1st Full Pool Season Approaching - Need Robot Advice

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stslimited84

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LifeTime Supporter
Jul 3, 2011
151
North East
Hey all,

After a successful first, albeit short, pool season at our new house I'm preparing for our first FULL season. Last year cleaning was a major hassle b/c the previous owner had planted a ton of debris causing plants and mulch all around the pool area. Constant cleaning out of mulch, leaves, etc.

This year I'm taking care of the landscaping issue. I removed the majority of debris causing plants and will be utilizing river rock around the pool to replace the mulch.

That being said, I'm in the market for a robotic cleaner. All of the information I can find suggest these things are extremely over priced pieces of equipment that tend to break down often and at a hefty cost of repair.

The main responsibility of the robot I'm looking for is to clean the bottom of the pool, and if it can brush the sides that is a bonus. The other main criteria is the robot (which im sure most people have) has to be reliable. I dont want to dump 1k into this thing only to be yelling next year when it breaks down.

So far, I've come across two that seem ok:

1 - EcoJet Turbo

2 - Aquabot Turbo T2


Any thoughts/recommendations are greatly appreciated!

25000 gallon concrete/plaster pool with D.E. filter

P.S.
I'm also in the market for a new pump and filter, but i'll start a thread in the appropriate section for that.
 
I bought one of the jet-propelled versions for my in ground pebble sheen pool and quickly returned it. As the bag gets dirty, the propulsion jet slows down. It would quickly get stuck in the deep end without enough power to get out. I do not know if the designs have changed.

I now have a Dolphin Dynamic with remote control I bought at Costco for a great price (they seem to only list it online seasonally though). Has been working great. If it breaks after the warranty period ... Costco does a return policy that is hard to beat.
 
blue diamond, nitro wall scrubber or the new polaris 9400 are the only ones I would consider when my blue diamond remote control breaks.

they will all break, there really isn't such a thing as reliable with these things, warranty is key. however I have found if I leave the thing in the water and take the power supply in the house (even though they supposed to be all weather) that it goes a long way towards the thing surviving.

if your pool is oval or kidney shaped, then any cleaner should work fairly well. if its rectangle or something without a flowing shape then a robot like the remote controlled bots or the polaris 9400 or any bot that can turn itself on the ground would be a better choice.
 
At first I had horrible luck with my Dolphin. Two bad power supplies and a bad cable. But, the 4th one has been kicking for a year now, and works great. It cleans the floor and the walls. I run it hard, too. 3 hours isn't a long enough cycle for my pool, so I restart it numerous times a day. I just had all the coping redone, and it fills up so heavy with sand that it can barely move, but still not a bit of trouble from this one. If I could have saved money going to Costco, I would have for sure over going to Leslie's. One thing about Leslie's, if you have to get warranty work, it has to go to the store for them to evaluate the problem before you can get anything done.

Oh, and if you can, get remote control. I did not think I'd need it, but I'd use it for sure if I had it.

I do what Rob said above, I leave it in the pool and take the power supply in. As he stated, they are supposed to be weatherproof, but I think not. After losing two power supplies, I don't care if it was weather related or not, I bring it in. I only really worry about taking the robot out of the pool when I know it's full or when it's been sucking up leaves. I don't want the leaves decomposing in the robot or pool.
 
my dolphin never gave me troubles, but they can't turn without going up the wallls which didn't work well in my pool.

my theory is if you take the thing out, it sits in the sun, at least at my house and I think that kills it, same with the powersupply, rain sun i think that all kills them.
 
Some of the Dolphins can turn ... they have to have the 2 motors and you can tell if they have 1 "pad" across or split into 2 "pads".

I was pretty sure I read that the power supply was NOT weatherproof. I also try to not leave it out ... although with the amount of rain we get here not usually a problem.

I am planning on adding a little pool house and am going to put a pass through in the wall so I can have the power supply inside and the cord going through the wall to the pool.
 
jblauert said:
Some of the Dolphins can turn ... they have to have the 2 motors and you can tell if they have 1 "pad" across or split into 2 "pads".

I was pretty sure I read that the power supply was NOT weatherproof. I also try to not leave it out ... although with the amount of rain we get here not usually a problem.

