smart pool wall scrubber and wall climber

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R

robl45

Well-known member
Oct 27, 2007
918
Parkland, FL
I searched and found some info on these, but curious if anyone has had one of them for awhile and what the reliability is like. they are cheap, I like that, and they are user servicable, if something breaks, at least I can order a part and drop it in. This might be the ticket as I really don't want a suction cleaner.

So can anyone talk about the how they work for them and how they have lasted? I read a lot of reviews saying they need warranty work alot. closest service center is an hour away for me.

Will they just mail parts to you for warranty? I'm guessing no?

think this probably better than the jet cleaners for me because at least these have a chance of climbing the walls.
 
anyone know the cheapest place to buy this? nationalpoolwholesalers is very cheap, but they are florida based so I have to pay tax. nationaldiscountpoolsupplies was 599 after 100 dollar off coupon but they seem to have raised the price to 699 now after coupon. for 599 it was a heck of a deal especially since cheapest refurbished is 517 that I can find and that has 1 year warranty and not 2 years. I'm talking about the wallscrubber model and not the wall climber model.
 
I'm not really sure which cleaner you are referencing, but we have a Smart Pool Nitro Wall Climber (model NC 51--the black one, not the blue one) and we love ours. It does a great job cleaning. It climbs walls as advertised and ours does all of the things that Smart Pool shows on their You Tube videos. We did a lot of research (Amazon, Online Pool stores, TFP, You Tube Videos, etc.) and are very happy with our purchase. The bag is easy to clean and it catches almost all of teh dirt-even grains of sand. Our Nitro does not get stuck on the steps or ladder. We bought a refurbished one (google for where to buy because I can't remember where we purchased ours without doing a bit of research) and it worked great for about 3 weeks, then had it died. We called Smart Pool and they covered it under warranty. They even paid return shipping so none of the repairs costed us anything. It has worked as advertised ever since the repairs. The cool thing is that every part is replacable and the only tool you need is a phillips screwdriver. They also have videos of how to replace all parts yourself. (monkey see monkey do) We're very happy with our Nitro. If this is not the one you are shopping, then sorry about the waste of time.
 
thanks for the info, I"m looking for cheapest place to the buy the NC71 one though, the nitro wall scrubber they call it. it seems the refurbished ones only have one year warranty from what I can tell, is that the case with yours?

kenandshari said:
I'm not really sure which cleaner you are referencing, but we have a Smart Pool Nitro Wall Climber (model NC 51--the black one, not the blue one) and we love ours. It does a great job cleaning. It climbs walls as advertised and ours does all of the things that Smart Pool shows on their You Tube videos. We did a lot of research (Amazon, Online Pool stores, TFP, You Tube Videos, etc.) and are very happy with our purchase. The bag is easy to clean and it catches almost all of teh dirt-even grains of sand. Our Nitro does not get stuck on the steps or ladder. We bought a refurbished one (google for where to buy because I can't remember where we purchased ours without doing a bit of research) and it worked great for about 3 weeks, then had it died. We called Smart Pool and they covered it under warranty. They even paid return shipping so none of the repairs costed us anything. It has worked as advertised ever since the repairs. The cool thing is that every part is replacable and the only tool you need is a phillips screwdriver. They also have videos of how to replace all parts yourself. (monkey see monkey do) We're very happy with our Nitro. If this is not the one you are shopping, then sorry about the waste of time.
Click to expand...
 
The NC-71 is a step up from what we have. It looks like it has the cleaning rollers front and rear instead of just rear like our Nitro does. Ours came with a 1 year waranty, but we saved about half off of new. As mentioned earlier, we had warranty work done on ours after about a month of use. Smart Pool paid all of the shipping and had it back to us in about 10 days. We use it almost daily to clean our pool and it has worked as advertised every time. Our warranty experience was great. Smart Pool stood behind their product and did us right. We are very satisfied with our choice.
 
Re: Smartpool wall scrubber and wall climber

I have the Kleen Machine Robotic ool Cleaner purchased at Costco in May of 2010. We live in Michigan, so we used it approximately 3 months. At the end of the season we dried it out, packed it up in the original box, and stored it in our basement. It is extremely convenient, great design and works very well. Just set the unit in the water and plug it in. It shuts off automatically after 2 hours, it you need more, just reset it to go again. After completion, unplug it, remove it from the pool, clean out the catch bag, and store it away.

HOWEVER, in June, 2001, we took it out of storage to use when we opened the pool this season. It worked 2 times wonderfully, and then nothing, dead. Called Smartpool, they acted very accomodating and gave me a return authorization number and told me where to ship it for repair. I shipped on my dime, then received an e-mail stating it would cost $170 for a new power cord. I called Smartpool, as they lead me to believe it was covered, but no, they stated they require all repairs to have an authorization number.

In summary, was it worth $370 (what I paid last year from Costco) for 3 months of use, I don't think so.
 
