So this just happened....

[JoyfulNoise]

Challenge accepted

This I will definitely have to see.....

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Welp, it's official....the signature is now updated!

 

[pooldv]

I count myself fortunate that I have no idea who all these Disney characters are. I hope to keep it that way.

 

[kimkats]

Matt! What fun! cute name and SO smart to lead them that way! It was parenting at it's finest! LOL

Kim

 

[Nursenini]

Congratulations on the new edition to your family!! Naming yours Wall-E would have been fine with me, but since mine is the Discovery and yours is the 300i, Eva would have been more appropriate. After all, she is more advanced.

I had actually REALLY wanted your model, but Danny's testimony and the price on the Discovery was just too attractive to pass up. When Wall-E passes from this life, I will probably go for the 300i, provided I have the cash for it at the time.

Love the name you chose! I'm a little behind on my movies. Haven't had a chance to see Moana or Sing yet. Last few times I had some of the grandkids, I suggested both of those movies (so I could watch them, of course), but Minions, Trolls, Inside Out, and Winnie the Pooh won the votes.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

My kids are big fans of minions and my wife and I LOVED Inside Out ("The FOOT is going down people!"). But Trolls was a flop for us and the boys are way past Pooh.

Definitely see Sing, even without the grandkids....I only wish I could be half as talented as Gunther (and wear the sequins body suit)....

Moana is ok; it's got its moments. But it definitely plays to whole "girl power" theme so the boys were not nearly as interested in it.

 

[Leebo]

Congrats!!! I know you'll love the ease of the bot.

Ours was named after an oldy but goody.....Mr. Splashy Pants. Kids never really understood it and my wife just kept shaking her head. Our old one died and I'm looking at another. Dare this one get called Boaty McBoat Face???????

 

[pooldv]

Ha! Splashy Mcsplash Pants.

 

[BeachSunH20]

Thank you, for the feed back. I may need to get one in the near future.

 

[setsailsoon]

Matt,

Wow, now that's cool! Congrats! My "The Pool Cleaner Next Generation" is still doing great but I'd love to decouple pump run times with cleaning as well. Plus maybe reduce acid consumption some more. I'll be interested in updates as you learn the inevitable tips.

Chris

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Filter gets a tear down and clean out on Monday then I start dialing back pump speeds to see where my minimums are for the SWG. I'm looking forward to smaller electric bills.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[PoolingAround]

Turn your phone when recording movies! Other than that, nice purchase.

 

[Sammy2]

Yep. I've been wanting to decouple cleaning from my pumps for over a year now. I'll be able to scale back my pump run speeds quite a bit now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Is there a cost analysis comparing first cost versus savings on running the pump full bore? My suction side cleaner is the only reason I'm doing that now for 2 hours a day. The rest of the time it is at 1400 RPM or 2200 RPM for a nice gentle cascade off the spa into the pool. If I can cut out 10 hours a week of 3450 RPM (I programmed it for M-F only) will I save enough money to justify the cost of a robot? How to include the cost of the wear and tear on the pump in addition to the energy cost here?

 

[pooldv]

There is some discussion about it here, Which pool cleaner is a good companion for a variable speed pump?

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Well, let me put it to you in real savings terms that I will see. When running my pool previously, I would typically leave my VSP set to around 2000-2250 RPMs to get the skimmer, suction vac and SWG all happily moving along (as well as run the spillway 1 hr/day). That would correspond to an electrical usage by my pump of about a kilowatt (900-1050 W). I would run like that for a couple of hours per day (4-6hrs/day) because it was too much of an inconvenience to run the cleaner separately for an hour or two at high speed with the valve all the way on the suction port, then kick that down to a slower speed and go out to the pad and manually adjust the valve back to the skimmer. There was/is no automation on the 3-way that controls the skimmer/suction port split, so it would be a daily manual exercise....not gonna happen.

Now, with the valve totally on to the skimmer (MD is tied in series unfortunately ), I set the VSP as low as 1600RPM (I don't know the true floor value yet for the SWG as I need to clean my filter) and just run it that way. I kick it up to 2500RPM when the spillway activates (I only run the spa spillway for 1 hour per day). So, for most of the day now, my pump is running at 1600RPMs which is about 275W of power.

