Ready to buy a robotic cleaner - What does everyone have and like?

[JoyfulNoise]

Local is always best for robots as it establishes you as customer and you’re more likely to get help if it needs any service within the warranty period. Warranty on all these robots is 2 years at most. If you can’t find anything local, Marina’s Spa and Patio in Colorado is used a lot around here at TFP. Margaret is the person to talk to. She can tell you what they have in stock. Phone orders with a credit card count as a “brick and mortar” purchase for the purposes of warranty. If you use a credit card that has benefits that can extend a warranty, you can squeeze an extra year of coverage that way. Return policies are up to the individual shops. Maytronics/Dolphin robots are not sold directly by them, they use the exiting pool store distribution channel. So they are not very helpful when it comes to repairs outside of warranty. That’s why establishing a local relationship is best.

 

[jigneshsoni]

@JoyfulNoise

I came across this following product that I think it might interest you since you mention you like suction vac instead of bots. Seems like they have a very solid warranty and care a lot about the customer unlike Dolphin. Would love to hear your thoughts. I am considering to buy this myself. Seems like a very good product.

Riptide Pool Vacuum Systems

The Riptide Pool Vacuum System. Unlike any other portable commercial pool vacuum you have ever used. We sell direct via our website or call us at 800-735-3029.

www.riptidevac.com

 

[JoyfulNoise]

@JoyfulNoise

I came across this following product that I think it might interest you since you mention you like suction vac instead of bots. Seems like they have a very solid warranty and care a lot about the customer unlike Dolphin. Would love to hear your thoughts. I am considering to buy this myself. Seems like a very good product.

Riptide Pool Vacuum Systems

The Riptide Pool Vacuum System. Unlike any other portable commercial pool vacuum you have ever used. We sell direct via our website or call us at 800-735-3029.

www.riptidevac.com

That’s not a suction cleaner, it’s a leaf bagger. Basically a big water pump that sucks leaves up into a mesh bag. It also appears to be more of a commercial unit used by guys that need to clean out pools quickly. It wouldn’t be very useful in my pool as I don’t really have heavy leaf debris but light debris and sand/silt. Those mesh bags are meant for leaves not sand.

 

[jigneshsoni]

That’s not a suction cleaner, it’s a leaf bagger. Basically a big water pump that sucks leaves up into a mesh bag. It also appears to be more of a commercial unit used by guys that need to clean out pools quickly. It wouldn’t be very useful in my pool as I don’t really have heavy leaf debris but light debris and sand/silt. Those mesh bags are meant for leaves not sand.

They do have a smaller home use as well. Also many options for all kinds of bags. It says up to 60 micron that can hold very fine particles and even some pollen.

Riptide XP

The Riptide XP is an ultra portable pool vacuum and battery box combo. Our battery box will hold a 35 amp hour battery and you can expect around 2 to 3 hours of run time (battery not included). The XP utilizes the same exact vacuum head as our Riptide SL. NEW FEATURES FOR 2020: Integrated...

www.riptidevac.com

Riptide Bags

Our patent pending lock ring design guarantees that your bag won't detach from the vacuum head during use. While also allowing for quick and easy attachment. All of our vacuum bags are now double layered with our heavy net material on the outside of the bag. This was done to make our bags the...

www.riptidevac.com

 

[JoyfulNoise]

That’s fine if you want to stand pool side and vacuum a pool. I don’t do that (very often). My suction cleaner just runs on its own. If I needed to manually vacuum I just use a standard pool vacuum head. My suction line has a leaf canister on it so that captures all the heavy debris. I empty the leaf canister whenever I pull the suction cleaner out, usually when the kids want to swim.

 

[jigneshsoni]

That’s fine if you want to stand pool side and vacuum a pool. I don’t do that (very often). My suction cleaner just runs on its own. If I needed to manually vacuum I just use a standard pool vacuum head. My suction line has a leaf canister on it so that captures all the heavy debris. I empty the leaf canister whenever I pull the suction cleaner out, usually when the kids want to swim.

Seems like I have misunderstood what a "suction cleaner" means. I though riptide and powervac were the suction cleaner. Can you please explain what suction cleaner are you using?

