Aquabot or Dolphin ????

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F

FDSJr

Member
May 17, 2020
13
York PA
Pool Size
19000
Surface
Vinyl
I am finally closing in on buying a robotic pool cleaner for my 16 x 36 inground pool. I want to clean the floor and walls (waterline would be a bonus, but it is not absolutely necessary). I don't need or want bluetooth, etc. I have narrowed my brand possibilities down to Aquabot and Dolphin. Does anyone have an opinion, hopefully based on actual experience, on which company products do a better job of pool cleaning?
 
My Maytronics Active20 has done a great job for over 5 years. It climbs the walls and scoots along the water line. It is the basic model robot equivalent to a S200, etc. Yes, it is expensive, they are not very repairable, so you go into it with eyes wide open that it is a consumable item, should get +/- 5 years of use. I would be paying a pool service to clean the pool without it, so my economics work quite well.
 
I've owned a Dolphin Nautilus + since 2016. I haven't brushed my pool once since then! My pool is similar in size to yours and the only issue while cleaning is it occasionally gets stuck on my entry step. Other than that, it has been great. The top load filters are necessary and the anti-twist cord works for me. I am always amazed at the fine debris it catches during its 2 hour cycles. Additionally, the Dolphin Nautilus can be repaired by the user up to motor replacement. (Parts might be tough to find in the current economic environment.)

I've never owned an Aquabot so I cannot speak to their efficacy. I'm sure an Aquabot owner will chime in soon.
 
I have an old Aquabot T4 Turbo RC.

Pluses: It does an amazing job. Climbs the walls and scrubs like a champ. It gets leaves, dirt, anything off the bottom. The fine filtering is incredible, even getting dead algae. It doesn't do the steps but I don't think any of them do. Some parts are scarce but it is rebuildable except for the motor. The remote is nice to have but I rarely use it. When I do use it, patience is required since it's not an "instant" response.

Minuses: Detangling the 75 ft cord is a major pain. This is probably my biggest gripe. Cleaning the bag is a messy awkward chore. It's heavy to pull out of the pool. If any of the trap doors on the bottom get jammed open, it will dump Crud back in the pool when you pull it out. It occasionally gets stuck on the main drain but that's just a quick tug on the cable.

Would I give it up? No!
I've been thinking of getting a new robot but honestly can't justify the expense for more convenience. Apier and Aquabot are the two I've considered most. If I get a new one it will be cordless.
 
The polaris will come in between the aquabot and the dolphin. It has a rigid filter very easily accessible and to rid the dirt. Climbs walls very well, has the same cable twist that all robotic cleaners have if you don't have a built on cable swivel but to me the swivel is another part to go bad and it DOES.
 
I have to say that the one issue that everyone complains about never affected me - tangled cord. And my old S300i had a regular cord, no swivel. Sure, it might develop one or two right loops in the pool but it was never an issue. Then again, I would go the extra step (more work for me) to “roll” the cord up when l would put it away and never just bunch it up or add twists to it by coiling it up on my arm. Also, after running the robot, I would usually run the entire cord out completely straight on my concrete walkway by the pool and let it sit in the sun for an hour or so (sometimes I would forget and it would be … ummm … more than just an hour 😏). By leaving it in the heat and making sure it was straight and didn’t have any twists in it, I believe that would “bake out” a lot of the strain that the cable develops while running in the pool. Aside from a little bit of rubber degradation from the chlorine, my cable was fine.

Now I have to say that “cable management” is way worse in a robot than “hose management” is with my suction cleaner. I much prefer dealing with the suction hose than doing all that finagling with an electrical cord … but that’s just my opinion of it and YMMV.
 
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Have Aquabot 4WD, love it other than tangling cord. 8 years no repairs! Climbs walls, not often, not good with waterline, but I don't care about walls. I just bought a BWT B200, almost identical but with swivel cord! But they changed basket filter material to more cloth like and it's twice as hard to clean, so I returned it and continue using 4WD. I ordered a Smorobot to see how well it does. Cordless that runs 2-3 hours and charges quickly sounds like a dream. Should be getting it next week.
 
