My booster pump for my side suction Polaris died, with no hope of revival. The new 30% more efficient pump is $400. Looking at a robotic cleaner as a replacement. Don't want to go too cheap and loose out on simple but seemingly important features like a swivel cord, the right brushes, climbing and deflecting ability. I watched the 2017 S200 video. Was not impressed at all with ability to pick up debris around the main drain, and I was left with the feeling I'd have to keep an electric cord across my pool deck all the time or lug this in and out...just seems like a lot of babysitting for a cleaner. What about having a power cord out in the rain? I'm used to keeping my cleaner in the pool unless we're having high volume, and it's already programmed to run at specific times from my jandy pool remote. Looking for real owner impressions/counters to my observations.
I have had my pool for about 5 years now and most of that time was using a manual pool vac. Last year I got a Zodiac MX6 suction cleaner. I just bought a Dolphin Active 20 and received it last week, so I don't have a long history with it, but I'll give you my thoughts.
First, a little background.
For our pool, we didn't want to leave a pool cleaner in all of the time nor did we want an in floor cleaning system. So for the first 4 years or so I would either sweep the pool or manually vacuum it on Saturdays, depending on how dirty it was and how much time I had. During the winter, I would do it maybe monthly, as it didn't get that dirty and we weren't swimming in it. I got tired of doing that so I figured I would buy a suction cleaner and see how that worked.
For the last year, I've used the suction cleaner a few times but it was such a hassle setting up the hoses, getting water out of the line, and readjusting my valves to get it just right. And then my pump seemed to have too much air in it for some reason. I'm not sure if there was a leak in the hoses, but it did it from day one while it was brand new. And then when it was done, I would have to reverse the process, pulling the hoses out, unhooking them all, resetting my valves, clearing out my pump basket, etc. It all became too much, so I would mostly just use my manual vac because it would clean the pool better and I wouldn't have to run my pump so long to get full coverage of the pool. I recently tried leaving the MX6 in the pool all of the time, and while it took care of the setup and tear down hassle, it was an issue when the kids would swim and I would have to pull it out. I was also concerned about my pump having so much air in it that I was going to damage it so I decided to bite the bullet and get my first robot.
Enter the A20. I love it. For our use case, it works perfectly. I was never going to leave any type of cleaner in the pool full time, so I knew going in that I was going to have set up and tear down after each cleaning. The robot is much easier compared to the hoses and valve adjustments of the MX6 or manual vac. Plus, it cleans so much better. It's not an exaggeration to say my pool has never had such a clean floor. Now, after a run, I can take my broom and sweep across the pool and.... nothing. Just some air bubbles. No residual dirt or gunk. It's fantastic! Doing the same thing after the MX6 or manual vac still had little clouds of dirt left over. I also like that everything vacuumed up is in the robot, not in my pump basket or DE filter. It will make my filter backwashes that much less frequent and easier.
So for you, wanting to leave in the pool full time, I can see that a cord running across your deck would be annoying. It would be for me, too. I will say the robot will probably clean your pool better than any other type of cleaner, but it does require a different set of use cases and annoyances to work around. The cord can be left out in the rain (not the main control unit) as it's insulated and designed for going into the pool. The robot uses far less electricity because it doesn't require the use of the main pump and can run completely independent of your pump schedule. You could think about just using it once or twice a week as needed instead of leaving in the pool all of the time. Once you see how well it cleans each time, there isn't much left for it to clean the next day unless you have a storm or a lot of stuff blow in to the pool.
Hope this gives you some helpful info. Good luck with your decision.
