Anyone dump their Robot?

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L

LameBolus

0
Jul 18, 2007
2
Virginia Beach
:rant:
I have had my Aquabot a month or so and realized, it upsets me. It upsets me that it doesn't really clean all that well. It upsets me that it misses the part of the pool that collects all of the debris. It upsets me that it gets stuck on the stairs and goes sidways against the ladders. It upsets me that it doesn't go to the deep end. It upsets me it gets caught on the main drain. Maybe I had unrealistic expectations, but I thought I was paying for a machine I could dump in the pool and 5 hours later I had a clean pool.
:rant:

Sooooo.......Anyone go old school and go back to the hoses, vacs and brushes? I will be tonight as I have to clean the areas that the Aquabot missed.
 
My feeling on robots are that the only ones that really clean the whole pool are the ones with the remote control so you can drive them where thay are needed.
That being said I have to say that I have not manually vacuumed my pool once since I installed my pressure side cleaner! It even climbs and cleans the steps in the shallow end except for the top one. The only manual cleaning I need to do is brushing the top step and the swim ledge in the deep end (although my cleaner does make it up to the swim ledge every so often, just not often enough.)
 
I think someone mentioned they got a pole to steer their robotic to the spots missed. I just give mine plenty of time to clean what it will, then wait for it to climb the wall, abduct the little booger and point it in the direction of the dirty spots it's missed. It covers most of the pool - I'm just happy it's self-contained and picks up all the poofy sandy stuff off the bottom and doesn't allow it to go back into the pool. My suction-side Zodiac Ranger couldn't do that, since it sends stuff through the hose into the skimmer and right back into the pool!

As I understand it, Aquabot now has a Turbo that you can tell it to just stay on the bottom of the pool too, as well as remote-contolled.
 
Ya, I dumped my bot. I had a Polaris 65, still have it, in fact, packed up in a box. It just required way too much supervision to be truly effective and lots of fiddling with its insides. It would get stuck against a pool wall, back up, go forward, get stuck again. Over and over and over, made me crazy just watching it lose its mind. In the end, I spent more time babysitting the Polaris than it ever takes to vacuum manually. Besides, I enjoy vacuuming, kind of the Zen of pool maintenance :)
 
Had them all...

2005, 2006: Aquabot Turbo
The Aquabot turbo was nothing but nothing but trouble. It got stuck on the main drain, stairs, return lines. It would eat it's own power cord when cleaning the water line. Far from drop it in and forget it.

2006, 2007: Aquabot Pool Rover Plus
Same concept as a robotic but simpler, wheels instead of tracks and no fancy programming. doesn't climb walls and doesn't do the waterline. It just does k turns in the water. This cleaner worked great.

2007, 2008: thepoolcleaner pressure
Good but not great... It stays in the pool so it's constantly rolling around picking up debris... but stayed in the deep end for the most part. Does not "polish" the water

2009: Nitro Wall Climber

Just ordered this unit. It's been getting good reviews here and figured for $500 I'd try it...
 
I'm just curious about something, for those who own/have owned Aquabots. Do you turn your pump off while it's running?

I would be a lot happier with ours if it DID NOT climb the walls at all - would prefer it stay on the pool floor the whole time!
 
Cherie said:
I'm just curious about something, for those who own/have owned Aquabots. Do you turn your pump off while it's running?

I would be a lot happier with ours if it DID NOT climb the walls at all - would prefer it stay on the pool floor the whole time!
Click to expand...

I kept the pump on...

If you want a cleaner that stays just on the bottom of the pool get an Aquabot Pool Rover plus (also sold as the iRobot Verro 300 or the Aquajet or aqua turbo jet) or a Nitro.
 
Can't afford any of those yet. We bought our bot very used and cheap! We're very happy with how well it cleans, although it doesn't get the whole pool. But it would go faster if it would stay off the walls. BTW, I read in the instructions that I found online somewhere that we're supposed to be turning the pool off. Not sure why. I've done it both ways and see no difference.
 
Which is why I bought a Blue Diamond. I actually LOVE it. The robot coupled with a Poolbuster is a perfect combo but not cheap.

I HATED my Dolphins and I owned 3 of them. All pale in comparison to the performance of the BD.
 

