So this just happened....

[zea3]

Have u tried rock auto? We get tons of parts from there - lots of toyota oem stuff & good customer service if there’s an issue.

Yes, they were out at the time I ordered the one's I just returned. The new set is coming from Rock Auto.

 

[Mdragger88]

Yes, they were out at the time I ordered the one's I just returned. The new set is coming from Rock Auto.

We have an account set up with them & they know what vehicles we have/order for so occasionally we get emails when they get new lots of parts for them- it’s been quite helpful. Especially when you have older vehicles where the parts can be hard to find

 

[zea3]

Ordered yesterday and parts arrived today! I wasn't expecting them until Tuesday!

 

[revitup]

We have an account set up with them & they know what vehicles we have/order for so occasionally we get emails when they get new lots of parts for them- it’s been quite helpful. Especially when you have older vehicles where the parts can be hard to find

They notify me whenever they are eliminating parts stock for my ‘77 vette. Bad news is my garage looks like a parts store.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

UPDATE - new wheels but no joy ... yet ...

So my new wheels and bushings arrived yesterday and while they are definitely better than the old wheels, I'm still getting a small amount of tread skip. It's better than it was but I took apart the back brush and, lo & behold, the bushings there are worn as well. Not nearly as bad as the front bushings but I think it's enough to cause the small amount of skipping that I'm still seeing. Anyway, ordered a new back brush (another $25) and I'm waiting for it to arrive. The good news is that part was actually in stock so it's just waiting for the shipment (a couple of days).

What I'm seeing on the bushings is a very scored surface. It looks like someone threw sand in between the bushing and the wheel hub. It looks a lot like a really worn out disc brake that needs to be milled down but, in this case, you can't mill the bushing down as that would make the problem worse. I think what I might do when all is ready to be reassembled is that I will add a very healthy amount of silicone lube to all the bushing surfaces in order to provide a thin layer between the bushing and the wheel shaft but also to hopefully exclude any dirt. With it being submerged all the time, I don't expect the lube to remain in place forever so I think periodic checks will need to be done. My pool doesn't get a lot of leaf debris but it does get a lot of dust and grit debris. So I'm not at all surprised at how worn these surfaces are considering the environment they're in.

I dunno ... I think the pool store may have been right - robots aren't the best choice in this environment. I may have to go back to my old suction side Pentair Sandshark cleaner or one of the wheeled suction cleaners. They too would get worn out components from grit but they are far cheaper to rebuild ....

 

[wireform]

I think the scored up bushings is the nature of the beast in other brands too as I've seen lots over time. I blame it on the velocity under and around the robot as it's crawling around that's where the grit is in the pool. I think by adding the lube you speak of is going to ware it out sooner since the grit will get caught and not be able to get flushed out as quickly.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

I think the scored up bushings is the nature of the beast in other brands too as I've seen lots over time. I blame it on the velocity under and around the robot as it's crawling around that's where the grit is in the pool. I think by adding the lube you speak of is going to ware it out sooner since the grit will get caught and not be able to get flushed out as quickly.

Yeah, that’s a concern I thought about as well - the lube would create a paste of dirt and silicone which would only make the situation worse.

I don’t have a picture of it but if you look at the bushing you can see all of the wear and tear is on the front-leading surface while the entire interior surface of the wheel hub is scored. It makes sense because the the bushing is fixed in place by two tabs so it doesn’t rotate while the wheel hub spins around it. So that front surface is always the load-bearing surface from the elastic force of the treads. Any dirt or grit that gets pulled into the wheel hub will get ground around the hub. There is a plastic hub cap that is screwed onto the wheel hub to help deflect water flow around the bushing but it’s not tightly sealed in any way so it’s only going to be of minimal help.

I’ll have to pull the robot out more often and rinse it well to keep dirt out of the wheel.

 

[Katodude]

I dunno ... I think the pool store may have been right

That’s it. I am arranging an intervention!!! First you dont like chocolate and now the pool store is right. Maybe aliens have taken over your body.

And BTW. If my robot wore out every two years I had to replace it. I would!!! I would never go back to a non robot world.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Just to wrap up on my latest fix, the robot is all back together again and in the pool right now running a 2-hr FLOOR ONLY cycle. I wound up replacing both front wheels with bushings AND the rear brush assembly. While I wouldn't say that the gap between the bushing and wheel hub is completely closed, it's at least half as small as it was with the old wheels. The "skip" in the treads is still there but to a much much lesser degree and probably doesn't happen when the bot is submerged and running along there floor. I'll keep an eye on it over the next two hours to ensure it finishes it's cycle. I recently vacuumed the pool manually so the debris load right now is very minimal, likely mostly dirt, silt and few small leaves to pick up.

