Robots That Handle Newer Main Drains

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mhosborn

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Jul 2, 2011
312
Broken Arrow, OK (Tulsa)
I'll be investing in a new robot this year upon opening the pool in April, and am reaching out for any recommendations here.

Our Dolphin DX-4 robot really only worked well its first year (it's 5 years old now). It's been plagued with power supply failures (went thru 3 of them), but none since I started putting a cover over it when it's out of the pool.

The biggest issue for the last three years has been its uncanny ability to get "stuck" on the main drains. When it gets hung up on one (yep...we've got 2 main drains....double the fun!) it spins around, sometimes for as long as 10-15 minutes.

So I'll be wanting a new robot that's less likely to get "trapped" on the main drain.

It seems, from my readings here, that the Maytronics M-500 might be the least likely to get hung up on the drains because of it's "dual drive". I like this feature, and the fact it's got a top-loading filter. I also like that it's got the swivel cord on it. (LOL....I suspect that if our DX-4 didn't have the swivel, it would have pulled the power supply out of the socket at some point).

My hesitation about the M-500 is its size...it seems huge. Our pool is only 12,000 gallons, so it won't have a lot of ground to cover when it cleans. I'm wondering if there's another robot model I should be looking at that's not quite so enormous, yet won't get caught on the drains?

Advice and suggestions, as always, are welcome!
 
Joyful...thanks for those tips.

The main drain clip-on web site admits that robot cleaners have mixed results, with some seeing improvement, some seeing their robot getting stuck even more.

The UniBridge cover might be something to look at, but I'm not convinced it will work well for us. Our pool doesn't have a deep end, so the kiddos are always contacting the drain covers.
 
Buy M500 and forget about of robot.
Climbing or no...
Cleaning or no.
Stuck or no...
You can easily find with $1299+tax

if you have any dolphin dealer near your location, most of them have demo. You can try 2-3 days...
 
The M500 would be overkill for your pool. I have an S300i with standard drain covers and my robot works fine. If it hits the drain cover it might, might, get stuck for 20-30 seconds and then power thrusts itself off (it uses a combination of treads and water jets to turn). It’s never been a problem.
 
Dolphin is by far more popular and Polaris has had more bad reviews here than good ones. Dolphin has been in to powered robotic cleaner (ie, not pool pump operated) much longer than any other vendor. Their product engineering is years ahead of anyone else in the game.

- - - Updated - - -

If I were to be forced to buy a pressure cleaner, I would go with Polaris. If I were to go with a suction cleaner, I’d go with Hayward or Pentair. Robots are Dolphin all the way...
 
My pool came with a Polaris 9350. Since I didn’t do any research before hand I really wasn’t sure of it’s reputation. But I will say that I have been happy with hours. I changed the filter to the super fine filter and it’s picked up a lot. Two observations: 1) there seems to be a timer that turns it off after some run time. I haven’t quite figured out what it is? 2) the lift system is annoying. I can’t quite seem to figure out how the sequence of buttons to push. One bonus observation: the robot seem to be a little lost today, vacuuming the same spot for a good while. I finally convinced it to move along and all was good. It picked up a LOT of sand since I changed it to the fine silt filter. Since mine is a new build, no grass has grown so a lot of the fill sand for the yard makes it into the pool.
 

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Just a follow up to earlier posts...

On a whim, I emailed Maytronics US customer service to learn what they'd recommend for a robot that's less likely to get hung up on main drains. They replied a day later and said they'd recommend the M400, as it has a bottom brush that spins faster than the drive brushes.
 
mhosborn said:
Just a follow up to earlier posts...

On a whim, I emailed Maytronics US customer service to learn what they'd recommend for a robot that's less likely to get hung up on main drains. They replied a day later and said they'd recommend the M400, as it has a bottom brush that spins faster than the drive brushes.
Click to expand...

That may work. Dolphin Oasis Z5 probably be just fine too for less money. I have smartpool cleaner with dual drive. It gets itself off the main drains and much cheaper than the dolphins. Don't know how long it will last but so far its holding up.
 
I hope I can assist, I'm part of the Maytronics US sales team. I won't be able to be on the site consistently and I may not respond to PM's as quickly as I'd like but I want to make sure the info shared on this site is accurate.

The M400 and M500 are built on the same chassis. They both have the center scrubbing brush and will perform identically. They will absolutely not get caught on main drains.

The benefit of the M500 is in the customization of cleaning patterns. (Floor only, Wall only, Ultra Clean, Quick Clean, etc.) The M500 will also have an additional year of warranty (4 years total) when the warranty is registered online using a code provided by an authorized dealer.

On a side note, turning off the main drains will allow the S-series and Active Series cleaners to more easily navigate off of the drain should they get high-centered during the cleaning cycle.
 
Our 3 yr old Dolphin Triton runs a complete cycle of 3 hours, 3-4 times a week year round and it has yet to fail on me. It scrubs the tiles, climb the steps, ledge and sun shelf with ease.
We originally have 2 Hayward main drain like this but a couple of months ago, the Plaster guy replaced them with this. I was so worried, thought my robot will get stuck on it! But nah...I was wrong! It was built like a tank. If it die now, I'll buy the same model in a heartbeat. Good luck!

https://www.poolzoom.com/dolphin-tr...MIruy_ooCQ2QIVR5V-Ch0QkwbMEAQYASABEgKNv_D_BwE
 
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