dolphin pool robot

[medic2051]

PB suggested a dolphin robot for our fiberglass 16x35 pool. Said it was the best. Any thoughts? (he's not selling the item to us, just suggested it)

 

[bestlandlord]

check my post under "suction side automatic pool vac for IG pool" below. I have a dolphin by smartpool "two thumbs down"
However there may be a good robot out there that someone on this site can recommend.

 

[NWMNMom]

Lots of issues posted here and on the PF about Dolphins. Several have said they really liked the Blue Pearls, Pool Rovers and Blue Diamonds.

 

[cruzmisl]

Dolphin is garbage. I had two, both failed and customer service is miserable.

The Blue Diamond however is totally different. Works wonderfully and the customer service is excellent.

 

[JasonLion]

There are many people who are happy with their Dolphins. I love mine. But when you do have a problem it seems to be very difficult to get it solved. That said, I have yet to hear anything bad about the Blue Diamond or Blue Pearl. Of course you have to scale that by the fact that many people have Dolphins and comaratively few people have a Blue Diamond/Pearl.

 

[RavenNS]

I Love my Dolphin
seems like most everyone on these forums is always putting them down though.

If you want to hear a negative about "Blue", see CarlD's posts on the other forum.
he liked it but was disappointed that he always has to remove his ladders and if you don't have a rectangular pool, the " Blue" won't clean it according to the manual; (so I hear)

 

[Buggsw]

I hava a Blue Diamond and a pool that is an irregular shape. Sort of like an artists palette or a grand piano. My BD works like a charm. I did have a problem with it getting cornered at my wedding cake steps, but I got that taken care of. I think a lot of the Blue Pearl users raved about theirs and had pools of all shapes and sizes.

 

[cruzmisl]

I too was a happy Dolphin customer but the reality is that the Diamond is lighter, cleans better, faster and easier to clean. My Diagnosticc quit in the first year and had it serviced then it worked fine. I gave that to my Dad last year and bought a Dynamic which also worked fine. I opened my pool this year and my Dynamic wouldn't climb the walls and my Dad's Diagnostic worked for 30 seconds and then quit. I emailed Smartpools for a service rep and got an email reply 10 days later with a phone number to call them.......Given the history though I'm lucky I got a reply at all.

This is just my opinion.

 

[west1745]

There are many people who are happy with their Dolphins. I love mine. But when you do have a problem it seems to be very difficult to get it solved. That said, I have yet to hear anything bad about the Blue Diamond or Blue Pearl. Of course you have to scale that by the fact that many people have Dolphins and comaratively few people have a Blue Diamond/Pearl.

I also love my Dolphin - am going on the third year with it. So far so good.

One thing I would like to say is that I have taken good care of it - I rinse it with fresh water, keep the bag clean and always check the impeller before putting it in - sometimes the impeller gets stuck and so I loosen it and even spray it with lubricant.

Also, I frequently use a leaf rake or brush instead of just dumping in the Dolphin - so minimize its use.

The thing I love about it, which probably goes for many of the robots, is that when you want the pool REALLY clean right now it does an amazing job - makes it look brand new. And it does not dump all the stuff into the cartridge - would rather clean a Dolphin bag any day than have to pull the cartridge off from one of those Barracuda type things - and we have the Blaster now to clean the cartridge. I think this was the biggest selling point for me to get a robot - is that it is right now very clean and self contained with the mess. And no unslighly cord running all the time. When not in use it goes on its cart.

 

[mixsig]

If you want a dolphin and are worried about reliability then just pick it up at Costco where you've got a great return policy. I've had mine for over two years. It works. It cleans effectively. As long as you don't have it in wall climbing mode it can clean the pool relatively quickly. If you do need the waterline cleaned it does a good job.