I am planning on adding a little pool house and am going to put a pass through in the wall so I can have the power supply inside and the cord going through the wall to the pool.
Click to expand...

Great idea. Once i have the equipment issues sorted out from the other thread, i plan on making a pool house/shed for the equip. and your pass through is a great idea!
 
Mine turns just fine, but it's not the one with two motors. I had to fiddle around with float configurations until I got it right. I have the Deluxe 4, it's quite a bit different than the "other store" models. Don't know if that's good or bad, but it seems to work OK for me.
 
stslimited84 said:
jblauert said:
Some of the Dolphins can turn ... they have to have the 2 motors and you can tell if they have 1 "pad" across or split into 2 "pads".

I was pretty sure I read that the power supply was NOT weatherproof. I also try to not leave it out ... although with the amount of rain we get here not usually a problem.

I am planning on adding a little pool house and am going to put a pass through in the wall so I can have the power supply inside and the cord going through the wall to the pool.
Click to expand...

Great idea. Once i have the equipment issues sorted out from the other thread, i plan on making a pool house/shed for the equip. and your pass through is a great idea!
Click to expand...

I have not looked yet, but I am thinking something like the built-in home vacuum "outlets" the ones with a spring door might work well to just flip open and pass the wire through and then let close down ... or I suppose you could even go with a full waterproof cover like for over outlets where the wire comes out the bottom.
 

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Excellent experience with our dolphin deluxe 5 here. It really cleans the pool floor, walls, and scrubs the tiles. I normally bring it out once/week and run it for 4-5 hours. I always keep the psu inside the house and string the power cable to the pool. When finished, the whole unit gets bundled back onto the cart and wheeled into the garage. No probs at all with the unit yet.

The service techs I've talked prior to buying the unit say the top sources of dead dolphins are either owners that leave the unit in the pool all the time,letting the psu get wet, or storing the unit outside. It needs to be kept in doors, or at least in a shed/garage when not in use.
 
MattM said:
Excellent experience with our dolphin deluxe 5 here. It really cleans the pool floor, walls, and scrubs the tiles. I normally bring it out once/week and run it for 4-5 hours. I always keep the psu inside the house and string the power cable to the pool. When finished, the whole unit gets bundled back onto the cart and wheeled into the garage. No probs at all with the unit yet.

The service techs I've talked prior to buying the unit say the top sources of dead dolphins are either owners that leave the unit in the pool all the time,letting the psu get wet, or storing the unit outside. It needs to be kept in doors, or at least in a shed/garage when not in use.
Click to expand...


mine is fine in the pool. I think the sun kills them more than anything. funny thing is my dolphin never had a problem and i took it out of the bool and it sat in the same spot as the blue diamond does now. but the blue diamond broke constantly until i started leaving it in the pool.
 
I have the iRobot Verro, which appears to be a re-branded Aquabot Turbo T-Jet. Bought it 4 years ago when we bought a house with a pool and have no complaints. It has been pretty abused but never needed any repairs other than replacing the filter bag once when it got torn. I have left it in the pool for extended periods and even forgotten the power supply outside in the rain before, but it keeps right on working. I've always been impressed with how much dirt and debris it picks up.
 
Going into my second year with a Blue Diamond without any problems. I really like it. I had Polaris 280 for about 7 years and a 380 for about 5 years. We just had our pool resurfaced at the beginning of last year. Blue Diamond is so much nicer. Cleans our pool (16 x 32) in about 90 minutes. The Blue Diamond gets the steps about half the time but they really don't get very dirty. I don't know if there is any cleaner that is really good on steps. Also like the fact we don't have to run the auxillary pump which reduces the electrical bill.
 
After doing a lot of reading, it looks like the vast majority of cleaners are over priced and have poor product reliability on a whole. I couldn't find one product with stellar reviews, and for a price point near 1000 that just seems unacceptable to me. To spend that type of money to have a motor fail after 2 years seems outrageous and then to spend another several hundred dollars on a replacement.

Considering buying a pool rover jr and seeing how it fares. Ive read reviews from people who have used it for in ground pool cleaning and it seemed like it did the job. Its about 280 and much more reasonable on the wallet.

Thoughts?
 
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