Aiper Seagull Pro Review

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HermanTX said:
Thanks. A little off subject, but I saw the Bretta skimmer. Do you leave it in the pool full time because it is solar powered? If not, can it be left in the pool for several days? I was thinking of that when I travel as an assistant to my skimmers. Thoughts? You can PM me if you do not what to cloud up this thread.
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I leave mine in the pool full time. I have some shade, but enough sun that I have seen the Betta still running at 6:30am and I assume it had been running all night. The only problem with leaving it in the pool for several days is that it may fill up and then it stops. I'm not sure if that is bad for it. The spinning paddle at the front gets jammed with stuff when it overflows. I have a number of trees nearby that have dropping all kinds of Crud including Maple seeds the last few days. I have had to empty the container every day. Last week, I could go 2-3 days without a problem.
 
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JackHarkness said:
Thanks for this - but again I wonder compared to what is considered the best - like a S300 - how it functions. Are you saying owners of those more expensive vacuums have to do 2-3 cycles also? I think it may be unreasonable to think I'm unreasonable if you haven't personally tested the higher end products that come in above this one's pricepoint. I'd expect for lets say $500 more - there is perhaps a vacuum that CAN clean a pool intelligently and in 1 go? I mean as it currently stands, I wouldn't even recommend the Aiper for $250.
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My understanding of the main difference between the S300 and the Dolphin I had is that the S200 and S300 do a better job of cleaning the water line. I don't think they are any smarter or have better suction. The Aiper does a pretty good job of picking up sand that the Dolphin didn't get. I could be wrong, and maybe there have been improvements in basic functions since mine was 7 years old. I would hope so. I was initially somewhat unhappy with the Dolphin when I first got it. It didn't seem to work nearly as well as the $300 robot I bought previously from Costco. The company told me the wheels needed to soften up and that would bring the vacuum closer to the surface which would make it work better. I don't know if it really got better or I just got used to it and ran it all the time to make up for the fact that it didn't clean very well.
 
tcat said:
Here's a 12 minute video at 8x speed (so under 2 min). It would do normal passes for a while, then kind of go nuts, then do normal passes. Very odd programming, but seems to work.

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@tcat thanks for sharing…this clip actually made me laugh as the voice in my head had the Seagull Pro sayin “mmm, cleaning, cleaning…” as it made a long straight path in one direction then suddenly “oh a squirrel…err…a twig” as it suddendly danced and shot off to a different pattern!
 
tcat said:
None are so "intelligent" that they spot leaves and fetch them, or even know what hasn't been covered. They are programmed to zig zag in different ways. Pool shape with throw any of them off. I'm impressed at how the Aiper seems to correct itself when it hits a radius at an odd angle. The main goal for me is no cord. This is the best I've tried in that category (I've tried Aiper Elite and Smorobot). If you don't mind a cord, I'm sure some Dolphins or Aquabots do a better job and may be more reliable, time will tell.

You need a time lapse of the entire 3 hour floor cycle to really see what it's doing. It's like it does a segment going back and forth width, then back and forth length, then some dancing, then working on a corner... I believe it hits 95% of my floor, and 95% of my walls. It only misses above lights and above jets, and steps.
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I mean mine is literally a rectangle, and it misses a good 25%. I'll timelapse it - but it leaves me incredibly unhappy as a good portion of areas are uncovered to the point I have to manually vacuum also.
 
My ultra fine filter 🤣. I sliced up an old Aquabot filter. Hoping they have an Aiper one available soon! Test tomorrow after silicone dries.
 

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Put in for a return today, hopefully hear back on Monday about a shipping label.

Overall it did OK, but had to many missed spots on the floor. I think it is the angled walls, but it seems to go off the wall at slightly off angle and then misses a few inches of floor. So end up after a full floor only cycle with a grid pattern of missed spots or long narrow streaks that were not covered.

I think its nav needs some work but is close, coming from an S300 it missed to many spots that were not missed previously.
 
jburgert said:
Put in for a return today, hopefully hear back on Monday about a shipping label.

Overall it did OK, but had to many missed spots on the floor. I think it is the angled walls, but it seems to go off the wall at slightly off angle and then misses a few inches of floor. So end up after a full floor only cycle with a grid pattern of missed spots or long narrow streaks that were not covered.

I think its nav needs some work but is close, coming from an S300 it missed to many spots that were not missed previously.
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Hi - I wanted someone with a S300 to comment! How does it perform?

Also @tcat

Here is the FULL timelapse video. Only 1 minute is cut out - it was dropped on the TOP RIGHT EDGE of the pool - floor only mode. It made its way to the middle-ish of the pool rotated - then went back to the corner as the video shows.. It got stuck on 1 drain and you can see me poking at it with a stick...but besides that.. it isn't displaying very smart behavior or "overlapping" anything. Sometimes, rarely.

Overall - it missed a lot of spots (as can be seen in the video around edges particularily and some bits in the center). And the "WavePath" navigation seems nonexistent. I observed this with 2 units.

