Dolphin s100 won't move but pumps water

[geempool]

Hello! We are finally opening our pool and all is going well...except our Dolphin S100. We bought it brand new last year and it worked PERFECTLY every single day all last summer. We ran it each evening (our pool sees heavy use from children with grassy feet) and hosed out the basket/filters each morning. Then it could relax poolside till the evening. (We don't ever leave it in during swimming due to entanglement risk with lots of young swimmers.) In the fall, we cleaned and dried and put it away, prepped with new filters in the basket for this year, and there it stayed in a temperature controlled basement for the whole winter.

Today, we took it out, plugged it in like always, dropped it in the water and hit the button. It pumped water like normal, but then the treads do not turn and so it just sits there, filtering water in place.

What could have happened?

I'm assuming that i need to take it in and get a dried out/cracked belt replaced or something, but i wanted to ask here in case there is something simple i am overlooking, or a reset button i could push, etc.

This is a pretty straightforward model, and all i see on the control box are a power button, and a selection button for scheduling automatic cleaning cycles.

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Open it up and take the filter basket out. You should be able to see if there’s anything jamming up the motor keeping it from turning the drive wheel and treads. Can you move the treads by hand or are they locked up? These robots are not difficult to disassemble a bit. All you need is a #2 Phillips head screw driver. There’s lots of YouTube videos showing how to. The side panels that cover the wheels and treads pops off (retaining clips are inside). That will let you see if the wheels or drive gear from the motor is bound up by something.

Did you buy it locally? If so, the shop you got it from should be able to diagnose the problem quickly.

 

[geempool]

Open it up and take the filter basket out. You should be able to see if there’s anything jamming up the motor keeping it from turning the drive wheel and treads. Can you move the treads by hand or are they locked up? These robots are not difficult to disassemble a bit. All you need is a #2 Phillips head screw driver. There’s lots of YouTube videos showing how to. The side panels that cover the wheels and treads pops off (retaining clips are inside). That will let you see if the wheels or drive gear from the motor is bound up by something.

Did you buy it locally? If so, the shop you got it from should be able to diagnose the problem quickly.

Thank you, i did go ahead and give a shot at unscrewing a bunch of screws, and still couldn't see anything blocking or broken. I did buy it locally, so i just dropped it off this AM and it should be fixed soon!

Open it up and take the filter basket out. You should be able to see if there’s anything jamming up the motor keeping it from turning the drive wheel and treads. Can you move the treads by hand or are they locked up? These robots are not difficult to disassemble a bit. All you need is a #2 Phillips head screw driver. There’s lots of YouTube videos showing how to. The side panels that cover the wheels and treads pops off (retaining clips are inside). That will let you see if the wheels or drive gear from the motor is bound up by something.

Did you buy it locally? If so, the shop you got it from should be able to diagnose the problem quickly.

It needed a needed a new motor, and the pool store replaced and returned it to me same day. But! Now it doesn't seem to climb the walls and do the waterline like it did last year. That seems more like a programming thing maybe?

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Thank you, i did go ahead and give a shot at unscrewing a bunch of screws, and still couldn't see anything blocking or broken. I did buy it locally, so i just dropped it off this AM and it should be fixed soon!

It needed a needed a new motor, and the pool store replaced and returned it to me same day. But! Now it doesn't seem to climb the walls and do the waterline like it did last year. That seems more like a programming thing maybe?

The S100 is only designed to clean the floor and climb the walls. It doesn’t do waterline tile cleaning (stays at the top of the water and scrubs the waterline). If your robot was scrubbing the water line, then it wasn’t an S100. It should at least climb the walls though.

Does your cleaner use the MyDolphin App that connects via Bluetooth to a Smartphone?

 

[geempool]

The S100 is only designed to clean the floor and climb the walls. It doesn’t do waterline tile cleaning (stays at the top of the water and scrubs the waterline). If your robot was scrubbing the water line, then it wasn’t an S100. It should at least climb the walls though.

Does your cleaner use the MyDolphin App that connects via Bluetooth to a Smartphone?

It does not have an app or anything, just an on/off button and i can select from 3 schedules by pushing another button. I think you are right, it doesn't technically/officially do the waterline, but it is supposed to clean walls, and last year it just climbed straight up the walls, all the way up till it was sticking out of the water including the scrubber, and the waterline got cleaned in the process. Now it is barely starting up the walls, maybe 12-18" up a 52" pool, so maybe it's going back to the store. It looks like it COULD go higher, but then it just stops, and goes back to scrubbing the floor.

 

[HeyEng]

It does not have an app or anything, just an on/off button and i can select from 3 schedules by pushing another button. I think you are right, it doesn't technically/officially do the waterline, but it is supposed to clean walls, and last year it just climbed straight up the walls, all the way up till it was sticking out of the water including the scrubber, and the waterline got cleaned in the process. Now it is barely starting up the walls, maybe 12-18" up a 52" pool, so maybe it's going back to the store. It looks like it COULD go higher, but then it just stops, and goes back to scrubbing the floor.

Have you looked to see if the foam wheels (four of them) are still in decent shape? They assist in the climbing and if worn out/ineffective, this could be why it doesn't climb so well now.

 

[geempool]

Have you looked to see if the foam wheels (four of them) are still in decent shape? They assist in the climbing and if worn out/ineffective, this could be why it doesn't climb so well now.

Thanks! I will check!