Misbehaving Pool Robot

For anything to do with the garden and pool
User avatar
CarolineH
Posts: 888
Joined: Thu Sep 29, 2011 5:12 pm
Location: Nr Dinan, Brittany, France

Misbehaving Pool Robot

Post by CarolineH »

I'm fed up with the problems that I have with my pool robot - a Zodiac Cybernaut NT - each year something goes wrong and I have had the control board replaced twice in three years (thankfully under guarantee). Now it is going wrong again - I think it's probably the sensors because it cleans the walls (and the cover!) when I have it on just a bottom program.

So I'm thinking about replacing it : what does the panel suggest? Are you happy with your robot? If so, what make is it?
la vache!
Posts: 11065
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 7:22 pm

Post by la vache! »

I have had my Tiger Shark Quick Clean Premium for 6 years and touch wood so far no problems.
User avatar
Jimbo
Posts: 3582
Joined: Thu Oct 19, 2006 7:41 am
Location: Charente Maritime

Re: Misbehaving Pool Robot

Post by Jimbo »

CarolineH wrote:So I'm thinking about replacing it : what does the panel suggest? Are you happy with your robot? If so, what make is it?
Hi Caroline

I have an excellent Dophin Zenit 30 robot. Had it for two years and kept it when we sold our gites, in case we ended up with a new house with a pool (which we didn't). See link below for details.

I'm just about to sell it locally. PM me if you might be interested and I'll give you full details and some pix.

http://www.mypoolcompany.net/#!product/ ... n-zenit-30
Jim
User avatar
CarolineH
Posts: 888
Joined: Thu Sep 29, 2011 5:12 pm
Location: Nr Dinan, Brittany, France

Re: Misbehaving Pool Robot

Post by CarolineH »

Jimbo wrote:
CarolineH wrote:So I'm thinking about replacing it : what does the panel suggest? Are you happy with your robot? If so, what make is it?
Hi Caroline

I have an excellent Dophin Zenit 30 robot. Had it for two years and kept it when we sold our gites, in case we ended up with a new house with a pool (which we didn't). See link below for details.

I'm just about to sell it locally. PM me if you might be interested and I'll give you full details and some pix.

http://www.mypoolcompany.net/#!product/ ... n-zenit-30
Don't you just love LMH 8) I've PM'd Jimbo ... Thanks for the info, LV, too - it seems to be difficult to find comparative reviews for robots ...
User avatar
Casscat
Posts: 2692
Joined: Sat Jul 05, 2014 10:43 pm

Post by Casscat »

How much electricity do these things use? I looked at a video for one of the Hayward ones and it suggested that a full pool clean would take four hours.
User avatar
CarolineH
Posts: 888
Joined: Thu Sep 29, 2011 5:12 pm
Location: Nr Dinan, Brittany, France

Post by CarolineH »

Casscat wrote:How much electricity do these things use? I looked at a video for one of the Hayward ones and it suggested that a full pool clean would take four hours.
I don't know how much electricity they use, but I would rarely do a full clean - I tend to run it every couple of days just for the bottom (where all the bits accumulate) and it takes 1.5 hours - this is time that I could not spend myself every day, without a bit of cloning!
User avatar
teapot
Posts: 842
Joined: Wed Oct 23, 2013 10:08 am
Location: Loire valley

Post by teapot »

There are two main types of robots, pressure cleaners like the Polaris range and vacuum robots.

Pressure ones require a booster pump which cost more money to buy and more money to run being as powerful if not more so than the pool pump you run already. (1200 watts per hour)

Vacuum types, some have a big hose and attach to the filters and the electric versions that have there own filters inside so just using low voltage power for safety reasons (300 watts per hour)

They look the same they work the same, some minor details such as bags over folded filters. One model uses belts to drive it along others use direct drive (no belts) another model has the motors in the rollers so it is more stable and has a bigger filter area and weighs less.

If you think they learn your pool you really need to get out more! The better versions have remote steering (because they don't learn your pool) and miss parts of the clean so you can steer the robot to the bits it misses.

I can't really offer any good deals as the exchange rate is too good for exporting and with the cost of delivery it's just not competitive. A remote steering Dolphin is about €1200 but deals from box shifters appear from time to time knocking €200 off that price.

Now I don't have a robot, I sold it 4 seasons ago, I use a completely different way of maintaining my pool and others.
Because I run an Eco pump and filter setup rather than gobbling up electricity at 750-1500 watts per hour mine runs at 30 watts when no swimmers are there and 69 watts during the day. this is 24 hour running but for less than 10% of the electricity of what a normal pool would use running for 10-12 hours per day.

Running 24 hours means dirt, pollen, leaves etc enter the pool and in most cases through surface tension of the water stay afloat for a while so they go in the skimmers. If your pump is off, say over night any leaves pollen etc that enters gets waterlogged and sinks so in the mornings you have to face a cleanup.

There is still the odd leaf that escapes and makes it to the bottom but these are occasional one or two's I use a Pool Blaster max for the odd bit of stuff that needs vacuuming, it's a lightweight self contained battery powered vacuum so I can get any little clean done whilst others are still unpacking their cleaners.

Our pool cleaner was a very fastidious American Lady. she reckoned by the time you unpack the robot and after 3 hours or so of being left to do it's work (excluding the bits it missed) then allow it to cool down for 10 minutes before removing it from the pool cleaning it, removing the filter bag, cleaning it, winding up the leads and power supply, putting it on it's trolley and putting it away was just as long (40-45 minutes) as manual vacuuming took. That was prior to running the pool 24/7.
Passivpool Energy "A" rated Swimming Pools, the most efficient, lowest running cost pools in the world
ianthy
Posts: 522
Joined: Sun Mar 12, 2006 9:07 pm
Location: Bologna, Italy

Post by ianthy »

We have 2 dolphin robots both work fine. One robot developed a fault a few years ago, strangely at the same time that we were using a different pool guy. We later found out that the pool guy would run the robot for 1 hour and then pull it out. The normal cycle is 4 hours. The pool shop sorted out the repair for €100 but suggested that the program had become confused as the cycle was not being allowed to complete.
Post Reply