All in, it was about $80 (with shipping) worth of parts. The treads were replaced last year so I did not get new ones. Those are pricey and typically run $90-$100. So, if a bot owner wanted to do a full drive train replacement, without replacing the active brush, you'd be in the hole for ~$180 worth of plastic and rubber parts. I haven't looked at the price of a new active brush but I think they're typically around $100.

Seems like everything about these robots is spending $200+ when they need a repair ... if I can get another 4-5 years out of this robot, I'll be happy.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Cycle completed without any issues. Robot sucked up lots of dirt. Pool water always looks better after Mr T runs a cycle. I pulled it out and hosed it all down. I’ll be pulling the robot out of the water more frequently from now on to rinse it all off and pull the side panels to inspect the wheels. Fingers crossed that it keeps chugging along.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Welp ... after lots of fiddling around the edges I have come to the conclusion that Mr. T is on his last legs. Lots of random issues mostly centered around what looks like a reduction in power (suction and thrust) output. I just ordered a set of "spring cleanup panels" so that I could run the filter basket without the ultra-fine filter screens in them. I figured this would reduce the suction loss on the water pump since the spring cleaning panels are much more open, basically like a very fine window screen material. Sadly, no joy. Things I'm seeing -

• Sluggish turns when it tries to do its power-thrust. The robot barely heaves up and turns. When it was new, a power thrust would results in a greater than 90 degree change in orientation. Now, it barely makes a few degrees.
• Has a hard time climbing
• Throws random errors - today it ran for almost 15mins then seems to do a lot of quick back & forth motions and then stopped. The App would allow me to switch to manual mode and the robot would let me control it. Then I would put it back into cleaning mode and it would just sit still. Turned the robot off and then on again using the App and the App displayed a red caution symbol. Tap the caution symbol and it said "ERROR - Out of Water. Reset Robot". Reset the robot and it would run again. Out of water errors occur when you bench test the robot and it senses that the there's no water.
• Cord is definitely aged and disintegrating but it is fully intact. Power supply is operating normally.

So, at the end of the day, my guess is the motor assembly is starting to die. I suspect that if I took the motor box apart, I would find the water pump motor is probably starting to get hard to turn which means the bearings are probably going. The actuator motor that directs the thrust port is probably sluggish too. These are parts that are not easily sourced or replaced so I'm basically staring at a $450 + tax fix .... assuming that fixes the problems. Common sense says I should also replace the cable while I'm at it and that's either $99 for the non-swivel cable or $199 for the swivel version. So a full repair job looks like $550 + tax.

Hmmmm .... I'm not sure it's worth it. I'm going to have to sit back and give this some thought. My pool is fully capable of running a suction side cleaner and, with my automation, I can probably run it cheaply enough. When I went from owning the Pentair kreepy krawly sand shark to owning a robot, there wasn't actually anything wrong with the Kreepy aside from its age and wear & tear. I could easily go back to it and a brand new one would cost about $450. My wife actually preferred the suction cleaner because she knew which valve to turn to make it stop so she could take it out of the pool. She doesn't like messing with the robot at all.

Luckily Mr. T is still running so I have time to think it over. I also have a manual vacuum so I could go completely cabana-boy old-school, get a large brimmed straw hat, a pair of mirrored sun-glasses and speedos and just spend my afternoons lazily vacuuming the pool by hand .... decisions, decisions

 

[kimkats]

Poor Mr. T!!! He has worked so hard for so long. LONG LIVE Mr. T

 

[mknauss]

5 years. $150 a year (give or take)

I will pay that to clean my pool any day -------

 

[JoyfulNoise]

5 years. $150 a year (give or take)

I will pay that to clean my pool any day -------

Don’t forget the $1,100 initial outlay

 

[mknauss]

I did - but mine cost a lot less. I was going by 5 times $150 -- $750. About what a S200 goes for, give or take.

 

[Jimrahbe]

Nothing that I do for my pool has anything to do with ROI...

Jim R.

 

[kul]

I’m sorry for your loss and the tough choice you’re having to make. sounds like it was a good run!

 

[setsailsoon]

We sold our house after three years with our Pentair Warrior SE "Maggie" . So we didn't have to watch those final years which would have been sad. But it's like your favorite pet dealing with those final days is tough but it's worth every bit to have them and enjoy them. Maybe you should try the s200 breed next time. Not sure if it will do any better but seems to be a little easier on your wallet.

 

[Newdude]

I pity the fool that is out $$$$ for a replacement robot.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Still considering my options. But I don’t see the value in spending nearly $600 on a new motor and cable when a brand new robot with a 2 year warranty is only $150 more (give or take some $). With all the other plastic parts being a little worn out, there’s only going to more seasons of $50 here and $75 there to fix little things. I could buy an S200 version and then use all the parts from this robot as backup. The major issue is availability … no one has stock on anything these days …

Then again, $450 on a simple suction cleaner with years of serviceable life and cheap replacement parts is hard to ignore as well …

Decisions, decisions …