Have I damaged my robot?

[gregch]

Ordinarily, when opening the pool, I manually vacuum all the silt and debris to waste and get the pool clean and balanced before using the robot. It's a miserable job that takes hours, so this year I decided (because I'm an idiot, a lazy idiot) not to do the usual manual vacuuming when opening up the pool, and instead I just netted out some of the big debris (leaves, piles of worms) and then put the robot (a Dolphin SX20, same as S100/E20 I think) in to clean it up for me.

That might have been a mistake. For one thing, it very quickly got clogged up with fine silt (this was with the regular basket, not the fine one). Worse, all kinds of debris is now sprouting out from every opening and even the joins between the plastic exterior panels - evidently crud and debris has got everywhere inside the thing once its basket got clogged - and I can't clean it out. I did briefly put it back in the pool and it seemed to still work OK but of course the water was still pretty bad so took it out again (and now attempting to clean up the pool the 'traditional' way!)

Anyway, I guess I know now that using the robot for the initial clean up is a bad idea.

But do you think (one I've got the pool clean) when the robot goes back in, the clean water will flush out the debris from inside the machine? Anyone else had this happen?

 

[Bperry]

Ordinarily, when opening the pool, I manually vacuum all the silt and debris to waste and get the pool clean and balanced before using the robot. It's a miserable job that takes hours, so this year I decided (because I'm an idiot, a lazy idiot) not to do the usual manual vacuuming when opening up the pool, and instead I just netted out some of the big debris (leaves, piles of worms) and then put the robot (a Dolphin SX20, same as S100/E20 I think) in to clean it up for me.

That might have been a mistake. For one thing, it very quickly got clogged up with fine silt (this was with the regular basket, not the fine one). Worse, all kinds of debris is now sprouting out from every opening and even the joins between the plastic exterior panels - evidently crud and debris has got everywhere inside the thing once its basket got clogged - and I can't clean it out. I did briefly put it back in the pool and it seemed to still work OK but of course the water was still pretty bad so took it out again (and now attempting to clean up the pool the 'traditional' way!)

Anyway, I guess I know now that using the robot for the initial clean up is a bad idea.

But do you think (one I've got the pool clean) when the robot goes back in, the clean water will flush out the debris from inside the machine? Anyone else had this happen?

Happens all the time. Just get as much out as fast as you can.

 

[gregch]

Thanks, that's reassuring! I've rinsed it out with a hosepipe best I can, and I'm now getting the pool mostly clean and will put it in again afterwards, hopefully being immersed will flush it out a bit.

 

[Buggs]

Heavy pool debris like this is where the old-school pressure-side cleaners like the Pentair Kreepy Krauly® Legend shine. They are simple, reliable, easy to service and have a huge debris bag compared to the robots. This is why I keep my ancient Letro Legend along with a Dolphin E70.

 

[gregch]

I never really got into the idea of pressure-side cleaners, I guess it seemed more complex, with booster pump and whatnot and didn't seem worth it for our relatively small and simple pool. So I just manually vacuum the debris (except this year, for some reason, I decided to see if the robot would cope).

Good news is the robot seems OK, after a nasty moment when I couldn't get it to start. I cleaned out the impeller and anything I could get to, put it back in, and it completed a cycle just fine, hadn't picked up much but I'd manually vacuumed pretty thoroughly beforehand this time!

Swapped to the fine filter basket, put it back in. That cycle completed OK, but when I took it out it was full of water (seemingly because the basket was clogged with fine stuff). The water is still pretty cloudy, so I guess that makes sense.

Have now taken it out and start the process of dealing with the cloudiness, hopefully the robot will be OK once the pool's properly clean and the season's underway.