 
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My S300 actually died this spring after 5 years. It was my first robot and had very little issues. The app for scheduling and driving was a bit painful at times. I hate the cables so was really hoping the Aiper model would do better.
 
JackHarkness said:
Hi - I wanted someone with a S300 to comment! How does it perform?

Also @tcat

Here is the FULL timelapse video. Only 1 minute is cut out - it was dropped on the TOP RIGHT EDGE of the pool - floor only mode. It made its way to the middle-ish of the pool rotated - then went back to the corner as the video shows.. It got stuck on 1 drain and you can see me poking at it with a stick...but besides that.. it isn't displaying very smart behavior or "overlapping" anything. Sometimes, rarely.

Overall - it missed a lot of spots (as can be seen in the video around edges particularily and some bits in the center). And the "WavePath" navigation seems nonexistent. I observed this with 2 units.

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That's definitely acting strange. Some of that is familiar, but it seems to be "thinking" it ran into a wall, way too soon and way too often. Did you send that video to Aiper? Is your pool extra sloped?
 
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tcat said:
That's definitely acting strange. Some of that is familiar, but it seems to be "thinking" it ran into a wall, way too soon and way too often. Did you send that video to Aiper? Is your pool extra sloped?
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Exactly what I thought also. It does seem to be stopping soon. The behavior of it is sadly very odd indeed. Happens with both units though annoyingly. I wouldnt say its particularly sloped. Sure there's some curve to the edge but the unit is stopping way too soon. Not to mention it seems insanely random. Just huge chunks missing.

Sometimes as its going towards what I think is a linear path - it starts making a C shaped curve randomly. Or it veers off the course entirely. It never goes back to front even once.

Its truly frustrating

Aipers engineers who I'm in touch with did request a video.. lets see.
 

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JackHarkness said:
Exactly what I thought also. It does seem to be stopping soon. The behavior of it is sadly very odd indeed. Happens with both units though annoyingly. I wouldnt say its particularly sloped. Sure there's some curve to the edge but the unit is stopping way too soon. Not to mention it seems insanely random. Just huge chunks missing.

Sometimes as its going towards what I think is a linear path - it starts making a C shaped curve randomly. Or it veers off the course entirely. It never goes back to front even once.

Its truly frustrating

Aipers engineers who I'm in touch with did request a video.. lets see.
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Yes as I watched the Timelapse I didn’t see it make one long linear run at all…Like a car with an alignment issue it clearly has a hard pull to the right creating a constant arc path which would certainly make the attempts to follow the “wave path” algorithm fail. I’m wondering if one of the four motors (front right?) is lagging causing this.

Then there’s the stop short reflex (you & tcat mentioned) which it’s doing way more than mine and that does make it look really random.

And finally a bunch of 360 spinning…I’ve seen mine do a 90 degree change in an attempt to resolve a path issue but it actually looks smart, but those 360s near your drains do not.

It’s unclear if you have some sloping that’s conflicting with it, or if it has a bad gyroscope, or lagging motor, or some combination of these… but I agree that’s not as systematic it should be.
 
tcat said:
Makes sense. The tires aren't as spongy as most robots, so smooth fiberglass and liners could be an issue. Has no issue with Pebbletek. Pretty sure it has something in it's logic like a phone. It senses its orientation at a wall, once it hits say 30 degrees it knows it's a wall. When doing walls it self corrects to vertical even if radius at bottom throws it off angle. Did you try wall mode?
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The phone has accelerometers which I doubt this unit has at it's price point as they would sense a slow down when hitting a wall and then stop. mine just keeps going like there's no wall there until it either catches a wheel and spins or just decides its gone in that direction to long. I'm gonna guess the wall climbing uses the same sensors as the floor. When it gets to the top of the wall wheels will have less traction so less amp draw and the electronics compute that as being above the water line. it might possible have a compass built in that knows which way it's pointing so it has a rough idea what way it's going but without it having defined walls it really don't know where it is at any one time. i noticed some now are coming with distance sensors. this might help program a floor plan of some kind and it knows where it is in the pool. it would be nice to have tech like the mowers have where you can drive the unit around on your phone to mark the locations of walls, jets, skimmers etc etc and then it remembers that so it knows where it is at all times. that would likely require a base station of some kind though. hopefully thats coming in future versions. Pool industry tech is 10 years behind the curve.
 
In floor mode mine stops when it hits a wall or starts going up a radius, then reverses. It's programmed not to run more than about 3' in reverse, it does 90% of it's cleaning going forward because of only 1 front brush. Mine does exactly that, but does probably spend 20% of it's time doing short flaky moves in no particular direction or just rotating. My pool slope is probably 20 degrees and pretty much ignores it. Maybe once in a 3 hour floor cycle it will climb halfway up a wall, rotate for a few seconds and then go back to it's floor thing.

