EVO 614 iq Warranty Work - Spins and Stays in Small Area

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Gigem94

Gold Supporter
Sep 4, 2016
63
Houston, TX
Hi TFP, I bought the Evo614iQ back in Nov 2023 from Marina Pool and Spa. For the most part it’s been a decent cleaner, but 8mo or so later, I started having an issue where the cord would become really tangled(eg after a couple of runs or so), and the unit had been leaving more debris than usual on the floor. I would straighten the cord and the same would happen again. I decided to randomly monitor the cleaning activity during run time and what I found was my robot seemed to only cover a very small portion of the pool, and went spinning in circles (one way or the other, or both) randomly, then run a few feet, then spin a few more times - and basically not doing much of a pool run. I’ll see if I can figure out how to upload a video.

I chimed in on this thread: New EVO 614i Robot Pool Cleaner Review to see if others had similar experience, and found that @shawnrw had the same issue. Looks also like @Imageek2 is starting to see the same. I messaged Shawnrw separately asking about the cause and he said they replaced the drive unit and so far it’s operating normal.

I wanted to also share some guidance on my warranty experience. So I called the call Aqua Products Support # (which is Fluidra, the corp support team) and explained the situation to their technical team. There told me the best thing to do would be to take the unit in for warranty at a local service center, to which they helped me locate one near me, which happens to be one was one of the several Leslies stores near me in Houston. Long story short, Leslies is not an authorized center, so that was a giant waste of time. Frustrated, I went to the Aqua Products support page and called the only service center in Texas and explained my situation. FYI, those service center options are here: Service Centers | Aqua Products. I called the one in TX and had explained my situation to one of their tech leads. He confirmed with me that there are only 8 service centers in the nation, and that if you take it to anyone else, he believed they just ship it over to one of the service centers on that site.

So $100 in UPS shipping later, my unit is on it’s way to the only service center in Texas; hopefully I’ll have it back one day soon. I’ll post more on the experience, but definitely would think twice about buying a robot without having local support for it. Hopefully I can get through the warranty period (2yrs from date of purchase) and will be on to a new investment.
 
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Thanks for sharing this, it will be curious to see the final result. When I bought my 1st robot, a Maytronics Active 30i, I bought locally but paid significantly more than at Marina's, But I needed warrantee work and they replaced the motor and cord, it lasted another 4 seasons, when again the motor died. I also bought the wrong unit, I should have bought the Active 20, but I was upsold and not educated. Now I have bought the Evo 614 from recommendation from Marina's. But if I need warrantee work it will be a mistake, I should have bought locally. If it lasts longer than warrantee it will be a good deal. I am liking the cleaner much more as I learn more about it, just wish it had a program where I could run 3 runs in a night, which I can accomplish from the Automation mode and a smart plug. Most stores that sell Active 20 do not know about Automation mode.
 
Thanks @Gigem94 for posting your warranty experience. Can you provide more detail about your Leslie's response to servicing the Evo? My Leslie's told me they would service it if I needed it. The manager confirmed it was made by Polaris and said no problem. Marina and a contact at Fluidra/Aqua Products also said Leslie's would service it. Sounds like there's a major disconnect between Leslie's and Fluidra/Aqua Products regarding service. I'm amazed you actually reached someone at Fluidra/Aqua Products! Good luck and hope your Evo is returned soon and working properly again.
 
