Matronic Dolphin Quantum works for me

[Danowolf]

I was hesitant to call this a review as I don't have the details many do.
I purchased my Dolphin Quantum robotic pool cleaner from poolexpress.com for 947.00. Shipping to central FL was 17.63 no tax as it was online out of state.
Delivery via FedEx was on time. No damage to the box. Well packaged with good cardboard design to protect the unit.
Read safety book and quickstart guide, plugged it into power supply unit and dropped in the pool. Plugged in the power supply unit and pressed power and #1 which I believe cleans once daily.
Once I have the pool cleaned three days in a row I will scale back the cleaning to every three days. I have a screen enclosure but I have pine needles that get through the screen (amazing how sneaky those pine needles can be).
The first cycle took about 2.5-3 hours (I did not time it exactly, this is an approximation). Cleaned all the pine needles that had gathered from a month with no cleaning (since hurricane passed). Left the water cloudy but that's to be expected due to all the debris it picked up. It did have a lot of sand it picked up. I will be interested to see how much sand it keeps picking up and wonder where that is coming from. Maybe I will wash the sand and examine it to see if its mostly from the yard or pool coming loose which I do have some areas crumbling. My pool is ready for a new coating wall of plaster or whatever. When we purchased the house in 2009 it was in poor shape with the pool covered by a wood and rusty metal screen like they use to strengthen concrete slabs to prevent anyone from falling in. It was green and full of debris that had to be pumped out and then manually dug out and removed. So the coating is in rough shape. I'm amazed it cleaned up as well as it did.

So my thoughts:
1. Super easy to unbox and get started.
2. Ready to go out of the box, no assembly other than connecting the power supply.
3. First cleaning was fast and thorough.
4. Cleaning out the filter box/assembly(it can be taken apart and different sized filters used hence "assembly") was a simple as flipping open the lid, removing filter assembly(the handle flips up and is ready to be pulled out) turning assembly upside down and rinsing with hose water. EZ.
5. I did notice upon inspection of the robot wheels pine needs wrapped around the wheels like thread does on a vacuum cleaner beater brush. I simply removed the wrapped pine needles and tossed them EZ.
6. It is not that heavy. Also, the directions say not to pull it up with the cord, I get that instruction but given a little light testing I could tell the cleaner is more than buoyant enough to be brought to poolside with the cord, safely.

I'm thrilled, it works faster and better than my Barracuda G3 did and this is less garbage in the filter and pump. I believe I can also turn off or adjust the pump to remove the cleaning run the G3 used. I will have to research that.

 

[borjis]

ya those pesky pine needles!

I believe the part about pulling the cord only means don't pull it out of the
water, use the handle. The instructions on my Dolphin E10 said that.

Isn't it great having a robot?

 

[Danowolf]

The second night (last night) I ran the Quantum and of course it works nicely. I followed it around in the water and filmed it at night. I will post. It works amazingly well and crawling up the wall and using a side jet of water to move to the right and scrub the tiles! I love that. It also has a blue light that flashes while it runs. If you run this at night it will create a little flashing glow in the pool that may be distracting if your watching TV or trying to sleep and are near the pool. Kind of like the flashing motel sign outside the window....

 

[Danowolf]

Link to the video: https://youtu.be/SlzAvmqsLHQ

The water looks green in the video but it is blue.
You can see the damage that was present after we purchased the house and cleaned the pool. After an acid wash (or three over 4 years) you can see the most damage around the main drain. You can also see random large brown rust spots caused by 16 penny nails that the carpenter dropped into the pool when building the protective frame over the pool to prevent accidents while it was up for sale. This was a bank sale hence the rough treatment.
We have a plan to get the surface redone this year. I will be asking about recommendations for surfaces soon.

I will post pool chemistry tomorrow.

 

[borjis]

I was wondering about that. The unit looks like it has some kind of headlight.
Neat.

 

[Holydoc]

I am baffled by the blue light.

I guess it is so you can look out your window and see if the cleaner is done? Thanks for the video.

 

[bmoreswim]

If you were swimming at night with no pool light the LED light would help you know it’s whereabouts to keep you from getting tangled in the cord?

But really it’s because it looks [emoji41].

 

[JoyfulNoise]

On the S300i you can change the LED from blinking to continuous and you can set the LED color (red, blue or green). You can only do this from the App when the robot is actually running. I have no idea why they chose to make that a user-programmable option, but it’s there.