Aquabot cleaner problems--stretched drive belt?

[balagon]

I'm having problems with a recently purchased Aquabot Turbo T robotic cleaner--maybe someone has had a similar experience?

After about a month and a half of use, the cleaner has developed a clicking noise. The cleaner is also moving more slowly, and does not move horizontally along the waterline when it comes up to the top of the pool. You can imagine how I feel about this after using the thing maybe 10 times I have an inground gunite pool using chlorine.

The Aquabot people say this is probably due to a stretched drive belt. That confirms a description of the problem that I read in an Epinions review of the Aquabot, at least for the clicking noise. Has anyone else had this type of experience?

The drive belts are not under the year-long warranty--their expected lifetime is one season (3 months). That's certainly not something that I ever saw mentioned anywhere! After a lengthy and stubborn phone session, I did get Aquabot to send out a new set gratis, arguing that 1.5 months on a brand new unit was an awfully short time for a $1k piece of machinery to fail. They suggested that washing off the unit in fresh water after use, or even immersing it in fresh water, would help prolong the life of the components. That makes sense--I can't help but wonder why they don't include that little bit of helpful maintenance advice in the user manual or DVD.

 

[mbar]

Aquabot reaally needs to improve on it's customer service. I have an Aquabot Bravo purchased at the end of the season of 2005. It already broke twice, and the bravo has a 4 year warranty. I have received new parts, but the customer service is a pain = not to mention packing up and sending the bot back . It is the second aquabot I purchased - the first was a regular one I had 6 years, and I was not happy with the expensive parts or customer service - but I loved it while it worked. When the bot died it's sad death, we went with the bravo because of the 4 year warranty. It is great when it works too :lol: When the 4 years are up, and this one dies, I will do more research on the cleaners. I am just spoiled, because when it works, there is nothing like it. I know the belts go pretty fast, but they are not hard to change. Make sure you are changing the direction of the handle so that it doesn't go in the same direction all the time - it will help the belts last longer. It also helps to make sure it doesn't get stuck anywhere in the pool - that seems to wear out the belts too. I have noticed if you keep at the aquabot customer service they will usually do what is right - it's just a pain to keep asking :x

 

[balagon]

Thanks. Glad to know that the belts are easy to replace. Any suggestions on a good source to get them cheap? I do switch the handle direction--that seems to be the one thing that gets hammered into your head about the robotics.

It's difficult to do research on the robotics, since there just aren't that many owners. For that matter, it's tough to do research on any cleaner, since performance really seems to vary from pool to pool.

 

[JFon101231]

Bringing this back from the dead. I'm not thrilled with the Aquabot Turbo T2 I bought new last year, but not 100% sure whether it is because of damage that occurred shortly after.

My son left his goggles in the pool and it sucked them up, and who knows how long it was chewing on it. It popped off one of the ring clips on the side, replaced easy enough from hardware store then thought I was back in business. I used a regular steel clip rather than SS, and apparently rusted and snapped/disappeared in short order. Went to LPD and they sold me an e-clip instead in SS, seems to work fine. Shortly after realized it still wasn't running correctly as a result, and upon further inspection found the drive belts had a lot of missing 'teeth', which I guess made sense as motor was running but tracks weren't able to. Replaced both (last fall) and thought were were in the money.
Finally got patio done this spring so MUCH less sand/dirt getting into the pool and thought we'd be home free and the fact that it didn't always clean everywhere wouldn't be so obvious with less overall dirt in there. Lost another e-clip for whatever reason, didn't see in pool anywhere... I notice that one side (forget if it was drive side or "follow" side that doesn't have drive belt) of the blue G tooth tracks isn't moving as fast as other side and basically it was turning in an arc instead of a straight line. Replaced that side (and bought a spare) and thought all was good. It still seems that all is not 100%, in that one side doesn't seem to be exactly the same as the other. Pull it out of the water for a few seconds and I can hear a 'clicking' type sound. When turned off and rotating the brush tubes by hand, I can make the belt skip a tooth on the gear - is that normal? I'm assuming that is the clicking sound I'm hearing but perhaps not? If 1 blue track is new, the other looks fine, and both off-clear drive belts were replaced last year, shouldn't all be fine? I don't see anything that seems to be binding etc...

I like to fix things myself but about to throw in towel here. Not thrilled with customer service at LPD that built the pool (they sold my wife the one tracks and for 3 though she only bought 2 this last time), nor excited to box it up and ship somewhere but don't want to ruin this $1k thing either but would sure like a clean pool and not having to worry about whether its eating itself alive on the bottom of my pool by the hour

 

[Chrissykr]

Sorry this is happening. I know first hand the disappointment when your expensive robot doesn't work out.

Thanks for the review, I am looking at new robots and my pool people sell AquaBot and they are pushing me on the one that is exclusive to them. I just don't feel it and after my robot experience I am feeling like going through them would just be easier if there are issues. Getting reviews on the various models tells me to go with my gut feeling and keep looking.