Robot Recommendations & Questions

[joesc230]

Hi all,

I currently have a Polaris TR35P pressure cleaner (came with the pool when it was built a couple of years ago). It's never done a great job of cleaning the pool. I'm at a point where I'm running it 10 hours a day and there's still a good amount of dirt accumulating on the bottom of the pool. I've contacted Zodiac several times and they keep sending replacement parts, but ultimately nothing has helped. I'm not sure if our pool size is too large for it, but one of the problems is definitely that it does a very poor job of cleaning our steps and can't reach our sun shelf. I've checked it out and it's definitely pulling the water into it, so I also know that it's not a problem with its pump.

For a while I was thinking I should look into getting a better pressure cleaner, but from what I'm seeing online it seems like a robot is the better way to go, as I really like the idea of it not just randomly running around the pool and frequently getting stuck (as our current cleaner tends to do). I also like that it will scrub while cleaning, and that it will also clean the tiles. I have a few questions...

- I've done some searching online and it looks like Dolphin, Aquabot and Polaris have good reputations. Does anyone have a recommendation on a particular robot?

- Based on my schedule, I'd rather leave the unit in the pool all the time and just take it out to clean the filter, etc. Is that a bad idea?

- Do robots have the ability to clean a 6" sun shelf? Or do they need to be fully submersed in water?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Jimrahbe]

Joe,

Keep in mind that not all robots have multi-day timers.

None of them, that I know about, will clean a sun shelf or steps.

Most brands say to take them out after each use, but from a logical side, why would they make multi-day timers if they did not expect you to leave them in.

I don't like to see it in my pool so, in the summer anyway, I almost always take it out when it's done. I don't get a lot of debris so I don't need to run it but once or twice a week anyway.

Thanks,

Jim R.

 

[kevreh]

Where's the dirt coming from? Yes, a robot will do a much better job of scrubbing the pool surface. Your polaris is too new and running too long to have issues like that. So maybe there's a lot of stuff being dumped into the pool, or something not setup right.

I had the Polaris 280 and glad I bought a robot, works a lot better. Between leaving it in all the time or taking it out each time I'm in the middle. I run it 2x, a couple days apart, then take it out and clean the canister and untangle the chord if needed. It stays out till the next cleaning a couple days later.

Btw, you'll probably get decent $ if you sell your polaris and booster pump locally. I've had no problems selling my used equipment via craigslist.

 

[joesc230]

Re: Robot Recommendations & Questions

Where's the dirt coming from? Yes, a robot will do a much better job of scrubbing the pool surface. Your polaris is too new and running too long to have issues like that. So maybe there's a lot of stuff being dumped into the pool, or something not setup right.

I had the Polaris 280 and glad I bought a robot, works a lot better. Between leaving it in all the time or taking it out each time I'm in the middle. I run it 2x, a couple days apart, then take it out and clean the canister and untangle the chord if needed. It stays out till the next cleaning a couple days later.

Btw, you'll probably get decent $ if you sell your polaris and booster pump locally. I've had no problems selling my used equipment via craigslist.

Tree debris and the wind carrying dirt from around my property, as there's not grass everywhere. I took a look at the owner's manual and did the tests related to making sure the RPMs are good and the pressure is good, and everything seems to be checking out. I tried to hang in with it for a while, but am losing my patience with it (especially since I have to manually vacuum anyway because of it not doing a good job). Thanks for the idea about selling it locally...I'll look into that once I get a robot to replace it.

- - - Updated - - -

Joe,

Keep in mind that not all robots have multi-day timers.

None of them, that I know about, will clean a sun shelf or steps.

Most brands say to take them out after each use, but from a logical side, why would they make multi-day timers if they did not expect you to leave them in.

I don't like to see it in my pool so, in the summer anyway, I almost always take it out when it's done. I don't get a lot of debris so I don't need to run it but once or twice a week anyway.

Thanks,

Jim R.

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the info. Good point about the multi-day timer feature. I'll have to make sure the one I get has it. I don't like it in the pool either...maybe if the robot does a good job I won't feel the need to leave it in there.

 

[kevreh]

Keep in mind that the pressure cleaners use venturi to suck debris up. There's no scrubbing of the pool surface like there is with robots (or at least the ones I know of). Maybe the tail, a little. The tail on my 280 was either very active an kicking junk up, or too lethargic. I had to adjust it because when it was too active it would spray water out of the pool.