A disclaimer right off the bat. Yes I'm comparing a $2k robot to a $500 robot.
I've been a pool owner for around 15 years, the last 8 with my current inground. It's kidney shaped with a pretty steep 3.5 to 10' transition. Vinyl and curved transitions. I owe 2 roombas and have been using them for 3 and 7 years. I love them, they don't replace the dyson, but do a great job of keeping the floors generally clean throughout the week, especially with a black lab and 3 kids under 11.
So needless to say I was recently intrigued when I saw an IG add for the beatbot. Wow, I thought, this looks great. I don't hate, but generally find my weekly vac to be a pain and time suck, and the days in-between if it's windy, I really don't like the look of debris on the floor. So I looked up the beatbot and was like $2k? No freaking way... but what else is out there?
I found a few of those obviously paid review sites that listed the aipier S1 or N1 (same thing) as a top contender. I found that if I ordered direct from them in May I would pay $475 shipped to my door. No tax either. I figured this was a gamble worth taking. Please note if you check the non paid review comparison sites you'll generally find a much more critical review.
Initial impressions were good. Packaged nicely, good quick start guide and seemed well built. I didn't like the charging port. Anything that is a rubber gasket is going to wear over time and separate, come loose or just not do a great job sealing. I was also under the impression that this would work with the app. It does not, you need the pro model for that. If you want to see the model comparison you can find it on their website and scrolling down. Aiper Scuba S1 Cordless Robotic Pool Cleaner - 24 Hour Limited Sale
So I charged it up and plopped it in. At first I was impressed, but that faded. I read several forum members mention their first cleaning wasn't great but that round 2 was better. Mine was not. What I noticed.
Fine debris would be sucked up and shot right back out the back into the pool. It would move over some debris and seemingly not pick it up. However at the end of a cycle it would still have a good bit of "stuff" in the basket.
The biggest issue was with the mapping. It would attempt to do an N pattern but fail. It would pivot on the slope in an attempt to cover the next level up, but slide back down to where it was previously. This would result in the vac covering essentially the same spot over and over again until the battery died. It's also not super easy to fish out with the hook, it dies on the pool floor. The beatbot floats up to the top.
I was bummed... but I was now in love with the idea of a battery powered pool robot and bit the bullet on the beatbot pro. And yes, again this is a big jump up in price and features, but spoiler alert. It was worth it. A shout out to aipier's customer service though. They took my feedback, and then sent me a prepaid return label and refunded my money without a lot of fuss. So don't be afraid to try it, I think especially if you have a smaller pool, no transitions in depth and circle/rectangle shape.
Now the beatbot comes in a nice box and setup as well. It's a few pieces to the charging stand and you're ready to go. First, the charging stand is super nice. It finds it way into it every time I set it in without any jiggling or messing around which is nice because the beatbot is heavy. The lights, button, app and everything are intuitive and work well. No issues syncing with the app either. But the best part is that this thing cleans my whole dang pool and doesn't miss a spot at all. It also does a surface skimming which isn't like amazing, but nice and effective at pulling stuff floating on the surface.
After the first clean I was amazed at the amount of silt and fine particles that it captured in the fine particle basket. The basket is large and cleaning and emptying it is easy. If you want to stop reading now because I just told you how nice this thing cleans, you're good. Also firmware updates are easy, I've done 2 so far since owning. I should also note that walls, floor, and waterline all work really well. Below are some minor and fixable gripes.
In no particular order:
If you're doing surface skimming (mode by itself has to be setup in the custom app, there's no button to do just surface) it will get hung up on pool floats, frog savers and stuff. Not a biggy, just know it doesn't seem to be smart enough to work around things and there are dedicated bots out there that do just that and are probably better. This bot does really do it all though, so it's a plus of a feature.
The app needs work. You'd fully expect some notifications when it was done cleaning, but it doesn't do this yet. You can't check in on it while it's cleaning, it essentially tells you to come back later when its done.
They offer a clarifying kit. This kit is supposed to last a month and it comes with 2 packages. Inserting these is straightforward and easy. You activate it by holding quick clean down and then it flashes purple. I did notice my water had a little more sparkle to it and wish I could have got it earlier to use when I first opened, but it was unavailable for some time. You're supposed to be able to turn it off, but I don't think this worked as I got a notification pretty early that it was out and needed to be replaced. Ideally, you'd use it every few weeks because they're not cheap. I'd like to able to turn it on and off in the app too. I run my bot every few days and just don't need this every few days.
It has a poolside docking feature that I'm not sure works great as I rarely know when it's done working and it only lasts for 15 minutes. This feature is nice, but for me is just a battery waster and I wish I could turn it off if I'm running it over night and just let if float. If I did get a notification it was done I would change my mind here as I'd be able to more easily grab it, then to fish it out.
Below are some pics, I should do a video too, but haven't had time. I hope this helps some people and happy to answer any questions if I can. I've had the beatbot for a little over a month now.