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I have a Aquabot Turbo T4 RC. Other than occasionally getting stuck on the main drain, it cleans the floor and sides (all the way up to the water line!) well. I have only used the RC feature a couple of times when I wanted it clean quickly before company. We built a 75' lap pool, with only two ladders (no stairs, benches, etc.), so maybe that is why it works for me. After 3 years, the pump had to be repaired (still under warranty at a percentage) and I thought I would go crazy hand vacuuming while it was gone! I almost kissed it when it came back. Lol! I would not want to be without this machine! I guess you're a lover or a hater.
 
bagiver2, do you turn your pump off when using your bot? I've read lots of reviews where it gets stuck on the main drain and I'm wondering if it gets stuck because the pump is still on. The instructions say to turn the pump off. We don't have a main drain. And we use ours on a buried Doughboy pool with two returns and one skimmer, even though it was intended for an inground pool. It's never gotten stuck on anything though. I've run it with the pump on and off. But since it serves as a self-contained filter, as well as stirring up the water in the deep end, I turn our pump off to save even more electricity while the bot is running.
 
I have the Aquabot Turbo 2 (200 series) and couldn't live without it when it comes to cleaning my pool. I always turn the pool off when I put him in the water - lets particles settle to the bottom so "robby" can scoop them up. My particular model comes with an additional four different cleaning programs, but the factory pre-set program does an excellent job of cleaning my pool. Over the past three years I have used "robby", I have only needed to replace one of the drive tracks. At the same time, it was recommended I replace the drive belt, and I did. According to my manual, the robots SHOULD clean your entire pool, if it isn't, you should refer to your manuals for reasons why it isn't. Some models come with extra floatation devices which can be added to the robot to make it climb the walls better, skip over bottom drains, go around ladders, returns, etc. If the robot climbs the walls up to the waterline and moves left or right before reversing, it is working properly. The 100 Series cleaning patterns can be changed by adjusting the foam float located on the floating handle. Myself, when my "robby" bites the dust, he will be replaced with another Aquabot Turbo. He was well worth the big bucks I paid for him. I have never had to Manually clean my pool with the vac.
 
Has anyone ever heard of a 'try before you buy' deal on these robots? Or perhaps outfits that rent them out for periods of time? It seems so split on how they work - I'd really hate to buy one and then be disappointed - especially in this economy. I don't mind manually vacuuming for maintenance - but at opening it sure would be helpful. And it's getting harder for me to get the manual vac line plugged into the wall inlet - getting old! ;o)
 
I have a aquabot pool rover plus and absolutely love it. It never gets stuck on anything but I don't have a bottom drain. It works better if you can reverse the turn rotation half way through the cycle to keep the cord from getting so tangled up. I just hope they have a rechargeable version by the time I need to replace mine!!! By the way, I haven't manually vacuum in several years :-D
 
LameBolus said:
:rant:
I have had my Aquabot a month or so and realized, it upsets me. It upsets me that it doesn't really clean all that well. It upsets me that it misses the part of the pool that collects all of the debris. It upsets me that it gets stuck on the stairs and goes sidways against the ladders. It upsets me that it doesn't go to the deep end. It upsets me it gets caught on the main drain. Maybe I had unrealistic expectations, but I thought I was paying for a machine I could dump in the pool and 5 hours later I had a clean pool.
:rant:
.
Click to expand...
Interesting. We bought a robot exactly so that it can and will do what you described above.
The Blue Diamond we just got a month ago does everything very well, aside from 1 thing: it will only go up one step and won't bother with 2 more. Small price to pay when compared to what it does do correctly.
I can see why some of you may not be pleased with robots, but I mainly wonder this:

Do you think it's the robot you own/tried or the pool+conditions which make the total solution ineffective (one way or another)?
-99
 
I could not live without my Aquabot T2.

It does an amazing job cleaning the entire pool. I have an IG 18 x 38 liner...

Before this there were always spots I couldnt vacuum well.
It definitely takes more than the 1 hour advertised though. He misses some spots unless you leave him in there for 2 or 3 hours. But if you do, he will get every single spec of dirt in the pool.

Sometimes I take the ladder out of the pool, but most of the time I dont bother.

Sometimes I turn off the filter, but its not needed. He is 3 years old and still no problems. Once he ate his cord which was a pain in the Rear but easy enough to fix. And a few times his impellar stopped spinning which made him tip over because he wasnt blowing out water. But I just cleaned him out and he was good to go.

Quick tip. I normally leave 90% of his chord outside of the pool. He will drag in what he needs. Otherwise too much chord gets tangled in the pool and you risk bad things happening. Other than that, knock on wood its been an amazing tool to keep my pool spotless.

My wife calls it, "Sam the pool cleaning man" :)
 

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