Swimming pools are fun. Cleaning swimming pools is not fun.
I learned this simple logic as a kid growing up in and around pools—it’s the only way to survive summer in Houston. Four years ago, I became a pool owner myself, and I found that the rule still holds. Jumping into the pool on a hot day remains a rare treat, but if the pool is filled with leaves and dirt, that treat becomes a lot less delightful. And when the thermometer is reading over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the thought of laboring on the pool deck, scooping out debris with a net, is downright cruel.
Robotic pool cleaners were a thing when I was growing up in the ’80s, but there was really only one technology available: pressure-side cleaners that attach to a pump on the surface and use water pressure, not electricity, to move around the pool. These types of cleaners are still around; you’ll recognize them by the length of tubing that floats in the water and connects to a jet set into the wall of the pool.
Today, the market is gravitating to electronic cleaners that don’t require a pump or that big, ugly hose in the water. And while corded cleaners are still an option—essentially running off of a long extension cord connected to wall power—battery-powered robotic cleaners represent the future of the industry.
Battery-powered cleaners have many benefits, including the lack of hoses or cords and the ability to be removed from the water on demand, leaving your pool unencumbered by obstacles when you want to swim in it. These are the best robotic pool cleaners I've tested.
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The Best Pool Robot
After four years reviewing pool robots professionally and hundreds of test runs, the one I go back to the most is Beatbot’s top-shelf bot, the AquaSense 2 Ultra.
This robot has everything: near-perfect cleaning capabilities (including floors, walls, and waterline), a powerful battery with six hours of charge under the water, AI-powered debris detection, a solid mobile app. It also has the ability to skim the surface of the pool if you so desire. When finished cleaning, the AquaSense 2 Ultra floats, so collecting it is just a matter of grabbing it from the comfort of the deck. After a quick cleanup, just drop the robot on the included charging stand to juice it back up, no cables required.
What’s not to like? Only two things, really. Monstrous cleaning ability requires a monstrous chassis, and to say the 29-pound Beatbot AquaSense 2 Ultra is unwieldy would be an understatement. Hauling this robot out of the water can be a chore, so work on your forearm curls if you plan to purchase one.
There’s also the matter of price point: At nearly $3,000 it’s pretty much the most expensive battery-powered pool robot on the market, though plenty of competitors are at least in the ballpark. If your budget’s tighter, you can get most of the same coverage (sans surface skimming) from Beatbot’s Sora 70, which sells for just $1,199.
Best Battery Life
The traditional way to use a pool robot is to keep it dry-docked and charging, then drop it into the pool only when you need it. Fish it out at the end of the run, clean the filter basket, and repeat.
An alternative may appeal to lazier pool owners: Drop the robot in the pool and leave it there for a week or two, let it run on a repeating schedule, then clean it out only when the battery is dead.
The trick with this strategy is that few pool robots have a battery that’s big enough to allow for more than one or two thorough cleanings. But with its new M1-100, iGarden drops a massive 12500 mAh battery into its sleek pool bot, allowing up to 10 hours of run time in floor-only operation. (It can also do wall climbing and waterline cleaning, of course, but that will eat up more of the juice.)
If you stick to shorter runs, you can leave the robot in the pool for at least a week—and up to three weeks if you really stretch it out. And unlike many other pool robots, you may not mind having this one lingering in your pool, as its race car-inspired looks make it more attractive than more industrial competitors. It’s also a very effective cleaner, so you’re not skimping on scrubbing power, either.
Best Budget Robot
Pool robots with prices below the $800 mark generally mean having to make a lot of compromises: poor performance, limited battery life, iffy design. Dreame’s Z1 Pro breaks those expectations with a quirky but capable pool robot that’s full of intelligence: Its onboard sensors can even map your pool graphically in its effective mobile app as it trudges along.
The robot is quite slow in the water, but (once your firmware is up to date) it’s an effective cleaner. You won’t get flawless scrubbing performance like you will in more luxe poolbots, but it’s good enough for casual cleanups, and it should work even better if you have a smaller pool. I especially appreciated the plug-free charging cable, which allows the unit to charge magnetically and keeps water from mingling with the electronics. And there’s even a remote control that, if nothing else, can call the robot to the surface when it’s time to clean it out.