Aipier only cleaning 1 spot that it gets stuck in
Beatbot on the charger and the 2 filter baskets that nest within eachother
Model side by side
I've been a pool owner for around 15 years, the last 8 with my current inground. It's kidney shaped with a pretty steep 3.5 to 10' transition. Vinyl and curved transitions. I owe 2 roombas and have been using them for 3 and 7 years. I love them, they don't replace the dyson, but do a great job of keeping the floors generally clean throughout the week, especially with a black lab and 3 kids under 11.
So needless to say I was recently intrigued when I saw an IG add for the beatbot. Wow, I thought, this looks great. I don't hate, but generally find my weekly vac to be a pain and time suck, and the days in-between if it's windy, I really don't like the look of debris on the floor. So I looked up the beatbot and was like $2k? No freaking way... but what else is out there?
I found a few of those obviously paid review sites that listed the aipier S1 or N1 (same thing) as a top contender. I found that if I ordered direct from them in May I would pay $475 shipped to my door. No tax either. I figured this was a gamble worth taking. Please note if you check the non paid review comparison sites you'll generally find a much more critical review.
Initial impressions were good. Packaged nicely, good quick start guide and seemed well built. I didn't like the charging port. Anything that is a rubber gasket is going to wear over time and separate, come loose or just not do a great job sealing. I was also under the impression that this would work with the app. It does not, you need the pro model for that. If you want to see the model comparison you can find it on their website and scrolling down. Aiper Scuba S1 Cordless Robotic Pool Cleaner - 24 Hour Limited Sale
So I charged it up and plopped it in. At first I was impressed, but that faded. I read several forum members mention their first cleaning wasn't great but that round 2 was better. Mine was not. What I noticed.
Fine debris would be sucked up and shot right back out the back into the pool. It would move over some debris and seemingly not pick it up. However at the end of a cycle it would still have a good bit of "stuff" in the basket.
The biggest issue was with the mapping. It would attempt to do an N pattern but fail. It would pivot on the slope in an attempt to cover the next level up, but slide back down to where it was previously. This would result in the vac covering essentially the same spot over and over again until the battery died. It's also not super easy to fish out with the hook, it dies on the pool floor. The beatbot floats up to the top.
I was bummed... but I was now in love with the idea of a battery powered pool robot and bit the bullet on the beatbot pro. And yes, again this is a big jump up in price and features, but spoiler alert. It was worth it. A shout out to aipier's customer service though. They took my feedback, and then sent me a prepaid return label and refunded my money without a lot of fuss. So don't be afraid to try it, I think especially if you have a smaller pool, no transitions in depth and circle/rectangle shape.
Now the beatbot comes in a nice box and setup as well. It's a few pieces to the charging stand and you're ready to go. First, the charging stand is super nice. It finds it way into it every time I set it in without any jiggling or messing around which is nice because the beatbot is heavy. The lights, button, app and everything are intuitive and work well. No issues syncing with the app either. But the best part is that this thing cleans my whole dang pool and doesn't miss a spot at all. It also does a surface skimming which isn't like amazing, but nice and effective at pulling stuff floating on the surface.
After the first clean I was amazed at the amount of silt and fine particles that it captured in the fine particle basket. The basket is large and cleaning and emptying it is easy. If you want to stop reading now because I just told you how nice this thing cleans, you're good. Also firmware updates are easy, I've done 2 so far since owning. I should also note that walls, floor, and waterline all work really well. Below are some minor and fixable gripes.
In no particular order:
If you're doing surface skimming (mode by itself has to be setup in the custom app, there's no button to do just surface) it will get hung up on pool floats, frog savers and stuff. Not a biggy, just know it doesn't seem to be smart enough to work around things and there are dedicated bots out there that do just that and are probably better. This bot does really do it all though, so it's a plus of a feature.
The app needs work. You'd fully expect some notifications when it was done cleaning, but it doesn't do this yet. You can't check in on it while it's cleaning, it essentially tells you to come back later when its done.
They offer a clarifying kit. This kit is supposed to last a month and it comes with 2 packages. Inserting these is straightforward and easy. You activate it by holding quick clean down and then it flashes purple. I did notice my water had a little more sparkle to it and wish I could have got it earlier to use when I first opened, but it was unavailable for some time. You're supposed to be able to turn it off, but I don't think this worked as I got a notification pretty early that it was out and needed to be replaced. Ideally, you'd use it every few weeks because they're not cheap. I'd like to able to turn it on and off in the app too. I run my bot every few days and just don't need this every few days.
It has a poolside docking feature that I'm not sure works great as I rarely know when it's done working and it only lasts for 15 minutes. This feature is nice, but for me is just a battery waster and I wish I could turn it off if I'm running it over night and just let if float. If I did get a notification it was done I would change my mind here as I'd be able to more easily grab it, then to fish it out.
Below are some pics, I should do a video too, but haven't had time. I hope this helps some people and happy to answer any questions if I can. I've had the beatbot for a little over a month now.
Aipier only cleaning 1 spot that it gets stuck in
Beatbot on the charger and the 2 filter baskets that nest within eachother
Model side by side
