I have been trying to find a cordless pool bot to clean my pool. My pool is a 29' long fiberglass pool with a safety ledge around the perimeter, steps on the shallow end and a bench on the deep end. I've attached a picture so you can see what it looks like, but overall to me it seems like a simple and straightforward design.
The challenge with my pool in terms of cleaning is that it gets a lot of fine dirt that is so small that it flows right through most filters. When I vacuum the pool using the pump, the dirt flows right through the filter and back into the pool through the return. I've used a Pool Blaster pool vaccum and it just sucks the dirt up and spews it right back into the pool as well. The only solution I have found so far to get rid of the dirt temporarily is to use the pool vaccum, but instead of routing the water through the filter, I route it out into the yard. As you might imagine, this wastes a tremendous amount of water.
Here is my experience with three different robotic cleaners. When searching for these, my main criteria were 1) Floor, wall and waterline cleaning mode 2) A fine enough filter to trap the dirt without spewing it back into the pool and 3) Cordless so I don't have to worry about dealing with a long cord.
Beatbot
I got the regular Beatbot, not the Beatbot pro mainly because the Beatbot was already very expensive. I had preordered and so I was getting a $400 discount and this device seemed really advanced so I was hopeful that it would work. My total price with the discount and taxes was $970.93. Unfortunately, this device was the worst of the bunch. Although it did a surprising good job of picking up the fine dirt with its 150 micrometer filter, it did an absolutely terrible job of covering the wall and the floors of the pool. After its 2 hour cleaning cycle, it left large swathes of the pool floor and walls untouched. This was really surprising. At one point, I ran the device 3 times in a row and combined, it still did not achieve anywhere close to 100% coverage. I reached out to customer service who actually sent me an update with a new cleaning mode to my device. It was really cool that they could do that through their app. Unfortunately, the new cleaning mode which was supposed to do a better job of cleaning steps didn't work either. Ultimately, I sent the device back.
Maytronics Niya Sonar 50
This device appears to be the same as the 2023 Seato Seal. I was excited when I saw that Maytronics was licensing Seato tech and rebranding it as Niya, because I saw really good reviews of the coverage and cleaning ability of the Seato online. This device was coming with a 2 year warranty from Maytronics so that was comforting. Also, this device was significantly less expensive than the Beatbot coming in at $507.69 including tax. This device was very much as advertised. It did a great job with covering my entire pool including the floor, walls, and waterline. Unfortunately there was a huge achilles heal. The 250 micrometer filter on the Niya was too big to trap the fine dirt in my pool. After a clean, the pool looked clean until a few hours later when all that fine dirt settled back down to the bottom again. I reached out to Maytronics customer service to see if they were considering a finer filter option, but they were not helpful and unable to answer my question. I sent the device back.
Aiper Scuba S1 Pro
When I went back to the drawing board to search for more options, I was really excited to find the Aiper. It had all the cleaning modes I desired and also had a normal filter that filtered out 180 micrometer particulates and an included ultrafine filter that filtered out particulates all the way down to 3 micrometers. I had been very pleasantly surprised by the 150 micrometer filter on the Beatbot so I figured the ultrafine filter on the Aiper would be more than up to the task. The device seemed to have good reviews online and when I was able to find a $255 off deal for Father's Day as well as apply a 10% off coupon to get the final price down to $850.49, I was ecstatic thinking I had found my solution. I was so excited that when I received the device, I immediately unboxed it and charged it and though it was evening, I threw it in the pool. When I came back about an hour later, I found something very strange. As I observed the device for a few minutes, it kept cleaning the same spot over and over again. It was stuck cleaning a spot on wall and waterline in the middle of my bench and it literally just kept cleaning that same spot over and over again. I started to get a sick feeling that the device had been in this same spot for the last hour as it was very close to where I had first dropped it in. If you want to see what it was doing, check out the VIDEO HERE. When the Aiper surfaced for waterline cleaning, I adjusted its position manually and the shift seemed to be enough to set it back on track with making progress around the pool. It was night time so It was hard to see how well the device had cleaned, but the filter basket seemed to have picked up a good amount of material so that was great. The next day, I ran the device again in daytime except I started in a different spot in the pool, but sure enough when I came back out after 15 minutes to check on it, it was stuck in the same spot as before. I did shoot off an email and video to Aiper support, but I don't have high hopes for a fix. Their app is very basic so I doubt they have the capability to do over the air updates and I question whether they would prioritize or be able to come up with a fix for my specific scenario any time soon. I have resigned myself to continuing the search. Me having to manually adjust the device every time after it gets stuck is not sustainable and for almost $1000 I expect a device that isn't so easily tripped up.
I may have to break down and get a corded device. I have identified the Dolphin Quantum as one to target, I just HATE the idea of having to deal with a cord at the $1000 price point. Please let me know if you have any suggestions and I hope this review helps someone although keep in mind that some of the issues with these devices may be specific to my pool and situation.