Re: Smartpool wall scrubber and wall climber

i don't understand, you said you had an authorization number? but isn't warranty for cords and such 1 year while motors is 2 years?

extra said:
I have the Kleen Machine Robotic ool Cleaner purchased at Costco in May of 2010. We live in Michigan, so we used it approximately 3 months. At the end of the season we dried it out, packed it up in the original box, and stored it in our basement. It is extremely convenient, great design and works very well. Just set the unit in the water and plug it in. It shuts off automatically after 2 hours, it you need more, just reset it to go again. After completion, unplug it, remove it from the pool, clean out the catch bag, and store it away.

HOWEVER, in June, 2001, we took it out of storage to use when we opened the pool this season. It worked 2 times wonderfully, and then nothing, dead. Called Smartpool, they acted very accomodating and gave me a return authorization number and told me where to ship it for repair. I shipped on my dime, then received an e-mail stating it would cost $170 for a new power cord. I called Smartpool, as they lead me to believe it was covered, but no, they stated they require all repairs to have an authorization number.

In summary, was it worth $370 (what I paid last year from Costco) for 3 months of use, I don't think so.
Click to expand...
 
This is in the interest of FULL DISCLOSURE. I received a Private Message (PM) asking about my experience with our Nitro Wall Climber one year later. Interestingly enough, our Nitro had issues about a week before this message arrived. I will copy this same post to the other threads where I recomended Nitro to ensure others are not unintentionally misled by our past positive experience with the product.

The bottom line (at least for us) is that the Nitro Wall Climber did a great job while it worked, but longevity now seems to be the issue we are having trouble with. Ours went in for service 2 times and was replaced with another unit the second time. The second unit had a 1 year life span before we had any problems. The symptoms were the same each time so with this being the third occurrence in roughly 18 months I think it may be a systemic problem with the unit's design. As far as our use of Nitro, we take it out of the pool and clean the bag and give the unit a freshwater rinse after each use and allow it to dry in order to prevent water from permeating everything. We store it out of the elements and not in direct sunlight when not in use. Our experience was better than that of some others, so this may not be indicitave of everyone's experience. (Some are probably better.) I hope this helps others.

---------- My reply follows ----------------
It is interesting that I would get your message this week as our beloved Nitro quit working properly last week. Had I gotten the message 2 weeks sooner, (before it quit working) I would have reported all is well and I am still very happy with the product, so I am glad you wrote when you did.
I have contacted Smart Pool and unfortunately we are now out of warranty coverage. They were awesome to deal with while under warranty as they essentially replaced our unit with another one when it failed. Figuring that it was merely a fluke we continued on as happy customers, but now I an having second thoughts given that almost one year to the day later we are experiencing the exact same problem with our Nitro. They are willing to send me a RMA to have one of their service centers troubleshoot and repair the unit at my expense, so they are still doing well on customer service I guess, but given that this is the exact same problem that led to us getting a replacement unit under warranty last year, it seems more than coincidental to me and perhaps more systemic.

Basically, the pump moves water and still vaccums for the entire cycle (3 hour or 1 hour as selected) and the Nitro will vaccum the pool as long as we move it around from place to place. We used the brush to move the dirt all to one part of the pool and then move Nitro over to that location and it will move back and forth in about a 2 foot area and clean that area well. Of course, this totally defeats the purpose of having a robot in the first place if we have to move it around the pool as it works.

I have read a post on the following site:

http://www.fixya.com/support/t5651905-n ... imber_only

According to the diagnosis listed there the fix is a new pump motor since that controls the actual programming of the unit. A bit more research and I have located a pump motor for $213 at http://www.backyardpoolsuperstore.com and I am still shopping for a better price. I have also placed a call to Smart Pool's nearest service center for a phone consult about the diagnosis and repair parts to confirm my theory before I spend what will surely be non-refundable money to fix our Nitro.

All in all, the Nitro Wall Climber did a great job cleaning our pool and for that we have been very satisfied with the product. However, if we have to spend $200 annually to keep it working it will probably get replaced by something else and we will no longer be fans of this product.

Anyone else got any ideas as far as the fix for the problem we are having with our Nitro or any similar experiences?

I will be posting this on the thread where I praised the Nitro earlier to ensure full disclosure and I will be amending my Amazon review of the product with this same information so that others can make a more informed decision.

I hope this helps you and others.
 
it sounds like you are probably spot on with the problem, one thing I can tell you is that since I stopped taking my robot out of the pool, I have had much less problems. I bring the powersupply outside when I use it, then take the power supply back in, leave the robot in the pool all the time. prevously, my bots would break every 6 months or more.
 

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Thanks for the advice. That's probably what we will start doing since removing and cleaning after the cycle didn't seem to work out very well for us.

Smart Pool was kind enough to give me the number to their nearest service center but all I got when I called the service center was the "leave a message and we will get back to you" recording. Hopefully we can perform a decent diagnosis based on the symptoms over the phone so we order the correct part to solve the problem.

I had copied my one year later update to other threads where I had recommended the Nitro but they are now deleted and this only resides on this thread as far as I know. The intent was innocent but the execution may have lacked judgement. I apologize to any readers if my negative experience after the newness of the product wore off came across as a rant of any sort. The intent was merely to provide the updated story as it happened. The Nitro Wall Climber has actually been a pretty awesome little cleaner but it appears to have an Achilles heel with the short life expectancy we have experienced. Sincerest thanks to TFP and all those who make it the best place to learn all things pool related.
 
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