I am looking into a robotic cleaner for my inground pool. I have narrowed it down (I think) to one of the above. It seems what I have read since joining 2 days ago, that the blue diamond is popular. I have a 6 inch ledge around pool, about 3 feet down. The shallow end starts at 3.5 ft and slopes down to 7 ft in the deep end.I wonder if a cleaner would get hung up on this ledge or not do the walls all the way around. Thanks in advance for your input.
aquabot,dolphin,blue diamond/pearl?
- Thread starter tvfoxy59
- Start date
i have a blue diamond robotic cleaner, and it will not regularly clean the bench seating in the shallow end (sometimes it gets up there), the two sets of steps in the shallow end, or the swim outs in the deep end. it does great every where else. it cleans our 18X36 pool in about an hour.
Im trying a Aquabot Turbo at the moment. It does clean well when its not stuck on my main drains. I have tried everything to get it to not hang up there. Seems futile though. I am debating ordering the Polaris covers for the drains or the smart pool smart rings. If I were to actually have to purchase one I would get one of the faster units for sure. This aquabot is slow.
Has anyone tried the newer Aquabots - Bravo and Viva? I heard that they are similar to the Blue Diamond and Blue Diamond RC models. I have a Blue Diamond RC on order and will post my review once I've had a chance to use it, but I almost considered the Viva only because it's a newer model and the Blue Diamonds have been out for at least three years. Though it appears to me that the Aquabot Bravo/Viva are only catching up now to the improvements found on the Blue Diamonds (the PVA brushes, the smarter programmed cleaning patterns, and the shorter (1 hour) cleaning times).
akelley said:
I always go with the original. Followers are just copy cats...
Anyway the Pearl (my Dad has one) and Blue Diamond are great machines. WAY better than the Dolphins IMO. Actually a comparison shouldn't even be made between the two that's how much better the Diamonds are (IMHO) The combo I have and endorse is a Blue Diamond/Pearl with a Poolbuster to get the stuff that the Diamond missed (very rare, usually just the stairs). This combo is probably the same price as the RC Diamond. (I found the RC Dolphin a huge pita to operate) It's not like an RC car.....
I have owned both the Blue Diamond, Aquabot Turbo T4 Remote Control and an Aquabot Viva .The Blue Diamond Remote was a great buy , cost me $1100 from Frontgate couple of years ago.seems like one of their Reps switched the pricers online for the regular and remote units, so I icked a Remote one up for the price of the regular unit.It is (was) a great machine. I sold it on Ebay after three seasons and got what i paid for it . I then Purchased an aquabot Turbo T4 , as I liked the specs of the water jets on the bottom of the machine .I used it for one season, while it works great , I missed my Blue Diamond , the PVA brushes were better for my vinyl lined pool, I liked the program button, being that I was able to keep it on the floor only and no walls .So I sold it to a friend and purchased an Aquabot Viva 2 weeks ago, great machine, same exact machine as the Blue Diamond Remote.In fact, Blue Diamond is made by the son of the owner of Aquabot, so the Viva is not a copy, it's actually the original .The Blue Diamond was rebadged under a new brand name, my guess to corner more of the market away from Maytronics , who makes the Dolphins.In fact the warranty registration card of the blue diamond gets sent to Aquaproducts who make the aquabot.I have also tried the Dolphin and was not pleased with it at all .The Blue diamond Pearl is the lower end machine , The Blue diamond Remote is the higher model .I like the remote control feature as it comes in handy with spot cleaning , either an Aquabot or a Blue Diamoond is the way to go .Get the one you can get for a btter price !!
I picked up my Dad's pearl for $630 from Frontgate and they gave a cart and a 4 year warranty 
Where can you find this on the Frontgate website? I was looking and it appears they only have the Blue Diamond as their branded pool cleaner, as they do not mention Blue Diamond anywhere, and the list their price is $1,195.00. That seems to be about the price of the non-RC Blue Diamond. I couldn't find the Pearl, or similar priced, model anywhere on the FG site.
I have an Aquavac TigerShark, and it can not make it past the 6" ledge 3 feet down. Does anyone know of any units that do make it past this obstacle?