rand18m,
Mine hangs up for 30-45 seconds occasionally if bottom drain is off, if on it can get stuck for a while so I do not run with bottom drain running. Not a big deal because I usually run at at night when not filtering. Check out this thread for a lot more info
Doheny's Discovery, S200, Active20, Triton owners club .
Here is a response from "thebombardair" he is in the industry and is an answer to what new robot he personally would buy.
Of any new robot, it would depend on the pool (because I don't actually own a pool, my parents took down our 15' round 6 years ago). If there is a main drain/floor returns, definitely an M400 or M500. If not, I would go with an A20 or A30 depending on the size. Tigersharks tend to need complete drive rebuilds after all the bearings explode at 3-4 years, and Aquabots have had motors failing left and right lately, plus the Dolphin drivetrain is just better designed if you asked me as an engineering student.
He also pointed out a cover that will go over maindrain and it ramps up and down so it will not get caught, I will probably buy one next year.
I really like the ease of cleaning the big basket and always use both filters at the same time, I almost bought an M5 but chose the Active 30i. does a really good job, but I am sure the M5 will also do a good job just a little more hassle to clean and not sure which holds more, I also get a lot of dirt, bugs, worms and leaves almost every night and this really does a good job. Last year it helped tip me off to an algae bloom by seeing a little green in the fine filter, then when I looked closer the sparkle was gone and underwater visibility was not the entire length of pool. but a 1 day slam solved the problem.
This unit does have the problems I expressed above and if maytronics ever worked the kinks out it would be a great machine, need to combine the good features of this and the M5 and then add WIFI, the bluetooth stinks, I can get almost 100' distance on the Bluetooth of the pool light or speakers but can't get 15' with this and re-linking is a pain, so I assume it is just an inferior Bluetooth that they used and WIFI would be so much better. Also software still stinks, I upgraded to the latest one a month or so ago still pretty useless. The biggest gripe I have is the cord twists up, not real bad the first run but if you leave it for a few days it is pretty significant and I am convinced it alters the path which alters the coverage area. This is the only bot I ever had so no actual experience with the others, if I had to buy again, I would probably buy Active 20 at half the cost and go push the button, my only reservation is I can't have it run on timer during vacation, but if I were to run it in the ground as it stays in pool when people are not in the pool for the most part, it would be economical to replace. If they would fix the problems of the Active 30i or M5, I would buy them.