 

[ride525]

I think JoyFulNoise may use the White Shark suction cleaner. I have The Pool Cleaner, now branded under the Hayward brand name. Both work off suction outlet that has been added in more recent pools, or in the skimmer suction. I also have a Dolphin Advantage robot.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

A suction cleaner connects to the suction side of your plumbing either through the skimmer or a wall port and uses your pool pump to pull water and debris through the cleaner to power it’s movements. A pressure side cleaner attaches to the return side of your plumbing through a wall port, often needing a booster pump to increase the pressure, in order to drive the cleaner around. The flow of high pressure water through the cleaner draws up dirt and debris into a mesh bag.

The leaf bagger you linked to is more like a pressure cleaner than a suction cleaner.

See this pool school article on the different types of cleaners -

Automatic Pool Cleaners

Are you looking for the best above ground and in-ground automatic pool vacuum cleaners? Here are a few tips to your pools floor.

www.troublefreepool.com

Examples of a suction cleaner are the Pentair Sandshark or Pentair Rebel. Examples of a pressure cleaner would be a Polaris 360.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I think JoyFulNoise may use the White Shark suction cleaner. I have The Pool Cleaner, now branded under the Hayward brand name. Both work off suction outlet that has been added in more recent pools, or in the skimmer suction. I also have a Dolphin Advantage robot.

Pentair Kreepy Krawly Sandshark

 

[Edge70]

We have a Matronics Dolphin nautilus cc plus and love it. Have two sets of filters for it. One fine set for summer normal use and another set for spring clean up and such. They don't capture as fine a material which is fine in the spring. Here's a link to is. Matt, I wasn't aware of that business model either which wouldn't be ideal. Hopefully that's not the case.
All That You Want to Know about Dolphin Nautilus CC Plus | Maytronics

 

[ToddH]

Local is always best for robots as it establishes you as customer and you’re more likely to get help if it needs any service within the warranty period. Warranty on all these robots is 2 years at most. If you can’t find anything local, Marina’s Spa and Patio in Colorado is used a lot around here at TFP. Margaret is the person to talk to. She can tell you what they have in stock. Phone orders with a credit card count as a “brick and mortar” purchase for the purposes of warranty. If you use a credit card that has benefits that can extend a warranty, you can squeeze an extra year of coverage that way. Return policies are up to the individual shops. Maytronics/Dolphin robots are not sold directly by them, they use the exiting pool store distribution channel. So they are not very helpful when it comes to repairs outside of warranty. That’s why establishing a local relationship is best.

I joined this site because I have the same questions as the original poster. Why is Marina's Spa and Patio constantly mentioned in so many threads?

 

[ride525]

I joined this site because I have the same questions as the original poster. Why is Marina's Spa and Patio constantly mentioned in so many threads?

I think Marina Spa and Patio is mentioned often because they have good prices and so many here have purchased from them.

 

[ride525]

Pentair Kreepy Krawly Sandshark

Oops wrong shark...

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I joined this site because I have the same questions as the original poster. Why is Marina's Spa and Patio constantly mentioned in so many threads?

Margaret at Marina’s has always been a huge help to TFP’ers in figuring out the best robot that fits their budget. They also take orders over the phone using a credit card and that counts as an “in store” purchase. Maytronics does not allow internet sales of their robots or else they void the warranty. There’s only one or two models you can get on Amazon that Maytronics allows for internet sales. If you buy a model online from a 3rd Party seller that isn’t allowed by Maytronics, the warranty is voided. There are other resellers that will do “in store” purchases over the phone but Marina’s has always been super helpful to TFP members. Also, Margaret has been willing to “customize” orders for people by adding on filter panels that are not standard with a particular robots and she does so without charging an arm and a leg.

Consider it a vendor that has an “A+” rating from TFP. You can go with whomever you like but Marina’s has been tested and approved by many on TFP.

 

[tcat]

I don't understand Dolphins needing repair in less that 5 years or not being repairable. Are you leaving them in 24/7? I have an Aquabot Rapids 8th year and never any issue. I do put it in a cabinet when I pull out out (after its 3 hour cycle). Not sure why so many here but Dolphin. I just hope more reliable cordless units hit the market. I'm tired of cords and hoses (gave up hoses 9 years ago!}

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I don't understand Dolphins needing repair in less that 5 years or not being repairable. Are you leaving them in 24/7? I have an Aquabot Rapids 8th year and never any issue. I do put it in a cabinet when I pull out out (after its 3 hour cycle). Not sure why so many here but Dolphin. I just hope more reliable cordless units hit the market. I'm tired of cords and hoses (gave up hoses 9 years ago!}