The challenge with my pool in terms of cleaning is that it gets a lot of fine dirt that is so small that it flows right through most filters. When I vacuum the pool using the pump, the dirt flows right through the filter and back into the pool through the return. I've used a Pool Blaster pool vaccum and it just sucks the dirt up and spews it right back into the pool as well. The only solution I have found so far to get rid of the dirt temporarily is to use the pool vaccum, but instead of routing the water through the filter, I route it out into the yard. As you might imagine, this wastes a tremendous amount of water.
Here is my experience with three different robotic cleaners. When searching for these, my main criteria were 1) Floor, wall and waterline cleaning mode 2) A fine enough filter to trap the dirt without spewing it back into the pool and 3) Cordless so I don't have to worry about dealing with a long cord.
Beatbot
I got the regular Beatbot, not the Beatbot pro mainly because the Beatbot was already very expensive. I had preordered and so I was getting a $400 discount and this device seemed really advanced so I was hopeful that it would work. My total price with the discount and taxes was $970.93. Unfortunately, this device was the worst of the bunch. Although it did a surprising good job of picking up the fine dirt with its 150 micrometer filter, it did an absolutely terrible job of covering the wall and the floors of the pool. After its 2 hour cleaning cycle, it left large swathes of the pool floor and walls untouched. This was really surprising. At one point, I ran the device 3 times in a row and combined, it still did not achieve anywhere close to 100% coverage. I reached out to customer service who actually sent me an update with a new cleaning mode to my device. It was really cool that they could do that through their app. Unfortunately, the new cleaning mode which was supposed to do a better job of cleaning steps didn't work either. Ultimately, I sent the device back.
Maytronics Niya Sonar 50
This device appears to be the same as the 2023 Seato Seal. I was excited when I saw that Maytronics was licensing Seato tech and rebranding it as Niya, because I saw really good reviews of the coverage and cleaning ability of the Seato online. This device was coming with a 2 year warranty from Maytronics so that was comforting. Also, this device was significantly less expensive than the Beatbot coming in at $507.69 including tax. This device was very much as advertised. It did a great job with covering my entire pool including the floor, walls, and waterline. Unfortunately there was a huge achilles heal. The 250 micrometer filter on the Niya was too big to trap the fine dirt in my pool. After a clean, the pool looked clean until a few hours later when all that fine dirt settled back down to the bottom again. I reached out to Maytronics customer service to see if they were considering a finer filter option, but they were not helpful and unable to answer my question. I sent the device back.
Aiper Scuba S1 Pro
When I went back to the drawing board to search for more options, I was really excited to find the Aiper. It had all the cleaning modes I desired and also had a normal filter that filtered out 180 micrometer particulates and an included ultrafine filter that filtered out particulates all the way down to 3 micrometers. I had been very pleasantly surprised by the 150 micrometer filter on the Beatbot so I figured the ultrafine filter on the Aiper would be more than up to the task. The device seemed to have good reviews online and when I was able to find a $255 off deal for Father's Day as well as apply a 10% off coupon to get the final price down to $850.49, I was ecstatic thinking I had found my solution. I was so excited that when I received the device, I immediately unboxed it and charged it and though it was evening, I threw it in the pool. When I came back about an hour later, I found something very strange. As I observed the device for a few minutes, it kept cleaning the same spot over and over again. It was stuck cleaning a spot on wall and waterline in the middle of my bench and it literally just kept cleaning that same spot over and over again. I started to get a sick feeling that the device had been in this same spot for the last hour as it was very close to where I had first dropped it in. If you want to see what it was doing, check out the VIDEO HERE. When the Aiper surfaced for waterline cleaning, I adjusted its position manually and the shift seemed to be enough to set it back on track with making progress around the pool. It was night time so It was hard to see how well the device had cleaned, but the filter basket seemed to have picked up a good amount of material so that was great. The next day, I ran the device again in daytime except I started in a different spot in the pool, but sure enough when I came back out after 15 minutes to check on it, it was stuck in the same spot as before. I did shoot off an email and video to Aiper support, but I don't have high hopes for a fix. Their app is very basic so I doubt they have the capability to do over the air updates and I question whether they would prioritize or be able to come up with a fix for my specific scenario any time soon. I have resigned myself to continuing the search. Me having to manually adjust the device every time after it gets stuck is not sustainable and for almost $1000 I expect a device that isn't so easily tripped up.
I may have to break down and get a corded device. I have identified the Dolphin Quantum as one to target, I just HATE the idea of having to deal with a cord at the $1000 price point. Please let me know if you have any suggestions and I hope this review helps someone although keep in mind that some of the issues with these devices may be specific to my pool and situation.
