waterline. Waterline cleaning was one of the things I wanted on my checklist. So now I'm wondering if it's too much to expect any robot to clean a pool top to bottom on 2 hours only and if it had a 2.5 or 3 hour run time it might work for me. And this is another "solution" the shop guy told me was maybe I'd just have to run 2 cycles if I want it to get the whole pool! This is unacceptable to me. But please tell me if I'm the one expecting too much. I'm not happy with either resolution they are offering, since my Haywards could do the job I expected.
Extra questions....he also referred to "one motor vs two motor models", and also "suction rates"...again telling me I should do the upgrade. The CC Pro model has one motor and apparently a lower suction rate than the upper models. But again, Maytronics and he himself shouldn't have led me to believe this model would clean my pool. I wasn't interested in paying 1600 for a robot. I don't care about Wifi and the thing driving himself to me poolside when he's done etc. I don't know the specs of my Haywards, but I suspect they were a one motor bot.
And last...I'm trying to shop other brands because I'm so unhappy with this experience. And the Polaris website leaves a lot to be desired. Does anyone know if any Polaris has ultrafine filtering? Every video I watch makes it look like they all just have regular screens, but I'm not even sure about that. They don't ever talk about filtration. I really want ultrafine filtration since my pool doesn't get much large debris, but finer dirt is my bigger problem.
If you've read all of this, thank you!! Any advice on any of my lines of questioning are appreciated, including how to get this robot returned without me being out dollars. I truly don't believe I should have to pay to ship this thing back to anyone since my philosophy is that an $1100 machine should clean my pool and this doesn't.
So I call the store I bought from, which I'd rather not name at the moment, and I believe they are a brick and mortar store that also sells online. They tell me that perhaps it's not the right fit for my pool and they'll let me send this one back and "upgrade" to a better bot! Paid 1100 for this and they're suggesting a 1500-1600 bot. When I shopped, I was on the Maytronics site, put in info that my pool is 16x32 vinyl and it produced list of bots that would suit my pool PLUS I spoke to a human at this business before I bought to help me narrow down and he agreed on this CC Pro being fine for my pool. So I feel like this is a bait and switch kind of move. He also told me that I shouldn't expect a bot to cover the entire pool and that's not what they're for! They say if I just want to return this and not upgrade that I have to pay to send it back. Then I called Maytronics and spoke to a woman who took all of my info and no one has gotten back to me. It's been days.
So my questions for anyone here:
Is it not reasonable to expect a robot to clean the whole pool? My Haywards did...both of them. The Hayward had two run times...1.5 hours cleaned bottom and sides and 3 hours cleaned bottom up to waterline. So if I only wanted it to pick up bottom dirt I'd set the lower and if whole pool really needed it I'd set for 3 hours. This Dolphin model only has a 2 hour run time and cleans whole pool including waterline. Waterline cleaning was one of the things I wanted on my checklist. So now I'm wondering if it's too much to expect any robot to clean a pool top to bottom on 2 hours only and if it had a 2.5 or 3 hour run time it might work for me. And this is another "solution" the shop guy told me was maybe I'd just have to run 2 cycles if I want it to get the whole pool! This is unacceptable to me. But please tell me if I'm the one expecting too much. I'm not happy with either resolution they are offering, since my Haywards could do the job I expected.
Extra questions....he also referred to "one motor vs two motor models", and also "suction rates"...again telling me I should do the upgrade. The CC Pro model has one motor and apparently a lower suction rate than the upper models. But again, Maytronics and he himself shouldn't have led me to believe this model would clean my pool. I wasn't interested in paying 1600 for a robot. I don't care about Wifi and the thing driving himself to me poolside when he's done etc. I don't know the specs of my Haywards, but I suspect they were a one motor bot.
And last...I'm trying to shop other brands because I'm so unhappy with this experience. And the Polaris website leaves a lot to be desired. Does anyone know if any Polaris has ultrafine filtering? Every video I watch makes it look like they all just have regular screens, but I'm not even sure about that. They don't ever talk about filtration. I really want ultrafine filtration since my pool doesn't get much large debris, but finer dirt is my bigger problem.
If you've read all of this, thank you!! Any advice on any of my lines of questioning are appreciated, including how to get this robot returned without me being out dollars. I truly don't believe I should have to pay to ship this thing back to anyone since my philosophy is that an $1100 machine should clean my pool and this doesn't.
