|
My review is more of a long term "road test" so to speak. I purchased my Aquabot Turbo locally for $975 in 2002, and other then a few replacement parts and an intermittent climbing problem it has been functioning well since then. A little background about my pool. I live in the midwest where our pool season is only about 4 months tops in summer and have a 20x40 rectangular inground concrete pool. The pool has a 10ft deep end with in wall ladder steps and a 3ft shallow end with traditional steps for exit. I use a chlorine based sanitizer with a Nature2 mineral filter so I can keep my chlorine levels lower. I have a sand filter and a natural gas heater. My home is surrounded on all sides by woods with a large variety of trees, so I get leaf debris in my pool all year long. I rarely cover my pool with a solar cover so it is exposed to the elements and debris at all times. The pool walls are at a 90% angle to the pool bottom, with only a little transition curve, which does cause some problems for the Aquabot (more on that later). I have a pool house at one end of my pool so I have a covered area to keep the transformer (at all times), and Aquabot (when not in use) in.
Functionality: The unit essentially is a self powered vacuum and scrubber with a self contained filter and debris bagging system. Using two brushes and two tracks the unit supposedly will criss-cross your pool from end to end over a timed 7hr cleaning session (Aquabot Turbo) cleaning the floor, walls and steps of most pools. The debris bag filters down to 2 microns catching even the smallest particles in the water.
Likes: What I really like about the Aquabot Turbo is that it makes my daily maintenance routine nothing more then a quick skim of the surface even after a large storm. As it's programed with a 7hr timer it is really a set and forget device. The parts when maintenance is needed are quick and easy to replace.
Basically I set the unit in the pool at night before I go to bed and pull it out the next morning and have a clean pool all day. It isn't necessary to use every day, and by mid summer I probably only use it every few days, it just depends on the tree's and weather. For pools in the open that tend not to accumulate as much debris as others I would imagine once a week would be enough, but for mine it is in there more often then most would use it.
Because of the powerful filter motor the unit actually helps evenly distribute the the water in your pool bringing the cooler water on the bottom to the top and thus equalizing the temperature.
The debris bag is easy to remove and clean and does filter out all the small stuff that the sand filter typically doesn't catch.
Dislikes: My unit tends to eat drive belts. Since purchasing the unit in 2002 I've had to replace the drive belts every year because of stretch. I tried to have these warranty replaced the first year as the problem arose within two months after purchasing the unit, but was told by the warranty department that this was a wear item and not covered under warranty. This was a little annoying but I purchased the replacement part and everything was back to normal. Basically what happens is the drive belts stretch (tan belts under blue or black drive tracks) and cause the unit to jump the gearing on the wheel tube assembly. The unit will still function, but about once for each drive track revolution the belt will slip resulting in a clicking sound. Again the unit will function with this problem, so it can still be used while waiting for replacement parts.
The plastic on this unit while of high quality will eventually stress and break as it will be subject to a fairly high chemical load being in the water for seven hours at a time, plus the ultraviolet exposure if you run it during the day. My unit just recently had the tread gear separate from the wheel roller assembly, but was easily replaced ($70). Overall the plastic has held up well, but I can tell that it doesn't have too many season left in it.
The filter bag ($45) needs to be replaced about every year. While they do last more then that, they tend to loose elasticity around the base seal after a while. I would prefer it last longer, but considering the job it does it isn't that expensive compared to other things required for pool maintenance.
The unit initially climbed the walls of my pool like a champ, but has in recent years been more and more finicky about it. I have found that there are a few factors that help promote climbing in this unit. Water temperature has a huge effect on it's climbing ability because of the flexibility of brush material. If you like to keep your pool on the warm side (80+) you won't have a problem, but if you're like me and like it to be refreshing then the unit tends to not climb as well as it should because the climbing brushes and tracks are stiffer in the colder water. They do offer climbing rings which elevate the tracks on high grip foam rings, but this eliminates the scrubbing action of the brushes which in my opinion is necessary to clean any debris on the side walls. The other problem which I think prohibits my unit from climbing effectively every time is the wall transition. My walls go from flat to 90% with almost no transition, thus the unit hits a flat wall and has to use the front brushes and tracks to initiate the transition to vertical climbing, which it doesn't always do. My pool is painted with a standard rubber based paint that has a fairly slick and shinny surface which doesn't help with brush grip on the vertical transition attempt. I would imagine that pools painted with epoxy based paints would suffer the same if not worse problems if they also have step transitions.
All this difficulty with climbing leads to my main problem which is that the unit when it doesn't climb walls cannot criss-cross the pool as designed and thus leaves parts of my pool untouched. The way the unit works is to traverse from side to side vacuuming the bottom and walls, then when the unit reaches the top of a wall it will slide along the wall scrubbing the side then descending to clean another section of the pool. Without this horizontal movement on the side walls the unit will basically just clean the same section over and over. I have replaced the brushes ($75) and tracks ($45) once, but the problem still remains. If you have a concrete pool with little to no transition I still would recommend this unit you just may want to consider the remote controllable version in case the unit suffers the same intermittent wall climbing problems as mine has. This way you can steer the unit to problem spots it may have missed during it regular cleaning cycle.
|