The Z1 Pro originally shipped with a sky-high list price of $1,499, but dramatic price cuts have taken it down to $549 in the last few months. That makes it the best value and a worthwhile investment that you won’t easily find elsewhere.
Best Surface Skimmer
Most pool-cleaning robots aren’t designed to skim the surface of the pool—and the few that do rarely do a great job of it. If you have an in-wall skimming system that works well, you might not need a robotic skimmer. However, if you regularly end up with lots of debris that tends to float for a while—or if your wall skimmers quickly get filled up—a roving robo-skimmer can help reduce topside leaves and other floating gunk.
Surface skimmers are universally solar-powered, which means you never have to remove them from the pool except for periodic cleaning. (If sunshine is an issue, they can also be topped up via a standard power cable before redeployment.)
As well, surface skimmers are also often pretty dumb, careening around the pool hoping the debris gets randomly scooped into their maw. The rare exception is Beatbot’s iSkim Ultra, which has front-mounted sensors that let it see the walls of the pool as it approaches. Instead of slamming into your tile, the iSkim Ultra slows and turns, preventing damage to both the robot and the pool. Compared to all other skimmers I’ve tested, this one does the best job.
The unit does have one quirky flaw: The release button for the debris basket is located on the front nose of the robot. About twice a month it will clip a corner on my L-shaped pool, which will cause this button to be pressed, ejecting the basket into the pool. It’s easy to replace the basket when I happen to find it floating in the water, but I’m dying for a small redesign on the button placement to avoid this weird little problem.
Others Tested
None of the above striking your fancy? Here are some other options I've tested across a range of price points:
Beatbot Sora 30 for $750: If you don’t need surface-skimming capabilities, this midrange robot punches above its price tag. (Just watch for sales; it lists at $1,000.)
Mammotion Spino E1 Pool Robot for $499: While this robot's app control and features like Turbo Cleaning improve performance, it still falls short compared with competitors, but it's an OK budget option.
Aiper Scuba V3 Pool Robot for $1,300: AI-powered computer vision allows this bot to deliver strong, efficient cleaning and advanced navigation, if you can put up with a relatively short battery life and somewhat tedious cleanup process.
iGarden Pool Cleaner K Pro for $1,599: With 15 hours of battery life, you can conceivably leave this robot in your pool for a solid month before recharging.
Fanttik Aero X Cordless Robotic Pool Cleaner for $1,100: This quirky cordless model features a floating antenna, which means it stays wirelessly connected while it’s underwater and can even be controlled via a remote. (Note that it's currently sold out.)
Wybot S2 Cordless Robotic Pool Cleaner for $760: This workhorse is light on frills but offers exceptional coverage and performance.
Polaris VRX iQ+ Robotic Pool Cleaner for $1,499: One of the few corded models I recommend, thanks to its outstanding performance and helpful cable management features.
Wybot F1 Solar Skimmer for $300: A budget skimmer option that is a better fit for somewhat smaller pools.
FAQ
Who Needs a Robotic Pool Cleaner?
If you have a pool, it needs to be cleaned. Debris and dirt in your pool promote algae and bacterial growth and reduce the life of your pump and other equipment. Leaves and dirt in your pool also make your pool look unappealing. You didn’t invest in one just for it to look like pond water, right?
Pool maintenance is readily outsourced, but it can be pricy. A robotic pool cleaner may not mean you can fire your pool guy outright—unless you also want to handle your own chemical adjustments and filter maintenance—but it may allow you to get away with less-frequent visits.
Key Features to Look for in a Robotic Pool Cleaner
Robotic cleaners for pools come in a wide range of styles and prices, but this is an industry where you really do get what you pay for. Very inexpensive robots (under $350) are generally unsuitable for anything beyond a tiny wading pool and can largely be ignored. In this buying guide, I’ll primarily be focusing on more capable robots that can actually do the job you want them to do.
With that in mind, here are some things to consider when shopping:
Cleaning capability: Is the robot thorough in its job? While all vendors say their robots are immaculate cleaners, you’ll have to read the reviews to see how much debris they really pick up when put to the test.
