What is a Robotic Pool Cleaner?

CONGRATULATIONS! You have come to the right page to learn comprehensively what robotic pool cleaners (RPC) are.

This useful machine is also called an electric self-propelled pool cleaner.  It is an intelligent machine scrubs your swimming pools to make it clean and dirt-free. It uses advanced pool-cleaning technology that provides fast, easy, and reliable pool maintenance with less effort from the pool owners.

RPC is the most advanced type of automated pool cleaner that aids with floor scrubbing, wall sweeping, debris collecting, and other cleaning activities that a regular is capable of.

The one primary difference between a robotic pool cleaner from the conventional pool suction and vacuum cleaner is that you can just run the device and it will do the job by itself without having to exert much effort.

A robotic pool cleaner is like a robotic indoor vacuum cleaner, only it is used for swimming pools.

Why use a Robotic Pool Cleaner?

Pool owners use RPC so they can enjoy the luxury of their pools without having the burden of keeping the pool clean after utilizing it.

Many pool owners are using suction and pressure-side pool cleaners with the mindset that they will have the freedom of keeping their pools dirt-free without spending any time or effort cleaning their pools. That’s the part they are wrong about.

Even with old-school pool cleaners at hand, there is still work needed to be done. They will have to use a remote control to manipulate the device into the direction they want it to sweep. Without the person taking charge of the remote control, the technology is useless.

The long suction tubes connected to the suction cleaner can also tend to be tangling, annoying, and most of the time, messy.

What is great about owning an RPC is that it functions as a plug-and-play machine. You turn it on and it will do the work for you.

You don’t just save your energy from doing the manual job of cleaning the pool, but you also save more time doing other chores/relaxing activities while waiting for the robotic pool cleaner to finish its job for you.

• 9 Major Benefits of Robotic Pool Cleaners

Another reason for owning an RPC is that it is cost-effective. A common example is a person who owns a public pool, a commercial pool, or generally a humongous pool, will need employees to do the pool maintenance for them. He gets to pay one employee thousands of dollars per month doing a job that a robotic pool cleaner can do efficiently and effectively as its human counterpart, or even better.

With RPC, there is no need for employee’s health insurance, absenteeism issues, and work complaints. Basically, it is a one-time investment that is valuable. And that’s a real cash saver for you and your company.

What are the types of robotic pool cleaner?

There are different types of RPCs. We can categorize these by: (1) its purpose and (2) its pool kind.

Types based on Purpose:

1. Domestic 
2. Commercial 

• Domestic Robotic Pool Cleaners

A domestic robotic pool cleaner is a type which works best in small swimming pools and basically for private and residential home pools whether it be in-ground pools or above ground pools.

This type can be classified together with other robotic machines that help families finish their daily chores, such as vacuum cleaners, dishwashers, and lawn mowers. These robotic machines are not widely used in today’s households, but it is said that it will become more common in the near future.

• Commercial Robotic Pool Cleaners

As the name suggests, commercial robotic pool cleaners are used for business-oriented purposes  that includes pools found in, but not limited to, resorts, hotels, attraction parks, theme parks, swimming centers, schools, gyms, athletic clubs, and spas.

But don’t let the “commercial” label fool you. Commercial RPCs are basically designed to clean much bigger pools compared to small family pools. So even if you run a public pool for free, you can still make use of a commercial robotic pool cleaner.

Types based on Pool Kinds:

1. Inground
2. Above ground 

• Above Ground Robotic Pool Cleaner

What sets the above ground different from an inground RPC is that it does not have the ability to climb walls and it is less complex compared to inground type. It is simpler and it does not need to study the full details of your pool landscape.

There is no need for complicated set-up before turning the switch on. All you have to do is turn it on and dip it directly into the pool and away it goes.

Although, there is a need to manually move the device from time to time or after each cleaning cycle because it may be stuck in a certain area. Most above ground pools are either perfectly rectangular or ovular with no complicated extra design.

They are not sturdy and not strongly built because commonly, they are just temporary and can be disassembled. This is the reason why some above ground robotic pool cleaners  are not designed to climb walls.

• Inground Robotic Pool Cleaner

If you are searching to purchase your first RPC, you will probably end up finding an inground pool type because they are more common and more widely used.

