New Maytronics Dolphin Quantum

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Aeroknut

Aeroknut

Member
Feb 19, 2020
24
Forney, TX
Just received my new Maytronics Dolphin Quantum and wanted to post my experiences. Purchased from PoolBots and experince was positive. Bot showed up in about 5 days and was pretty much plug and play.

I had been researching Bots for months and it is admittedly challenging to differentiate between similar features across dozens of manufactures and models. I didn’t want/need high end but didn’t want to risk low end so went “midrange” $800-$1,000 and wound up here.

My biggest concern w going the bot route was how EVERYONE said you CANT leave em in the pool. It voids warranties, breaks em etc. My first surprise in reading the documentation was this:

FAQ - It is safe to leave the cleaner in the water when not in use… (with some chlorine exceptions)

WINNING! Very excited to learn this. So far after 2 cleaning I am pleased.
 
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Aeroknut said:
Just received my new Maytronics Dolphin Quantum and wanted to post my experiences. Purchased from PoolBots and experince was positive. Bot showed up in about 5 days and was pretty much plug and play.

I had been researching Bots for months and it is admittedly challenging to differentiate between similar features across dozens of manufactures and models. I didn’t want/need high end but didn’t want to risk low end so went “midrange” $800-$1,000 and wound up here.

My biggest concern w going the bot route was how EVERYONE said you CANT leave em in the pool. It voids warranties, breaks em etc. My first surprise in reading the documentation was this:

FAQ - It is safe to leave the cleaner in the water when not in use… (with some chlorine exceptions)

WINNING! Very excited to learn this. So far after 2 cleaning I am pleased.
Click to expand...
Update,

After three days of great cleaning, I finally realized what people mean when they say the units “get stuck” on the bottom drain.

If the unit makes a perfectly aligned run on one of the bottom drains it becomes “high centered” on it. The front roller climbs over and then the unit sits perfectly between the tracks and the front and rear rollers. Impressive really, while also quite frustrating.

Has only happened once in three days. I’ll update if it becomes frequent enough to be an issue. One would think a simple fix could be designed to deal with this.
 
Aeroknut said:
One would think a simple fix could be designed to deal with this.
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A,

The problem is your drains and not the robot.. :mrgreen:

Until this year, I had three pools and three robots.. Two of the pools never had a problem with the robots getting stuck on the main drain. At one rent house the robot would intermittently get stuck after a couple of years when the tracks wore down.. Replacing the tracks would solve the issue..

The basic problem is how the drain cover and the surrounding plaster is applied.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
You can certainly leave it in pool 7x24, but it will likely have a notably shorter lifespan due to faster breakdown of rubber/plastic and an increased likelihood of leaks in the internals. The tradeoff between longevity and convenience is for each person to decide :) .
 
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WesW said:
You can certainly leave it in pool 7x24, but it will likely have a notably shorter lifespan due to faster breakdown of rubber/plastic and an increased likelihood of leaks in the internals.
Click to expand...
Wes,

Until recently I had three robots.. Two stayed in the pools 24/7. One did not.. I have been doing that for over 10 or 12 years and I have not noticed any difference in the failure rates based on if it was left in the pool or not..

Logic says there should be, but my personal experience has not shown any real difference.

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
Jimrahbe said:
A,

The problem is your drains and not the robot.. :mrgreen:

Until this year, I had three pools and three robots.. Two of the pools never had a problem with the robots getting stuck on the main drain. At one rent house the robot would intermittently get stuck after a couple of years when the tracks wore down.. Replacing the tracks would solve the issue..

The basic problem is how the drain cover and the surrounding plaster is applied.

Thanks,

Jim R.
Click to expand...
Given that this appears to be a “fairly” common problem across numerous pool owners I would have to disagree.

There is little control anyone has over the quality of craftsmanship in pool construction. In my situation a close inspection of the drain and plaster appears to be properly installed. Perhaps there are different drains, some easier to traverse than others?

If I were producing and selling a product that would need to operate across a varied terrain plagued by this common obstacle I would attempt to address it. $300 pool cleaners are able to overcome hangups w/ a simple jet reversal. I would hope a $1,000 cleaner would have a plan for this. Just my feedback in the hopes product improvement occurs.
 
Most pool drain covers nowadays are VGBA compliant which means the top surface of the drain sits up quite a bit higher than the surrounding plaster. This is a required safety feature of all drains to reduce the possibility of suction-entrapment. Most robots have some rubber pads along their bottom surfaces especially around the vacuum intake opening. This helps to guide debris into the robots intake. These rubber pads are what get hung up on drain covers. The covers are also just high enough for the robot to “high center” onto the drain cover which causes the treads or wheels to lose contact with the pool surface. Once that happens, the robot is basically a turtle on its shell until the maneuvering thrusts push it off the drain cover.

There are newer channel and ring drains that people can install on their pools during a pool build to make them more compatible with robotic cleaners.
 

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Aeroknut said:
Given that this appears to be a “fairly” common problem across numerous pool owners I would have to disagree.
Click to expand...
A,

I think it has to do with perspective... :) I used to manage several warranty repair organizations.. From my perspective, everything we built was bad, because all I ever saw were the units that failed.. :mrgreen: But.. when you looked at the number sold vs. the number of returns, the failure rate was miniscule... Keep in mind that we only see the ones that fail..

I did not mean to imply that any of the drains were installed incorrectly... I just meant that since there is no absolute standard as to how the plaster and the drains are installed, that some are slightly different than others..

Thanks,

Jim R.
 
If it cost too much to redesign for new challenges, reprogramming and update the firmware is much cheaper and faster. That's how we handle technology. However, it's not a standard protocol for pool equipment manufacturer which is a bit discouraging.
 
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