Wall/waterline cleaning: Increasingly, cordless pool robots will scrub not just the pool floor but the wall and waterline of the pool, too, essentially doing the same job as a pool brush, which is designed to remove algae and other near-invisible matter from hard surfaces. And brushing the waterline regularly is especially important for mitigating the risk of a grody “scum line” running across the middle of your expensive tile, staining it. Having these features is a huge add to a robot’s cleaning capabilities.
Battery life: How big is your pool, and does the robot have enough juice to clean the entire thing before petering out? Pool robot companies quote a “maximum size” pool that they are able to clean, but invariably I’ve found these numbers meaningless to the point of absurdity. In general, most robots are suitable for pools one-quarter to one-half the size of these specifications, assuming you want any level of thoroughness in cleaning.
Filtration system: Does the debris basket include a fine-mesh filter to capture dirt and sand in addition to leaves? These are commonplace now, but it’s worth checking before you buy.
Ease of retrieval: Does the robot return to the pool surface when it’s done cleaning, or do you have to fish it out of the water with a pole and hook or some other manual means? Waterline retrieval makes your job much simpler, so essential that it’s now one of the first things I look for on a robot.
Automation features: Can the robot be set to periodically clean the pool without having to retrieve, clean, and recharge it? How long can it reasonably be left in the water before the battery dies?
Mobile app: Does the system include a mobile app and Wi-Fi support, and if so, how useful is the app?
Weight and maneuverability: The bigger the robot, the harder it will be to get it in and out of the water. Check the weight of the device to ensure you’re comfortable lugging it around.
Skimming features: Some pool robots can do double duty as pool skimmers, zipping along the surface to collect debris that has not yet sunk to the floor. While these features vary greatly in performance, they can be handy if your in-wall skimmer is overloaded.
Price: The most capable pool robots can approach $3,000 in price, so plan your budget accordingly.
Corded vs. Battery-Powered: Which Is Best?
Some pool gurus insist that electrically powered, corded robots are better than battery-powered ones, and in some cases, they’re correct.
Corded robots benefit from having no battery capacity issues and can run essentially indefinitely, as long as you’d like. There’s no debating this issue, and corded robots are indeed better on this front—though many battery-powered robots can be left in a pool for a week or more, running on an automated schedule, before they need to be cleaned and recharged.
There has also been concern about the safety of battery-powered robots because of their lithium-ion cells, and multiple house fires have been blamed on pool robots going up in flames in recent years. It sounds scary, but pool robots don’t present a different risk than any other device with a lithium battery, and so far, no one is clamoring for the world to ditch laptops and electric vehicles, despite their risks of immolation.
Corded robots are also generally a little cheaper than battery-powered ones, though it’s tough to find apples-to-apples models.
In every other category, battery-powered robots win, at least in my analysis. They are more maneuverable and less cumbersome and—critically—you don’t ever have to deal with an unsightly cord (which can be up to 70 feet long) in your pool or on your pool deck. While some corded robots have cable-management features, there’s only so much any system can do with a few dozen feet of coiled cable. And some corded robots have no cable management features at all, leaving it up to you to figure out how to deal with it all.
The bottom line is that if you have a very large pool and need near-constant cleaning, a corded robot may be the right choice. But virtually everyone I speak to opts for a battery-powered robot, regardless of how large or small their pool is.
How I Test Robotic Pool Cleaners
I test all robots in my own backyard pool. This is an in-ground pool that is L-shaped, 12-by-36 feet on the long side, plus an extra 6-by-6 feet on the short side, totaling 468 square feet. It ranges from 4 to 7 feet deep, and the surface is PebbleTec.
I can spend up to a week testing a robot, using both organic and synthetic debris. First, I clean the pool using whatever leaves and dirt have naturally accumulated there since my last cleaning, giving me a baseline of how well the robot works in everyday, real-world situations. That’s followed by testing with 100 silk crafting leaves, which I scatter and sink to the floor of the pool. The testing has the advantage of being more quantifiable and repeatable, and I can easily calculate a percentage of debris captured based on how many leaves are left behind.
All other features of a robot, from filter cleaning to app-based management, are evaluated qualitatively during the course of testing.
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