It's pretty obvious why they fail when you take apart one of their motor assemblies -

• 5 seal points where water incursion can occur;
• Cheap, brushed DC motors with exposed electrical contacts;
• Control board with critical electronics on it that is not hermetically sealed using Parylene or some other standard hydrophobic material;
• Internal motor assembly spare parts are actively kept off the US market so that repairs are impossible;

Dolphin hints in its user guides that you should always pull the robot out and wash it off but then also leave the impression that the cleaner can be left in the pool 24/7 ... well, which is it?? I don't think they want to explicitly say because if they do they'll either lose customers that don't want to lift out robots all the time or they'll be on the hook for costly repairs when customers do experience water leaks.

Perhaps AquaBots are better built but they just don't have all the fancy advertising that Dolphin has. Perhaps Aiper will be a better company and deal with their customers better. Who knows. But right now Maytronics is the market leader simply because they have a very elaborate robot selection and they push their product through the existing channel of retail pool stores. So they do not have any of the costs or headaches associated with direct sales. All they have to do is simply treat every robot problem with the same prescription - replace whatever unit is not working at very high margins so that the parent company and supply channel gets a nice boost of profit. This all predicated on the vast majority of pool owners that see pools as luxury items and just assume that everything pool related is expensive and so shelling out $450 for a new motor assembly is just the "cost of ownership" of a pool. And you can't really blame Maytornics for taking advantage of that market dynamic to make money ... that's how all businesses operate in many ways. As @Newdude pointed out to me once ... "look at Apple and Android phones ... does it really make any sense to shell out thousands of dollars every couple of years for the latest new phone tech?" Nope. Why do people do it then? Because it feels like its the right thing to do and so the psychology drives the purchasing. Dolphin robots are the same exact thing - high priced bling for their pools so everyone that comes by says "ooooooo ... that's fancy" and the pool owner gets that nice little endorphin kick in their brain telling them that they're awesome .... oh, and the robot picks up lots of dirt and debris nicely too ... until it doesn't anymore ...

 

[tcat]

Haven't taken mine apart, must be built better. Should mine die and there's no reasonably priced cordless, I'll buy another Aquabot (now BWT). BWT B200 looks good with Swivel. Much cheaper than any Dolphins with swivel.

Robot or human?

 

[Newdude]

Question to all the long season folks :

How is needing to replace your robots sooner with a long season any different than your SWGs needing the same ?

The pump electricity needed for non robotic cleaners can cost as much as the robot over its lifespan. It's pretty much the same debate of LC/SWG with 'pay upfront' or 'spend similar over time' and either way you will use more electricity or robot life with a longer season, the same way you use more gallons of chlorine or hours of SWG production.

If you get 5 years out of a robot or SWG, that's similar to 10 years for me and you got your fair use out of it.

 

[tcat]

No clue, I'm on my 3rd month of SWG, but on my 17th year on my Subaru Baja ! Hoping my cell will last at least 8 years running at under 20%. But yeah, underwater products need to be built much better and cost more to do so.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Question to all the long season folks :

How is needing to replace your robots sooner with a long season any different than your SWGs needing the same ?

The pump electricity needed for non robotic cleaners can cost as much as the robot over its lifespan. It's pretty much the same debate of LC/SWG with 'pay upfront' or 'spend similar over time' and either way you will use more electricity or robot life with a longer season, the same way you use more gallons of chlorine or hours of SWG production.

If you get 5 years out of a robot or SWG, that's similar to 10 years for me and you got your fair use out of it.

A couple of responses -

1. You actually don’t NEED a robot but you ABSOLUTELY NEED chlorine

2. Variable speed pumps and valve automation renders the “cleaners use a lot of energy” argument moot. My suction cleaner runs fine at the same speed I use to generate chlorine and skim. So if it runs at the same time as the POOL mode then there’s no cost penalty.

3. “Fair use” is debatable. I personally see nothing fair about a company actively keeping critical spare parts off the market. What if a
Major automaker decided that they would not make spare parts available but expect you to buy a new engine ever time the timing chain needed service? Is that “fair use”? Considering Maytronics’ near monopoly control over the robot market, that could even rise to the level of price fixing … hmm maybe time to call the FTC …