This type is more intelligent and more complex, in a sense, than inground type. Depending on the brand’s features, it is able to clean walls, climb stairs, wash corners, and even sweep non-flat surfaces.

Unlike above ground pools, inground pools are more fixed, solidly built, wide, and has more curves. A top-performing inground robotic pool cleaner is right for you.

It can be set-up in a way that it understands the corners and dimensions of your pool. As mentioned earlier, what makes it different from an above ground pool cleaner is that it has the ability to suck up to walls, powerfully climb steps, and sweep non-flat surfaces.

What are the basic parts of a Robotic Pool Cleaner?

A robotic pool cleaner has different parts with different functions. Here are the 5 main parts to know:

1. Water Pump

This is one of the electric motors that is responsible for picking up dirt, from granules of dirt to pieces of fallen leaves, and sucks them towards the filter bag.

2. Canister Filter 

The filter bag is the container where the dirt is collected and maintained. The bag is removable for us to dispose the trash collected and place it back once it’s free of dirt.

3. Drive Motor

This is another electric motor which is responsible for navigating the machine around your pool. It basically is the engine that drives the device to keep it moving.

4. Jet Drive

Some robotic cleaners use jet drive to propel water from the rear of the machine to keep it moving, instead of using wheels.

5. Remote Control

Some robot cleaners use remote control to facilitate and manipulate movement of the device while you are away from it. It is best used for cleaning spot precision.

Meanwhile, take a look at this video of Aquabot Robotic Pool Cleaner to learn more in detail how an RPC works, what its basic parts are, how to set it up, and how you can benefit from it.

Nine Major Benefits of Robotic Pool Cleaners

What are the benefits of owning robotic pool cleaners (RPC)? For pool owners, there is nothing more exhausting than cleaning the pool itself.

Perhaps the main reason as to why people want to own a pool is that they want to relax and enjoy it with their family and friends. And for this reason, pool owners prefer to buy robotic pool cleaners.

Having fun in the water is only the peak of an iceberg of having a pool. The rest of the iceberg lies on pool maintenance.

It would probably take more time cleaning the entire pool than the actual leisure time of enjoying it. Imagine scrubbing a large pool. Cleaning it free from the smallest granules of dust, from growing algae, to marble-sized fruits just by yourself.

That would take a lot of your precious time.

This is only one of the drawbacks of owning a pool. But fret not. Robotic pool cleaners are created for this purpose and much more.

There are tons of reasons why robotic pool cleaners are amazing but we will provide you a short but comprehensive list on the benefits of robotic pool cleaners.

1. Environment-friendly
2. Energy Efficient
3. Money Saver
4. Maintains Safe Pool Chemicals
5. Water Saver
6. Low Maintenance
7. Advanced Cleaning Technology
8. Plug-and-play
9. Awesome features

1. Environmentally friendly

One of the best things about an RPC  is that it is eco-friendly and safe to the surrounding environment. This machine, which is run underwater, would not produce hazardous chemicals that can be mixed with water that would potentially harm anyone in the pool.

Unlike other robotic devices, it doesn’t produce harmful gases, and its heat is also being well controlled.

2. Energy efficient

Opposite to common belief, robotic cleaners do not need to consume high amount of voltage for it to work efficiently. RPC minimizes consumption of energy by using only low amount of voltage.

At range of around 60-70watts/hour, robotic cleaners consume energy only as much as a regular light bulb.  As a result to saving energy, saving cash is also associated to this benefit, which will be discussed further in the next feature.

3. Money Saver

At this point, you may already get the idea why robotic pool cleaners can save you more money than you think.

As house owners, we know that there is a strong correlation between high energy consumed by a product, to the high electric bill we receive each month. Hence, RPC saves energy thus saving you money at the same time.

But wait, aren’t robotic pool cleaners also expensive?

The answer is generally yes (now, there are a lot of brands that fits to different types of budget.)

So why is purchasing one a money saver?

Owning the product is definitely cost-effective in the long run basing on the purpose of your purchase. RPC is a one-time investment, especially for business pool owners.

The money you invest on, say, a $400 worth of robotic cleaner is going to be much lesser than the money you put aside to pay monthly employee wages that could be more or less $1200 per worker. Not to mention the employees’ medical insurances, 13^th month pay, allowances, and other benefits.

