robot cleaners

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phil

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May 20, 2008
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Hello All,
I am looking for suggestions for robot cleaners. My polaris 380 is tired and not doing the job. Our landscaping is much more mature now so we are getting pine tree debris and dust and dirt laying on the pool floor the polaris does not pick up.
So I am seeking a product that will do it all without putting additional pressure on my pump and filter system.
I have heard good things about aquabot, dolphin, blue diamond and klean a atron.
Any reccomendations would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
phil
 
Phil,

Welcome to the forum. I am pretty comitted to the idea that you pay for cleaning power in auto-cleaners.

That is, if you get a suction side for $300, it will clean but not as fast or as thoroughly as a $600 pressure side and then, more powerful and faster still, an $800 dollar robot.

So some of your selection process depends on the size of your pool. Larger pools generally requiring bigger and faster cleaners.

So, even within the robots, there are variations. The more expensive ones being able to clean a bigger pool faster. I don't think any one brand shows up as significantly superior over the others. That said, Blue Diamond, the smaller Blue Pearl, and the Aquabot T-2 seem to be the most popular on this forum.
 
Hi Phil

I had my pool remodeled last season and wanted to add a better cleaner. Have used the polaris for years, but like you say, it leaves a lot of small stuff, which is going into the filter one way or another (don't you just love to vacuum) Shelled out the bigger bucks for the Dolphin Dynamic... best $ I've ever spent. It cleans leaves, dust, dirt, all the small debris, leaving the pool spotless without vacuuming. I ordered mine through Costco, as they didn't have it in the store at the time. They offered the best price by far.

Good Luck... Dan
 
I have the Blue Pearl for 2 years now and have not had any problems with it. In fact I keep it in the water most of the time and haven't had any issues. It's very convenient and does a great job of cleaning and circulating the water.
 
I got an Aquabot T-2 last season because our suction-side cleaner was choking on twigs and clumps of leaves. I'd read reviews of the Dolphin that commented on how the robot would not climb the pool's sides when the water temperature dropped. I'm in Southern California, and I wanted a cleaner that would be able to function year-round, so the cold-water restriction on the Dolphin meant trying the Aquabot. I don't know if Costco's return policy has changed, but many people like buying through them as you could return the unit if it didn't work well in your pool.

The robot does work well at picking up debris, though when the leaf fall is especially heavy, I need to help it out with the leaf rake.

I have had problems with the unit eating its own cord. The Aquabot people sent me some plastic floats to attach to the power cord, which helped but didn't entirely eliminate the problem. I've found that leaning the telepole against a chair so that it projects at a slant over the pool, and then draping the cord over the pole, eliminates the robot's cannibalistic tendencies.

The one tedious thing is cleaning the robot's filter bag. You need to rinse the bag until the rinse water runs clear. Amazing how much gunk the thing picks up; it takes me anywhere from 5-10 rinsings (swilling the bag in a bucket of fresh water) to get the thing clean. Oh, and since I was used to leaving the old Kreepy in the pool pretty much 24/7, it's a change to have a cleaner that can't be left hooked up in the pool all the time. On the other hand, it was a pain to have to haul the Kreepy out and then re-install it when shocking the pool or having a lot of people over to swim.

Oh, and when the robot comes up to the surface to scrub the sides, it initially frightened the living daylights out of the dog. :-D
 
:wave: Hey everyone . . . This is my first post and I just wanted to chime in about the robots . . .

We have the Aquabot Turbo and love it as well. It was a bit pricey ($1,200 +/-) but has more than paid for itself in labor savings over the past two years. We bought it online from a company in NJ. They also sell repair parts or you can send the unit to them for repair.

We use is every night and our pool stays sparkling clean "most" of the time. It does such a good job cleaning that it keeps us from having to be a slave to pool maintenance. It takes about an hour for it to cleans the entire pool and we did not choose the model with the remote control - not sure if that would have been a big benefit to us. There have been a few times when I have actually brushed parts of the pool myself but not often.

When we do have algae problems, it does all the scrubbing and brushing for us and it helps keep the algae suspended so our filter can work more efficiently. We just clean the bag and keep throwing the robot back in the pool until the pool clears.


Bottom Line: I can't imagine being a pool owner without it!!!
 
I've had Aquabots for over 8 years. I've tried many different models including ones with the remotes. I did not find the remote to be of much use. Save your money. I currently have the Bravo. It cleans a 28000 pool in about an hour and has a 4 year warranty. They are expensive and seem to need some repairs about every 2 years. I have gone through 2 drive motors on the Bravo so far. That's what nice about the 4 year warranty. I have a Barracuda to use when the robot is in for repair. The robot does a much better job though. I wouldn't have a pool without a robot but then again I own an electronic systems integration company so I love technology.
 
We have a Legend Platinum (the one that looks like a truck) and I can't say enough good stuff about it. So far I've had to rotate the tires (it has 4 wheels) because I ran the heck out of it when we had Baquacil, and I've had to get another bag for it (again due to overuse, I'm sure) but it runs great. I kind of hate to admit it, but we never manually vac. unless it is at the beginning of the season.
 

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I am currently trying out an aquabot turbo in my freeform shaped pool. I ran it for a hour last night and it did not fair well. Stuck on top of my dual main drains 4 times in an hour. Today I picked up a couple of these hayward clips (Part # SP1048AVH) that go onto the maindrain covers that the pool store says will solve the problem. The parts it did clean on the floor and walls it did a great job of. Did not spend much time out of the deep end though. Not sure if that is due to my pool style with the rounded corners and deep hopper area or not. Will see tomorrow when I dive down and install these clips. My builder is giving me this unit to replace my Mars HP (Excellent cleaner btw) that he piped with tiger flex tubing which has gotten a hole in it 3 times over this season and last. I really do not want him ripping up my interlock and concrete decking to re-pipe it. I figure I would take the aquabot and see how it works and if it seems to do a good job will pick up one of the more highly recommended Blue Diamonds next season. 4 hrs to clean the pool seems too long to me when I cant leave the unit in 24/7. The blue diamond takes only an hour I believe.
 
I have a fiberglass pool, and had a regular aquabot for 7 years. When it died, I bought and aquabot bravo, and this is my 3rd season with it. I love the aquabot - mostly because I have a white fiberglass pool, and thanks to this forum and the pool forum my water is so clear you can see a hair on the bottom :shock: , it is great to have the aquabot, or I would be spending too much time vacuuming!
 
Does anyone have a good auto cleaner that works in an odd-shaped, i.e. free-form pool ?

Picture of a similar pool:
http://www.sanjuanpools.com/awards.html?step=5&Award_id=285&start=1&SJId=850

I did buy (and return) a blue diamond and a Dolphin that would not clean all of my pool due to the shape. In both cases, technical support could not get the units to clean my pool. I have a 10K IG FG.
 
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