I have a friend of mine that has tried two different robotic cleaners (Dolphin and Polaris) and has returned both. His major complaint was that the robotic cleaners do not clean the side walls since his free form pool has a lot of bends and curves. I don’t want him to give up and am reaching out to this community to see if anyone is happy with side wall cleaning from a robotic cleaner. He is brushing pool walls every week. ??
Robotic cleaners and free form pools - side wall problems.
- Thread starter Sandman_satx
- Start date
MannyT
0
- Apr 23, 2017
- 2,400
- Pool Size
- 22000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
My S200 Dolphin does just fine. I still brush the tiles and partially down the side walls along with the steps 3-4 times a month. Doesn’t mean I’m unhappy with my robot I just like to give the pool a little extra love...
i dont think there is a perfect pool cleaner but there are lots of good ones!
i dont think there is a perfect pool cleaner but there are lots of good ones!
Here’’s his review from his purchase on Amazon. Again, I’m looking for individuals that are happy with the side wall cleaning capability (free form pool) of their robotic cleaner.
“Dolphin Triton Plus with PowerStream|Verified Purchase
Probably like you, I'm sick of brushing the pool weekly. Several friends gave rave reviews of Dolphin robots, so this seemed like an easy choice. Unfortunately, it wasn't so easy. Here's what I learned through the process:
1. The Triton Plus PS only cleaned 50% of my pool - skipping huge sections
I followed the instructions on setting up and deploying the Triton. The instructions say that it will take several cleaning cycles for the unit to learn the geometry of the pool. After a week of running it multiple times daily, the unit was only cleaning 50% of my pool. I called Maytronics support and was AMAZED at the guidance that I received from their tech support. They basically told me that I shouldn't have purchased this unit because it was a first year model and they have problems with first year units. Tech Support recommended that instead I should have purchased the M400 or M500. After this call I initiated a return with Amazon, which fortunately was accepted.
2. You can't buy the good stuff from Maytronics on the Internet
Since Amazon accepted my return, my next move was to try to find an M400 or M500. Come to find out, Maytronics has different models for Internet and for their retail distributors. Units like the Triton Plus are Internet models (the retail version is the S series) that have a different warranty, but can be returned. High end units like the M400 or M500 can only be purchased in a retail store! Based on my research, it seems like the Internet models are dumbed down and don't have some of the features as the units available through retail stores. Obviously Maytronics is trying to protect their retail channel.
3. The M400 or M500 cannot be returned once purchased!
The closest retail store was an hour away, and they did have the M400 and M500 available. However, once purchased, you CANNOT return it to the store if it doesn't work out. Buy it, and you're stuck with it. This is a huge red flag considering my experience with the first model that I purchased and had to return. This gives me the impression that Maytronics doesn't stand behind their product or thinks so little of their quality that they are unwilling to provide a money back guarantee. Maytronics probably has a different opinion about this, and I fully expected to get a canned response to this post from a Maytronics employee with a unsatisfactory explanation for this terrible policy and an unhelpful offer to help.
My pool still needs to be brushed. Maybe Polaris or any of the dozens of other robot makers will stand behind their products? I'm super disappointed, this was supposed to be a slam dunk.”
“Dolphin Triton Plus with PowerStream|Verified Purchase
Probably like you, I'm sick of brushing the pool weekly. Several friends gave rave reviews of Dolphin robots, so this seemed like an easy choice. Unfortunately, it wasn't so easy. Here's what I learned through the process:
1. The Triton Plus PS only cleaned 50% of my pool - skipping huge sections
I followed the instructions on setting up and deploying the Triton. The instructions say that it will take several cleaning cycles for the unit to learn the geometry of the pool. After a week of running it multiple times daily, the unit was only cleaning 50% of my pool. I called Maytronics support and was AMAZED at the guidance that I received from their tech support. They basically told me that I shouldn't have purchased this unit because it was a first year model and they have problems with first year units. Tech Support recommended that instead I should have purchased the M400 or M500. After this call I initiated a return with Amazon, which fortunately was accepted.
2. You can't buy the good stuff from Maytronics on the Internet
Since Amazon accepted my return, my next move was to try to find an M400 or M500. Come to find out, Maytronics has different models for Internet and for their retail distributors. Units like the Triton Plus are Internet models (the retail version is the S series) that have a different warranty, but can be returned. High end units like the M400 or M500 can only be purchased in a retail store! Based on my research, it seems like the Internet models are dumbed down and don't have some of the features as the units available through retail stores. Obviously Maytronics is trying to protect their retail channel.
