I recently purchased and received the Aiper Hand Held Vacuum and wanted to share my experience with it.
My goal with the purchase was to find a way to capture and remove the dirt and silt typically left by the rain on my sun-shelf, steps, and spa instead of just brushing it about the pool. This is something AIPER specifically advertised it being capable of on its website.
Upon un-boxing my first impressions of it were ok, it was a lot smaller than expected but it looked like it was well built and had a decent quality finish to it. However, upon assembly the lower filter cartridge (the clear plastic bit with the nozzle would not fully seat itself and rotated all the way around then off of the body of the vacuum. Also, the ad from amazon stated it would come with a fine mesh sock and a standard mesh sock and mine had only come with the former. Regardless of these issues, I charged it up placed in on a pole and headed to the pool where it failed to impress.
I turned the vacuum on and placed it on the sun shelf and began vacuum to suck up the dirt and silt. That is until all the dirt and silt began to float out of the mesh socks weave and back into the water. At this point, I remembered from the reviews someone had taken a skimmer sock and placed it over the mesh bag in an attempt to capture the finer debris and that worked for a time until the basket started coming off from the body of the vacuum randomly. Around this same time, the clear plastic lower filter cartridge started coming loose regularly and made the vacuum pretty much impossible to use. The size of the vacuum was also very restrictive, to vacuum up the sun shelf it would take about 3 times as as it would to brush and not give any benefit of doing so since it dumped all the fine dirt back into the pool. It was at this point I contacted AIPER.
I emailed AIPER about the issues (the missing bag and the rotating cartridge/nozzle) and waited. 2-3 days went by and I received no response. I emailed again asking for a return authorization and a refund to which AIPER immediately responded asking for an video of how I assembled the vacuum which I provided. I was told in a subsequent email that I was assembling the vacuum wrong and should try it a different way. I attempted again to assemble the vacuum per their instructions and ended up with the same result. I again requested a return authorization as this was clearly a defect and not an issue with how I was operating it and was told I could keep the vacuum and they would refund me my money. To AIPER's credit, they did just that.
Since I was refunded my money and able to keep the vacuum, I decided to see if there was any way I could fix the issues that I had with it (aside from the size).
To correct the issue with the clear plastic filter cartridge/nozzle coming off I used my plastic repair kit and melted some metal re-enforcement bits into the ends of the where the clear plastic piece locks into the white plastic body on both sides (see below pic)
I then glue/melted a band of clear plastic across the groove that locates the clear plastic nozzle onto the white body as shown below.
Since I made these corrections, the clear plastic nozzle/filter cartridge has not fallen off the limited time I have used it.
To correct the filter basket coming off, I used two zip ties to secure the skimmer socket to it and create more resistance in the direction of the mounting tabs to it slipping free. It also has not come loose since I made correction.
Given the modifications successfully addressed the issues I was having, I felt I should share them and posted here.
Overall, I do not recommend the vacuum as it appears to have quality issues with tolerances and fit given my experience and the experience of other based on the reviews. It also does not perform its intended tasks well (removal of silt and fine debris). For a smaller pool with larger debris such as leaves, seed pods etc.. the vacuum may be a useful tool but not for a larger pool or spa. Again, Aiper did refund my money and I give them credit for doing so. They are an honest company and that goes a long way.
My goal with the purchase was to find a way to capture and remove the dirt and silt typically left by the rain on my sun-shelf, steps, and spa instead of just brushing it about the pool. This is something AIPER specifically advertised it being capable of on its website.
Upon un-boxing my first impressions of it were ok, it was a lot smaller than expected but it looked like it was well built and had a decent quality finish to it. However, upon assembly the lower filter cartridge (the clear plastic bit with the nozzle would not fully seat itself and rotated all the way around then off of the body of the vacuum. Also, the ad from amazon stated it would come with a fine mesh sock and a standard mesh sock and mine had only come with the former. Regardless of these issues, I charged it up placed in on a pole and headed to the pool where it failed to impress.
I turned the vacuum on and placed it on the sun shelf and began vacuum to suck up the dirt and silt. That is until all the dirt and silt began to float out of the mesh socks weave and back into the water. At this point, I remembered from the reviews someone had taken a skimmer sock and placed it over the mesh bag in an attempt to capture the finer debris and that worked for a time until the basket started coming off from the body of the vacuum randomly. Around this same time, the clear plastic lower filter cartridge started coming loose regularly and made the vacuum pretty much impossible to use. The size of the vacuum was also very restrictive, to vacuum up the sun shelf it would take about 3 times as as it would to brush and not give any benefit of doing so since it dumped all the fine dirt back into the pool. It was at this point I contacted AIPER.
I emailed AIPER about the issues (the missing bag and the rotating cartridge/nozzle) and waited. 2-3 days went by and I received no response. I emailed again asking for a return authorization and a refund to which AIPER immediately responded asking for an video of how I assembled the vacuum which I provided. I was told in a subsequent email that I was assembling the vacuum wrong and should try it a different way. I attempted again to assemble the vacuum per their instructions and ended up with the same result. I again requested a return authorization as this was clearly a defect and not an issue with how I was operating it and was told I could keep the vacuum and they would refund me my money. To AIPER's credit, they did just that.
Since I was refunded my money and able to keep the vacuum, I decided to see if there was any way I could fix the issues that I had with it (aside from the size).
To correct the issue with the clear plastic filter cartridge/nozzle coming off I used my plastic repair kit and melted some metal re-enforcement bits into the ends of the where the clear plastic piece locks into the white plastic body on both sides (see below pic)
I then glue/melted a band of clear plastic across the groove that locates the clear plastic nozzle onto the white body as shown below.
Since I made these corrections, the clear plastic nozzle/filter cartridge has not fallen off the limited time I have used it.
To correct the filter basket coming off, I used two zip ties to secure the skimmer socket to it and create more resistance in the direction of the mounting tabs to it slipping free. It also has not come loose since I made correction.
Given the modifications successfully addressed the issues I was having, I felt I should share them and posted here.
Overall, I do not recommend the vacuum as it appears to have quality issues with tolerances and fit given my experience and the experience of other based on the reviews. It also does not perform its intended tasks well (removal of silt and fine debris). For a smaller pool with larger debris such as leaves, seed pods etc.. the vacuum may be a useful tool but not for a larger pool or spa. Again, Aiper did refund my money and I give them credit for doing so. They are an honest company and that goes a long way.
