Fairly new Explorer e30 cleans beautifully, but it does wheelies, that's right.

[nabril15]

I've owned my E30 for 3 or 3 months, and it cleans wonderfully every other day when I put it in.

I noticed on many occasions that: 1) it will do a wheelie and suddenly stop while going forward at the bottom of the pool. Eventually it continues along, and 2) it charges at full speed towards a wall, climbs a foot or less, and then changes its mind and climbs another wall all the way up later on. In other words, it gives up on certain walls.

Is this normal? I know that they have a simple programming algorithm of 80floor/20walls, and it just goes randomly. But why would it stop climbing if it recognizes that it's wall by virtue of the suction as it goes up partially?

THank you

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Sounds normal to me. The wheelie is how the unit turns. It should go forward a short distance then it slams it in reverse while adjusting the water thrust out of one of the side ports. The forward/reverse maneuver causes the robot to pitch up on its back treads and then the burst of water out of the side port causes it to turn.

These robots are not “smart” despite all their advertising to the contrary. They simply execute a series of pre-programmed maneuvers (drive forward, drive reverse, thrust turn, go up wall, etc) in random fashion. This causes a “random walk” process which, on averages, enables the robot to clean most of the pool. There are no sensors or feedback controlling the motion, it’s just random.

Try not to stare at it too much. It won’t make any sense and it will lead you to think it’s not working. As long as it does it’s thing for the 2 hour clean cycle and gets your pool clean, it’s working.

 

[jmastron]

Agree this is how they work, with the wheelie 90 degree turn at seemingly random times, sometimes ignoring the wall, sometimes climbing it, sometimes climbing it then doing a sideways scrub at the tile line.

Watching my old Polaris 280 was like that too -- you'd get frustrated seeing it just miss the leaf or debris, then go off in a different place. But if you just let it be and came back a couple hours later, it was all cleaned up. At least the Dolphin doesn't sneak up and spray you with the tail!

 

[nabril15]

thank you to both. I understand, and I'm quite happy with the climbing and the cleaning. It's just funny to see it spaz out randomly.

 

[Mdragger88]

I feel this way about my roomba too - its older with no lidar, gps, or wifi. It’s basically Rosie on drugs
Just turn it on & walk away…

 

[SecoSteve]

thank you to both. I understand, and I'm quite happy with the climbing and the cleaning. It's just funny to see it spaz out randomly.