3. The M400 or M500 cannot be returned once purchased!
The closest retail store was an hour away, and they did have the M400 and M500 available. However, once purchased, you CANNOT return it to the store if it doesn't work out. Buy it, and you're stuck with it. This is a huge red flag considering my experience with the first model that I purchased and had to return. This gives me the impression that Maytronics doesn't stand behind their product or thinks so little of their quality that they are unwilling to provide a money back guarantee. Maytronics probably has a different opinion about this, and I fully expected to get a canned response to this post from a Maytronics employee with a unsatisfactory explanation for this terrible policy and an unhelpful offer to help.
My pool still needs to be brushed. Maybe Polaris or any of the dozens of other robot makers will stand behind their products? I'm super disappointed, this was supposed to be a slam dunk.”
s man,
How does your friend know?? I say that because if you just sit and watch the robot they do not seem to make much sense... Sometimes they climb up and wall and sometimes they don't.. They certainty don't start at one end of the pool and work to the other end in any logical sequence. It appears to be a rather random pattern.
That said, I have three of them and they all work the same basic way. They wander around in the pool for 2 or 3 hours and when they are done it is spotless..
I believe that they know when your are watching and just do things to aggravate you..
The only thing I know for sure is, that before I fire my robot up I will pick out a spot or two that has a leaf or bug or something smaller than a dime and I have yet to have it not clean that spot.
Two of my pools are freeform and one is rectangular.. I can't tell any difference in how the robots operate.
You will have to pry my robots from my cold dead hands..
Thanks,
Jim R.
How does your friend know?? I say that because if you just sit and watch the robot they do not seem to make much sense... Sometimes they climb up and wall and sometimes they don't.. They certainty don't start at one end of the pool and work to the other end in any logical sequence. It appears to be a rather random pattern.
That said, I have three of them and they all work the same basic way. They wander around in the pool for 2 or 3 hours and when they are done it is spotless..
I believe that they know when your are watching and just do things to aggravate you..
The only thing I know for sure is, that before I fire my robot up I will pick out a spot or two that has a leaf or bug or something smaller than a dime and I have yet to have it not clean that spot.
Two of my pools are freeform and one is rectangular.. I can't tell any difference in how the robots operate.
You will have to pry my robots from my cold dead hands..
Thanks,
Jim R.
My friend is very thorough. He let some algae build up in the pool so it was easy for him to validate that side walls were not cleaned thoroughly (50% coverage). Floors were spotless.
As a follow up... robots have to "learn" your pool every time they start up.. they don't save what learned today and use it tomorrow..
Jim R.
Jim R.
I have had the S300 for three seasons and it does side walls and tile-line cleaning just great in my kidney-shaped pool. "Letting algae build up" is not solely a vacuuming issue.
My M400 does a fine job in our free form pool. I purchased this model a couple of months ago, primarily because of the third brush on the bottom of the unit that other Maytronics models (except the M500) do not have. I needed this bottom brush to prevent the unit from getting high centered and spinning around the main drains like my old DX4 did.
To the point it can't be returned, that's correct....my pool store told me the same thing. However, I wanted to purchase it locally in the event it needs a warranty repair down the road...I didn't want to have to box it up and ship it to some company far away.
To the point it can't be returned, that's correct....my pool store told me the same thing. However, I wanted to purchase it locally in the event it needs a warranty repair down the road...I didn't want to have to box it up and ship it to some company far away.
Our M400 does a few of the walls, but not all. I have only brushed my walls twice in four years of pool ownership and that was only when there was algae on them.
- Jul 16, 2012
- 7,211
- Pool Size
- 27000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
Expecting a robot to clean algae from pool walls is unrealistic. Rubber flaps passing over plaster will never do so. It's like a soft gentle massage. While a bristle brush used with human arm leverage is quite aggressive on the surface. The idea is to agitate the algae (physically not mentally) which allows the FC to do it's job on it. And with visible algae, a good pool owner would be in SLAM mode, having raised FC levels. A properly maintained pool should never have algae. I'd get him up to speed on TFPC first and let him deal with his thoroughness issues himself.
I would walk away from him and let him be. He will never be satisfied with any cleaner except his own arms using a brush on the sides. That said, we should all be doing some brushing even with a robot if we want perfection. I'm fine with just Earl doing his thing and a very occasional brushing when I'm killing time around the pool.
I would walk away from him and let him be. He will never be satisfied with any cleaner except his own arms using a brush on the sides. That said, we should all be doing some brushing even with a robot if we want perfection. I'm fine with just Earl doing his thing and a very occasional brushing when I'm killing time around the pool.