Advice on Swimming Pool Robot purchase

Hello,
Having just completed the building of a swimming pool, I am asking for advice on the best make of cleaning robots that people have used and can recommend.
The pool is 7m x 4m, flat bottom, steps on one side (corner) and also a “bench” running along the width. Pool is steel with a liner.

Some requirements (gleaned from reading around the subject):

  • Robot needs to be ideally wireless
  • Robot should be able to clean walls as well as the floor
  • No bag or hose, onboard collection of rubbish.

Also, are there any other requirements that I should be looking for?

A couple that have been mentioned to me are: Aquavac Hayward TigerShark Premium Quick Clean pool robot and SharkVac XL Pilot.

Any advice welcome.
Yogesh

HI
You will get all sorts of advise on here . As an engineer I can only recount my experience.
IN 2004 installed a 10 X 4.5 in ground pool 1 m to 2metr sloping bottom, and from that date until now 2022 I have used our ZODIAC pool cleaner. I just put it in and leave it to clean the pool, roman end as well. after 1 hr plus I unplug remove from pool, take offilter bag, empty it and wash it out and put every thing away till next week. What Zodiac’s are like now I do not know but ours has been very good for the last19 years.

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My advice, clean it manually, save you €1000 you wont miss bits, quick and easy to use including cleaning and storage. Nothing major to wear out and its very relaxing.
Owned so many different ones to test but manual wins every time especially on a pool that size.

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We’ve one one these… Robots cleaners: RV 5380 | Residential Robotic Cleaners Works perfectly, we dump it in every Sunday and it cleans everything in a couple of hours. I’m not sure what you mean by wireless but if it’s the robot can communicate with your phone ,that’s way OTT in my opinion.

On the other hand I find this very useful Smart wireless pool thermometer by YoLink works with Android and iPhone - YouTube

Its an emotive subject pool cleaning, there are battery powered so cordless pool cleaners, they dont learn your pool so that should be dismissed. There are some with a remote steering just to prove that the above is true and they do miss bits. Most just move in an arc so randomly might reach the whole pool given long enough. I have owned pressure wash cleaners (extra booster pump required) at obviously more electricity used. I have owned vacuum robots both electric and pure vacuum. My operatives used them and so did customers and including getting them out set up cleaned and stored again every operative was quicker with manual cleaning. I sold them all and switched to a pool baster max which was good, its a battery powered vacuum broom with a very fine filter bag, now superceeded by the Volt range. My operatives liked the pool blasters as they are quick to pick up the odd leaf etc.

How does dirt leaves etc enter the pool? From above. Best way to remove dirt and leaves, from the surface skimming action before they sink. If the filtration isnt running them this idea fails most of the time. Why dont people run 24/7 cost. Re engineering the filtration allows me to run my pool for 24 hours for the same cost as most run 1.5 hours. If the way the water moves over the surface to the skimmers is not optimised by design then dirt and leaves miss the skimmers, become water logged and sink. So many times I witness a pool with clear water (actually a settling tank) become cloudy after “cleaning” like cleaning with a feather duster, you get a few bits the rest is thrown into the air to re settle later. A properly cleaned pool does not do that because there isnt a layer of fine dirt to mix up into the water. Most robots have aggresive movement and strong water jets so it mixes the dirt back into solution only to settle later. Manual cleaning allows slower movements that dont disturb and fine dirt/pollen so it can be vacuumed up. That said, pool brushes vary a lot, on mine I pulled out most of the brush bits to allow the water vacuum to work but better, I am working on a vortex vacuum head as an improvement to the usual ones, a vortex being one of the strongest forces in nature.

Wifi temperature, hmm, surface temperature doesnt tell the whole story, water stratfies so the surface few centimetres can record warm whilst lower is a very different story. This is one reason on heated pools I like to put the heated water in via low mounted returns or the main drain, at least that is a use for a main drain.

As far as pool brushes go, these are the best, the airfoil ensures downforce making pool wall and floor brushing much more effective without the overbalancing issue when pool wall cleaning. Available in france from the likes of Cash Piscine and Zyke etc.

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Thanks very much for your replies.
I think I’m going to wait and see how much effort it takes to keep the pool clean manually.
The Zodiac ones look quite good.

Regards
Yogesh

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I will be at the trade show next week, if I see anything interesting I will let you know. Manual vacuuming via an adapter plate (iris plate) and the skimmer basket. Putting a scrunched up cotton tea towel in the skimmer basket will catch the fine stuff robots miss. Tea towel should not have been washed with a fabric conditioner.

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So its 9am Sunday morning, you’ve been to church and thanked the lord for S W S B OB. you put the Zodiac in the pool and turn on just as the lady brings you a tray with chilled orange juice, croissant and a coffee its a nice morning so you take in the sun and watch wild life and the zodiac. just as you finish *petit déjeuner the zodiac finishes you turn of, remove and clean its filters ready for next time and put it away. OR you can get the brush out, uncoil the hosepipe, remove skim baskets, put adapter plates and pipe in then fill the pipe with water connect it all together and start walking up and down the pool terrace brushing do not forget the sides, when you are finished then you have to empty the pipe put the skim nets back in, put pipe and brush away. AH! not finished yet go to the pump house, shut all the flo valves and clean the pump filter ,open the valves and alter settings to clean all the crap from the sand filter 45 second of expensive water going down the drain. now alter settings and back wash 45 seconds. now put settings back to run and check your filter pressure is correct. That’s it now you can go have your cold coffee.

If that’s your routine, @Yorky1 , I suggest you look at the condition of the water in your pool. Mine needs nothing like that amount of cleaning

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Who said remove the skim baskets? Leaving them in stops the need to backwash in most cases. Pressure gauge should be the guide. And expensive water compared electricty to power the robot?
Pipe on a roller is easy to unwind, filling with water you use a return jet, done in around 10-12 seconds.

Try doing it after breakfast :grinning: of course you might need that time to clean the bits the robot missed.