I've got some funky trees built into my pool deck which overhang the pool. Every fall, after a few weeks of plopping a few random leaves into the pool, my trees then lose the remainder of their leaves (about 90% of the tree) over a 6-day span. We call it the "Big Drop". The bad news is that keeping the pool clear is a pain for 6 days. The good news is that it's only for 6 days and then the trees are bare.
My 3.5 week-old Aiper Surfer M1 worked great for 3 weeks. I was impressed. In addition to the usual pool surface stuff, it collected much of the early-dropping leaves before they had a chance to waterlog and sink to the floor. It would normally manage, but occasionally choke on, the larger leaf groups (see below for an example), which would block the roller brush. It would stop collecting much more debris until I cleared it.
This week, the Surfer seemed to sense that the Big Drop was coming and freaked out. As of Thursday morning, it now powers itself down after 5 seconds in the water. Friday, the Big Drop began.
I'm currently in a email troubleshooting dialog with Aiper. At this point, it looks like I will have to send the unit back. I was looking forward to having the Surfer assist with my leaf collecting, but it appears it's going to miss its big test this season.
By the way, the Surfer M1 does seem to work with a negative edge pool - with a caveat. The Surfer briefly gets stuck on the negative edge because the IR sensors are looking for a pool border that is ~2.5 inches above the waterline. After maneuvering squarely into the negative edge, the Surfer sits there motionless, trying to motor into the edge. After about a minute, it seems to realize that it is not moving. It reverses, turns, and continues on its way. Aiper says the Surfer M1 is not compatible with a negative-edge pool, but I am happy with the way it's been working for me.
Regarding the leaves that did make it to the floor, running the E70 on a 2.5 hour floor-only clean cycle, will often result in a few remaining random leaves. Running it a second time (another cleaning cycle) has always captured all the leaves. The Letro will almost always have the floor clear after running for 1 hour.