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JoyfulNoise said:
I have to say that the one issue that everyone complains about never affected me - tangled cord. And my old S300i had a regular cord, no swivel. Sure, it might develop one or two right loops in the pool but it was never an issue. Then again, I would go the extra step (more work for me) to “roll” the cord up when l would put it away and never just bunch it up or add twists to it by coiling it up on my arm. Also, after running the robot, I would usually run the entire cord out completely straight on my concrete walkway by the pool and let it sit in the sun for an hour or so (sometimes I would forget and it would be … ummm … more than just an hour 😏). By leaving it in the heat and making sure it was straight and didn’t have any twists in it, I believe that would “bake out” a lot of the strain that the cable develops while running in the pool. Aside from a little bit of rubber degradation from the chlorine, my cable was fine.

Now I have to say that “cable management” is way worse in a robot than “hose management” is with my suction cleaner. I much prefer dealing with the suction hose than doing all that finagling with an electrical cord … but that’s just my opinion of it and YMMV.
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I have the S200 equivalent and have had no issues with the cord. However, in a previous life, I had to use a 200 foot long interphone cord (mil aviation) and cord management was very, VERY important...so I learned to wrap up cords in a perfectionist kind of way. Whoever though that you could be a SME (subject matter expert) in "cord management"? :D

Oh, and I am pretty big fan of the robot. When it dies, I will replace it...no question about it.
 
tcat said:
Have Aquabot 4WD, love it other than tangling cord. 8 years no repairs! Climbs walls, not often, not good with waterline, but I don't care about walls. I just bought a BWT B200, almost identical but with swivel cord! But they changed basket filter material to more cloth like and it's twice as hard to clean, so I returned it and continue using 4WD. I ordered a Smorobot to see how well it does. Cordless that runs 2-3 hours and charges quickly sounds like a dream. Should be getting it next week.
Click to expand...
I am very curious as to how long the battery will last in this thing. I know batteries have come a long way, but this use (repeated cycles of full charge to full dead or close) seems to bring on pre-mature failure in these batteries. If it actually lasts 5 years then I think it's a good deal for $750
 
tcat said:
Have Aquabot 4WD, love it other than tangling cord. 8 years no repairs! Climbs walls, not often, not good with waterline, but I don't care about walls. I just bought a BWT B200, almost identical but with swivel cord! But they changed basket filter material to more cloth like and it's twice as hard to clean, so I returned it and continue using 4WD. I ordered a Smorobot to see how well it does. Cordless that runs 2-3 hours and charges quickly sounds like a dream. Should be getting it next week.
Click to expand...
You need to review that puppy once you get it :)
 
HeyEng said:
I have the S200 equivalent and have had no issues with the cord. However, in a previous life, I had to use a 200 foot long interphone cord (mil aviation) and cord management was very, VERY important...so I learned to wrap up cords in a perfectionist kind of way. Whoever though that you could be a SME (subject matter expert) in "cord management"? :D

Oh, and I am pretty big fan of the robot. When it dies, I will replace it...no question about it.
Click to expand...
I used to work local crew at concerts. Cable management is very important especially when dealing with large, angry British roadies during a Rolling Stones load out… you learn very quickly how to coil a cord, or you risk getting punched in the face…
 
I am in a similar quandary, as my Nautilus CC Plus cable (white plastic box) appeared to have exploded/shortened somehow from the inside (replacement cable currently runs at $400). I've had the Dolphin for 7 years and love how it cleans the bottom and picks up leaves. It has taken a lot of abuse over the years, as I run it almost daily. That said, I've never been happy with how it brushes the walls, and on average, I have to manually brush the walls once a week.

I've had 2 Aquabots (Turbo) before the Dolphin and both of them lasted on average 2 years each. On both, the drive motor failed within 2 years. That said, I was very happy with how it brushed the walls, my only issue was the very short life span and cost prohibitive repairs.
 
tcat said:
Came early! 🍻 Review after its charged and run.
Click to expand...

I'm still trying to figure out the name ...

SMORO - BOT

or

SMO - ROBOT

The Kickstarter website has an interesting video. So it looks like they did a split-track design with two drive motors giving the SMOROBOT the ability to do "zero radius" turns. That's actually a huge improvement over the various Dolphin robots that are in the S-series family. I think only the most expensive S series robot does split tracks and, even then, I'm not sure they do zero-radius turns. The SMOROBOT also seems to do a path plan as opposed to the random walk of the Dolphin robots ...

Should be interesting to see your results. If you can post a video to Youtube with a link, that would be great.
 

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