Help in picking a robot cleaner please

[daverph]

My 14 x 28 pebble-tec pool gets bombarded with a bunch of 8-10”pine straw, leaves from live oak, water oak, sweet gum, and hickory trees, occasional hickory nuts, acorns, debris, heavy pollen in spring, and sand. In fall through spring it’s a daily mess, although a solar cover now keeps some of the stuff from getting in.
I’ve talked to Margaret at Marina, and she recommended choosing from these
Pentair Warrior SE or SI by Maytronics
Maytronics S300 or S300i
Maytronics M600

Based on the comparison charts at Marina, I’m leaning towards the S300i because of the app and cart, but could go down or up a level but would like to find out:

People have reported in past the dolphin wifi app had a lot of bugs, have the bugs in the app been corrected?
Do any notify you when basket is full, or automatically shut off?
Is there any difference in collection basket capacity between these models?
Any advantage to having 2 vs 1 active brushes?
What is the difference between “wifi” and “wifi enhanced” on Marina’s comparison chart?
How useful is floor or wall only cleaning?
Our main drain is a circular ~1” raised grate if that might be a place for the robot to get stuck on, are any of these models better at avoiding getting stuck?
Would there be a problem with any of the robots running while the solar cover is on?
Someone has complained about Maytronics warranty service, would buying the Pentair branded Warrior get better warranty service?
What justifies the $400 difference between S300i and M600?
Any other models to consider?

The Hammerhead resort model at ~ $1700 isn’t that far above the M600 price, and after a storm my pool bottom can have a bushel basket full of leaves in it, but I might get that kind of debris 6 times a year. Would still have to brush the walls though.

Any recommendations and advice will be appreciated
Thanks!

 

[alex800]

I also just finishing a building 14x30 pool and the leafs in the pool are killing me. I'm considering S300i because it comes with a caddy, rough pre filter, and a large basket. I called Marina Pool Spa & Patio and they have 30I in stock which they said is the same as S300i.

 

[Carnut12]

I have owned my Maytronics Dolphin for 5 years and it has been Amazing!!! This year I changed the foam rollers because it wasn't climbing the walls as good, it is back to good as new. I will buy another when the time comes to replace. Mine would be the equivalent to the Oasis Z5i. It learns the pool and gets everything. In 5 years I have never vacuumed my pool manually. I brush it a few times a season and use my dolphin, that is it.

Sorry just to add I have never used the manual mode, my Dolphin has that option, but I have never needed it. I see that as a gimmick option, I would not pay more for it. I do love the caddy it makes it much easier.

 

[trivetman]

My 2 cents on manual mode va Bluetooth. Most of the time worthless.....but it came in handy this once. I just had my steps only replastered under warranty as they were already cracking after the full pool replaster last year. The manual drive mode lets me clean up the floor of the pool while keeping it away from the stairs. After those stairs are fully cured I’ll probably never use it again. It was worth the extra $50 just for this though

 

[pennywise13]

@Carnut12 , what model Dolphin?

 

[Carnut12]

@Carnut12 , what model Dolphin?

Mine was the Triton Plus. Not the same as the current Triton.

This is it-

https://g.co/kgs/xifqJT

 

[CTFocusST]

I have a Warrior SE and love it. I really like the simplicity of hitting the button and coming back 2 hours later to a cleaner pool and it fit my budget much easier. If it was really dirty I empty basket and run again.

I don't believe any of the ones you listed notify of a full basket. Watching mine at pool opening this year when basket filled it kept going but you could see it just pushing debris around instead of picking it up.

The Pentair Warrior SE/SI, Maytronics Dolphin S200/S300/S300i Active 20/30/30i and the Doheny Discovery all have the same cleaning components (motor, collection basket, etc) just differ on the extras

I believe the enhanced wifi enabled the floor/wall only mode(S300i/30i) vs just scheduling and acting as a remote to drive around (Si/S300/30)

I don't have a solar cover but remember seeing a few posts of others saying they ran theirs with the cover on while I was researching for my purchase

If you have a lot of trees get the rough filter insert. Marina swapped out the rough snap in filters for the insert for my SE. SI/S300/S300i should already come with it.

Need for caddy will depend on where you plan to store it and if you plan to take it out between runs. I built one for about same cost as the Maytronics one but I did that mostly because I enjoyed the design and build. Probably could have done it cheaper without the waterproof case for the controller.

Sorry that got quite long but hope it helps

 

[daverph]

Thank you all for your help and comments, I ended up getting an Active 30i from Margaret at Marina. I tried using my pool tech's Hammerhead one day before making my decision, although it does a great job of suctioning the floor, it still would require my time to do the cleanup and brushing and I was looking to free up time, which the Dolphin does for me.

It's doing a great job so far, picking up the pine straw, leaves, debris, sand, and small acorns, haven't had a hickory nut fall into the pool lately but I doubt it will be able to handle those based on the intake port size.

The manual drive ability is pretty useless IMO, and it seems like the Dolphin Cloud service is down way too often. There no longer seems to be a "pick me up' function but pulling on the cord works fine. Waterline cleaning showed me my tile was dirty where it couldn't reach, never noticed it before. It got stuck on the drain within minutes of first using it, haven't noticed it since but I don't watch it all the time, seems like a notification when it gets stuck would be useful. The 'randomness' of the cleaning doesn't seem very random, I've seen it do the same section of wall 2-3 times in the same session. When I set it to do floors only, it still climbs the walls. Works without any problems when the solar cover is on.

Thanks again everyone!