Blue Pearl, Blue Diamond Cleaner Performance/Durability

[richg]

We bought a house last year with an 18 x 36 vinyl lined pool. This is our first pool, and after one season of cleaning it manually, I've decided to get a robotic cleaner and pretty much have it narrowed down to the Blue Pearl or Blue Diamond (I decided on these over the aquabots because they have the PVA brushes which I think should be better for my vinyl pool).

I've searched on here and other pool sites for information about these cleaners (and all the other ones I was considering) but was curious as to a performance/durability update from the users/owners of these cleaners. So if you have one of these and would kindly post how long you've had it and how well it is still working, what repairs/maintenance you had to do I'd appreciate it.

I'm leaning towards the Blue Diamond right now as it gives 4 yrs warranty vs. 1 for the Pearl and I've found it for about $250 more than the Pearl.

Also, how good are these cleaners for picking up pine needles and leaves?

Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Rich

 

[duraleigh]

Rich,

I'm in your shoes but I've already taken the plunge....I've got a Blue Diamond R/C on the way. For the most part, they (robotics) are ALL over-priced and, IMO, not nearly sturdy enough.

I'm hoping you get few negative posts......for my own sake!!!! :lol: :lol:

In my research, it was maddening finding how many of them are identical and how little on-line help is really available. I felt like I was talking to customer support in Bombay for the most part.

 

[richg]

Yes, I agree, it has been extremely frustrating trying to get correct information about them. Not to mention that all the big companies seem to be related in one way or another (Aquatron, Aqua Products, WaterTech, etc).

Where did you end up buying the R/C from?

Thanks

Rich

 

[Cap]

I just recently purchased a used blue diamond on ebay. So I can't yet speak to the reliablility of the BD but I can let you know that it most definately will pick up pine needles and leaves.

So far I'm very pleased with my purchase. It is a HUGE! improvement over my polaris 360 that I have been using for the last 8-10 years.

 

[kirbinster]

I've had my blue pearl for two years with no problems - clean great. So much better than my old Polaris 380.

 

[vincentesq1]

I initially purchased an aquabot T"?" at costco last year. It worked well, but I usually have to run it twice in a day for it to clean the whole pool (18x36 freeform). My neighbor had the blue diamond and it only took her about 1 hour for the pool (same size) to be clean. The diamond was so strong that it would do a wheelie everytime it went in a straight line. Thus, I returned the aquabot and bought the blue diamond rc from pooldr.com. I have used it almost a year now, and love it. It realistically takes about 1.5 hours to clean the whole pool. The RC works great until yesterday when it stopped working. I hope it is only a dead battery. Other than that, I love my Diamond. It is much stronger than the aquabot that I had. As to reliability, my neighbor bought it last year as well, and it died on her near the end of the season. She had to spend $50 to ship it to have it repaired. It took about 3 weeks and now works well again. Apparently, the motor died for some reason. Service Dept said that the 4 year warranty is assuming you use it for 1 hour/day. If you use it for more than that, the warranty is decreased. How would they know how long you use it a day, I don't know.

 

[cruzmisl]

Had a few Dolphins and they broke down, took FOREVER to clean and never really cleaned that great anyway. They always left areas untouched.

I (reluctantly, since my experience with robotics was poor) bought a Blue Diamond new from pooldrstore.com or something like that. I had it and the rollers began to fall apart. Called the company up and they immediately sent new ones. Apparently the new algecide they were using for shipping ate away at the material. Then the thing quit. Wouldn't climb the walls if I recall. I sent it back and they had it back to me in a week and it's been great since. It cleans WAY better, cleans WAY faster and WAY more thorough than the Dolphins I had.

Buy the Blue Diamond. The added warranty alone is worth the extra cost. The only thing that I don't like is the cart. It's kind of cheesy. It doesn't impact how clean my pool is so who cares

I'd buy it again tomorrow if I had to.


PS the people I was speaking to in tech support spoke perfect english too

 

[richg]

Thank you everyone for the replies. I ended up buying the blue diamond and should have it next week sometime. I'll report back as to how it does.

For the warranty, it is 4 years (or 500 cycles) on all non-wear items (brushes, belts, etc are considered wear items). Everytime it runs a cleaning cycle, it is stored into memory, so if you use it more often, you will hit the 500 cleaning cycle number before you reach 4 years.

Rich

 

[akelley]

Rich, I would be interested to see how the Blue Diamond is holding up for you so far.

I'll add my two cents to this post. Bought a BD remote last season and ended up returning it after it was faulty in the first 30 days. Basically, the whole 4 year warranty is suspect in my opinion, especially about the decreasing the four years if you use it more than 1 hour a day. What does that mean? If their engineering is that shoddy that they limit you to 1 hour per day, they should more accurately put the warranty at 1 year and stop misleading the consumer. The other aspect I really don't like is that you're responsible for return shipping on any warranty work. Yes, I realize that's pretty much normal these days with a lot of retail items, but when you're spending about $1,500 I think the manufacturer should pay the return shipping.

So anyway, I read a lot good reviews for the Blue Diamond, but I also read a lot warranty work being done. I now need to buy a replacement and not sure which brand/model to go with.