So,

(1 - 275/1000) x 100% = 72.5% reduction in pump power consumption.

[EDIT]

So, I should add that the robot uses about 250W of power and my plan is to run it three times per week. So, net savings on the days I run the robot is

725W - 250W = 475W

[END-EDIT]

Now my electric rates are not too high ($0.11-0.15 / kWh) so I don't ever see myself recouping the cost of the robot before it will likely need some major repair (warranty is 24 months bumper-to-bumper and motors/power supplies are typically $300-$500 to replace, power cords are ~$50-$100). But, it is nice to know that I'm running my pool pump a lot less.

And, truth be told....[EDIT] those ... apparently there are those who are watching for grammatical errors [END-EDIT] THESE robots are pretty darn cool to watch!!!!

 

[pooldv]

And they do a much better job of cleaning the pool.

I run my pump at 1100 rpm for skimming, making chlorine with the SWG and solar standby. It uses 150 watts at 1100 rpm. My SWG gives intermittent flow errors at 900 rpm and rare flow errors at 1000, so at 1100 rpm I've never gotten a flow error on the SWG in 5 years even with clogged filters. I can run 24x7 at 150 watts with rates at 10.25c/kWh for less than 12 bucks per month.

For the pressure cleaner I had I kicked the VS pump up to 2000 rpm and used 600 watts AND turned on the booster pump, no idea how many watts that loud, annoying pump used, probably over 1000w. All for much, much less pool cleaning. And much harder to clean out the little, bitty net bag.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Totally true! I almost went from a suction cleaner to a pressure cleaner before I did some research here and realized that would be even worse! I have a waterfall and the flow is actually split between the water pipe in the waterfall and a wall port in my shallow end (for safety reasons). When the waterfall runs, the water coming out of that port is pretty substantial because, much to my frustration, the PB put a 3HP WhisperFlo pump on the waterfall....waaaaaaaaaay too much pump for that application. So I thought, "hey, why not use all that extra power for a cleaner..." but then realized that running a 3HP pump uses A TON of electricity and pressure cleaners aren't all they are advertised to be. I only run the waterfall a few times per day for a total of about 45mins per day...adding a pressure cleaner run would have tripled or quadrupled that run time and cost me much more money.

So yeah, I can easily see why robots are a much better option in many situations.

 

[Sammy2]

So the robot uses 250 watts, cleans better and you only run it every other day?

My pool is very clean now but it cleans every day, either at 3450 RPM for 2 hours M-F or 2200 RPM every day but that's in conjunction with the "zen" time and that won't change. At 2200 RPM it is not climbing the walls though.

How much are these and how much interaction do I have to have with it? Can they be automated? Do they have to be removed each time you want to jump in?

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

 

[JoyfulNoise]

So the robot uses 250 watts, cleans better and you only run it every other day?

My pool is very clean now but it cleans every day, either at 3450 RPM for 2 hours M-F or 2200 RPM every day but that's in conjunction with the "zen" time and that won't change. At 2200 RPM it is not climbing the walls though.

How much are these and how much interaction do I have to have with it? Can they be automated? Do they have to be removed each time you want to jump in?

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

Depends A LOT on the model. I have the Dolphin S300i. Cost $1250 + tax

Interaction - put in pool, push the ON button, away it goes.

Automation Options-

1.5/2/2.5hr clean cycles available.
Delay start time optional.
Weekly run time programmable (1, 3 or 4 times per week) - MUST be left in pool if this is option is set
Cleaning modes - Standard mode (80% floor / 20% walls), fast mode (floor only), tile line scrub, other mode options that I can't recall
Bluetooth controls (manually drive if you want to clean a specific spot and for setting up advanced options)

Removal

The official line is this - you can leave it in the pool all the time but it is preferred that you not do that. Pool water is corrosive (in a sense) and so leaving it constantly submerged in the water is going to shorten component life relative to a cleaner that is pulled from the water each time and hosed down. My unit comes with a caddy to wheel it around on and so it's fairly easy to take it in and out as needed and store it on the patio out of the sunlight. But, the truth is, many robot owners just leave them in. So it's up to you and what your needs are.

 

[borjis]

Very impressive! (youtube vid)

I might go for a smaller version of one of these in the future.