How are you measuring your pool pumps electricity delta?
You/ anybody - put a kill o watt on your robot and lets see what it actually pulls.
With a super fine robotic filter are now cleaning your robot filter every day you run it.
UD
Since you asked .... nicely .... here’s some data -
I ran my S300i robot on a 2-1/2 hour standard clean cycle. It used 0.22 kWh of energy.
Based on my utility rates (~ 13.5 cents per kWh), it cost me 2 cents to clean my pool today....it’s spotless in case you’re wondering.
My pool pump nowadays runs on SLOW SKIM mode, 1600RPM & 268W
When I need to chlorinate or run the heater, I activate pool mode which runs at 2000RPM and 503W (typically I run pool mode 4-6 hrs/day)
Back in the old suction cleaner days, my kreepy krawly would not clean well below 2350 RPM (810 W) and it required a minimum of 4 hours to run.
So, in terms of raw energy use -
Robot Cleaner - 0.22 kWh
[EDIT] Made an error in my units/decimal place. It’s corrected now. [END-EDIT]
Suction cleaner - (810 x 4 hrs) = 3.240 kWh
Even if you say that the suction cleaner isn’t really “using” that much power and you have to run the pumps anyway, you can look at it from a scheduling perspective - my pool pump now runs, on average, at a much lower speed (1600 to 2000 rpms) as opposed to previously when it would average a much higher speed because I needed to include the suction cleaner. Also, I can run the robot and then go two days between cleaning. With my old suction cleaner, it needed to be run every day to maintain the same subjective level of cleanliness.
Sorry, but as I said, hands-down my robot is a much better cleaner for a lot less money. Will it “pay for itself” in savings....maybe/maybe not. I’m on year 4 with it without any issues. If I get to 10 years without a major repair, then it was well worth the investment. Even if I don’t make it that long, I’d never go back to the hassle, annoyance and ugly appearance of a suction cleaner constantly skittering around my pool.
As others have said, just an opinion on my part ...