In wall mode it is very methodical. It goes up and down vertically, moving over 12" on the floor, going around the pool clockwise until battery is exhausted.

It cleans more surface than my 10 year old and 2 year old Aquabots, it just doesn't collect the finer "dust", but that's just the 180um filter mesh.
 
JackHarkness said:
Hi - I wanted someone with a S300 to comment! How does it perform?

Also @tcat

Here is the FULL timelapse video. Only 1 minute is cut out - it was dropped on the TOP RIGHT EDGE of the pool - floor only mode. It made its way to the middle-ish of the pool rotated - then went back to the corner as the video shows.. It got stuck on 1 drain and you can see me poking at it with a stick...but besides that.. it isn't displaying very smart behavior or "overlapping" anything. Sometimes, rarely.

Overall - it missed a lot of spots (as can be seen in the video around edges particularily and some bits in the center). And the "WavePath" navigation seems nonexistent. I observed this with 2 units.

Click to expand...
I would send this video to the tech support of Aiper - if they exist. Good feedback can help drive technology improvements.
 
JackHarkness said:
Hi - I wanted someone with a S300 to comment! How does it perform?

Also @tcat

Here is the FULL timelapse video. Only 1 minute is cut out - it was dropped on the TOP RIGHT EDGE of the pool - floor only mode. It made its way to the middle-ish of the pool rotated - then went back to the corner as the video shows.. It got stuck on 1 drain and you can see me poking at it with a stick...but besides that.. it isn't displaying very smart behavior or "overlapping" anything. Sometimes, rarely.

Overall - it missed a lot of spots (as can be seen in the video around edges particularily and some bits in the center). And the "WavePath" navigation seems nonexistent. I observed this with 2 units.

Click to expand...

I have a similar shaped pool, my robot behaves the same. In fact the wall mode doesn't really work at all, the multifunction mode does a better job at wall cleaning the the dedicated wall mode. I also see my robot once it gets into the deep end rarely leaves (basic play pool, 5' deep). I have been working out of town the last few weeks so I haven't been able to spend much time with it, I wished it worked better, it does a great job of cleaning my pebble Tec though with all the fine Az sand/dirt. I am on the fence about returning it, need to check the return window before its tool late.
 
Darkjuju said:
I have a similar shaped pool, my robot behaves the same. In fact the wall mode doesn't really work at all, the multifunction mode does a better job at wall cleaning the the dedicated wall mode. I also see my robot once it gets into the deep end rarely leaves (basic play pool, 5' deep). I have been working out of town the last few weeks so I haven't been able to spend much time with it, I wished it worked better, it does a great job of cleaning my pebble Tec though with all the fine Az sand/dirt. I am on the fence about returning it, need to check the return window before its tool late.
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I'm not here to like spread any Aiper negativity. I would just say as someone who had 3 units (now just 2 units) - and all 3 acted the same - this appears to be a real problem and not just a 1-off. Now, clearly some of us are here with pools that it works amazing for. I think that's fantastic...I wish I was one of those people, but alas fate is cruel!

Sorry to hear it did the same to you, but at least I'm glad I'm not in some bubble. I really did wish the Seagull Pro worked for me - but at $800 - it's little more than an expensive helper robot to manual vacuuming...which is saddening. I wanted a robot that could remove the need for manual vacuuming (Steps excluded, of course). :( So...my search continues.....

Dolphin series - corded next maybe that allows bluetooth phone control? I think that may be the only way to go for me from here. It's corded (bummer) but what it loses out in physicality I am hoping it may make up for in terms of sheer accuracy. If Aiper just made an app that allowed some form of bluetooth control...it may be a Dolphin killer..

Dang, put it in just now for a wall run, just sitting there. Blowers are running, no motion. Pulled it, tried the other 2 modes, just sits there on the floor. 15 minutes nada.
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Sorry @tcat to hear this. I'm sure Aiper will fix it for you or get it fixed yet again. Perhaps the robot is just being a bit weird for 1 cycle? Try again?


For anyone else reading this...either way I think my natural thoughts on this Seagull Pro are decidedly "not worth it," at least for myself. I will update it if the engineers reply to me..let you all know. I suspect the issue however is one that's not an "easy fix," and I most likely will be ignored.
 
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I'm sure mine's going back, will give them one more chance. I tried another full charge, everything works except the wheels. It also makes a faint rapid clicking sound when in off position (ear to exhaust) like a car when the battery is dead and you turn the key, but very faint. My gut says something electrical is not sealed real well.
 
Well, I've gotten completely fed up with it and requested a refund. I had hopes but it's a no-go for me. Everyone at Aiper has been very helpful and polite but there just seems to be too many issues.
 
I just read that Polaris has a new cordless robot but it comes at a higher price - $1400 is what I saw.

Polaris® FREEDOM™ Cordless Robotic Pool Cleaner​


Also, there is one for $1000

Maytronics Dolphin Liberty™ 200 Cordless Robotic Pool Cleaner​

 

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