djpool21 said:
Thanks @Gigem94 for posting your warranty experience. Can you provide more detail about your Leslie's response to servicing the Evo? My Leslie's told me they would service it if I needed it. The manager confirmed it was made by Polaris and said no problem. Marina and a contact at Fluidra/Aqua Products also said Leslie's would service it. Sounds like there's a major disconnect between Leslie's and Fluidra/Aqua Products regarding service. I'm amazed you actually reached someone at Fluidra/Aqua Products! Good luck and hope your Evo is returned soon and working properly again.
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Agree on the disconnect for sure. After chatting with the Fluidra/Aqua team, I called my closest Leslie's and explained my situation, since I've never had any robot warranty ever done before. I told the tech I spoke with the manufacturer who said Leslie's can do the warranty work and he said great, just bring it in and we'll get it diagnosed and working under warranty. I dropped off the unit, with my receipt from Marina's for proof of purchase, re-explained the problem to the same guy I spoke to on the phone, and left not feeling super confident (the tech took no notes on anything); He asked me to call back every 2-3 days inquiring about the status, so in 2 days I called and they had not touched it; called in another 2 days and still had not touched it, but said he would and would get back with me that afternoon. Crickets that afternoon so I called again 2 days later, and that tech I spoke with (and apparently is the only tech there) was off for 3 days; I asked to speak with the manager and he was unreachable and he would never call me back, not would anyone for that matter. Another 2 days later, I called and speak with a gal there who tells me I should only speak with the manager, and can be reached at another Leslies store. Tried that store, and no one would answer the phone, and I tried several times over several days. Another day later, I called back to original store and the gal answers, and repeats the line about talking with said manger, and coincidentally the manger calls her on a separate line. He basically told her "we can't work on this unit because we don't have the unit in our system and therefore have no way to contact the manufacturer for warranty work ;nor do we know how to work on the unit" So it was about 10 or so days wasting my time and being lied to throughout. I shoulda known better with Leslies, not that I needed to be reminded why I never enter their store in the first place.
 
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Update for everyone. So I had shipped the unit to Aqua Service Distributor in Seguin, TX after calling them and explaining my situation. The received the unit on Tue, troubleshot the details, communicated daily with me and had the unit repaired and being shipped back to me 1 week after I sent it to them. I can't tell you how pleased I was with the experience and quick turnaround in dealing with Aqua Service Distributor (specifically Robert the tech who was great.). The problem he determined was in these units there is a mercury switch that shifts when the robot climbs the wall, and that the one in my unit was getting stuck. He replaced the entire motor to provide the fix. Hopefully this helps out any other EVO 614 owners when they have this issue.

Ironically the day after I shipped the unit to Robert, I received an email from Aqua Products/Fluidra asking me to review the EVO to which I detailed out my recent experience with the unit and support frustrations. I'm guessing I received the email because I completed the registration online just in case I had any warranty issues - at any rate It was timely. While I expected my review to go in to some black hole deleted bin in the ether, I actually received an email from Fluidra apologizing and offering me a 'care package' for my troubles and the $100 in shipping. We will see what really happens here, and I have no expectations other than having a reliable cleaner for my pool back from Robert.
 
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So mine has just started doing the thing you've complained about. Also purchased from Marina. It sounds like I should try to reach out to my local Leslie's and hope they are able to do the repair. Did you happen to get a good contact at Flurida? Would be nice to reach out to a warm body.
 
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My suggestion for the least frustration method on any warranty work would be to send it to one of the Aqua Service Centers of which Marina's is one of them, but I chose the closest one to me in hopes of fastest shipping. The one in TX literally troubleshot my unit and had it repaired and shipping back to me in a week; whereas with Leslies, assuming they are on their game (I've yet to find one that is), they would troubleshoot, and then assuming they have the problem diagnosed properly would have to request parts from Aqua (I'm guessing from one of the service centers), then get it installed, tested and hope they got it right, or keep repeating until they did. Or, Leslie's may just ship the unit to one of the SC and let them deal with it, which will take some time.

My goal was to get my robot back in my pool as quickly as possible so I could minimize manual vacuuming, which isn't all that fun in the TX 100+ weather.

The only hang up we had with the Aqua SC in Seguin, TX was the Fedex pickup never came by regularly so they had to drop the unit at an Office Depot fedex drop spot, but I don't fault them for that, as it's a smaller town in TX.

My unit made it's first run this morning on schedule and works just like it's supposed to.

As for Fluidra, I have no actual contacts there, just a generic email; and I'd bet anyone there will direct you to a warranty place.
 
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Leslie's repaired mine but then it had another problem shortly thereafter. They repaired it again. I don't think it's ever worked as well since the first repair. I plan on calling Fluidra next to see if there's any help there.
 
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