And how many employees do you need to run a huge pool complex? One, two, three? Basic arithmetic would tell us how much money can be saved when you buy robotic pool cleaners.

Okay, then what about for residential pool owners?

When owners get tired of cleaning their pools manually, they resort to calling pool cleaning services. Hiring professionals to clean the pool for you is a great solution to your labor work problems.

It costs around $150 per session, depending on the company. If an owner decides to hire pool service cleaners per month for the whole year round, that will reach up to total $1,800. Now, that’s very expensive compared if you just buy robotic pool cleaners.

4. Maintains Safe Pool Chemicals

Chlorine is a common chemical used to disinfect pool from algae and bacteria. It will become unsafe when the balance between the chemicals used is proportionally higher than the pool water.

The concentration of chlorine found in pool disinfectants is about 10% to 90% strong. For better understanding of how strong it is, a common bleach solution used for cleaning households has only 5% chlorine concentration.

Robotic pool cleaners use advanced brushing technology that scrubs all sides and edges of your pool wall effectively, cleaning away pool pollutants such as dust, algae, and bacteria. This means that there is no need to use high amount of chemicals to clean the water just to get rid of the nasty dirt.

With the help of a robotic cleaner, we can now lessen the use of chemicals which may potentially be hazardous to users.

5. Water Saver

All pools have their own main filtration system or a circulation pump and filter. The system comprises meters of pipes bending around the pool with a pumping engine and filter at the end of it.

Particles of dirt get sucked through the tubes and end up in filters where they stay until backwashing is performed.

Backwashing the filter is the process of flushing the water back through the filter thus removing the trapped dirt that was collected. The more the filtration system gets clogged up, the more backwashing and rinsing needs to be done.

This process wastes large amount of water every time. With an RPC, it removes the debris independently from the circulation pump.

This helps prevent the main filter from getting clogged up frequently resulting to less backwashing and less water wasted.

6. Low Maintenance

Not only do the owners who buy robotic pool cleaners enjoy the freedom from doing swimming pool chores, they also get the benefit of the low maintenance of using the machine.

Since the robot has built-in filtration, independent from the main filter system, it traps the dirt in self-contained filter bags. This process saves you from doing all the backwashing which takes a lot of time and energy.

All you have to do is to remove the canister filter, clean the bag removing all the dirt, and then place it right back to its compartment. It’s that easy.

7. Advanced Cleaning Technology

Robotic pool cleaners have superior cleaning abilities that are incomparable with a circulation pump filter, an automated pool cleaner, or even human cleaning skills.

For one thing, robotic cleaners climb pool walls and navigate through pool beds to suck out all the pollutants (including granules of dust, disgusting algae, and microscopic bacteria) that are stuck on its surfaces.

This process alone of washing off stuck dirt, especially in corners, is a great advantage over the poor cleaning ability of main filtration system.

It cleans out all different kinds of pollutants, whether its source is internal or external. Internal pollutants include algae, chemicals, and bacteria.

External pollutants could either be human-driven such as sweat, urine, viruses, suntan lotions that are carried to the water by humans; or environmentally-driven which includes leaves, fruits, twigs, pollens, and dust that are carried by  the wind into the pool.

RPC uses an advanced systematic and intelligent cleaning to make your pools pollutant-free.

8. Plug and Play

The plug-and-play feature of a robotic pool cleaner is the simplest but most sought-after feature of the device that pool owners love the most. There is no need for complicated assembly before using it.

There may be simple set-up and installation needed for the robots to analyze the dimension of the pool and intensity of the cleaning (which is as easy as setting up a washing machine), but other than that, just press the power button, dip it into the water, and then voila! The RPC is ready to go to satisfy all your pool cleaning needs.

And last, but not the least…

9. Robots are Awesome!

This machine is simply the future of pool maintenance that comes with different awesome high-tech features. How often do we get to boast to our friends that we have a robot at home?

Needless to say, robotic pool cleaners climb pool walls and stairs, how cool is that! And it does not only do all these neat little tricks, but it also does all the proper cleaning for you.

So don’t get left behind and stay ahead of the latest trend because as they say, we are now living in the future.

To help you further understand the benefits of robotic pool cleaners, here’s a cool animated video on what to expect from a Trident RPC.

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Do You Really Need a Robotic Pool Cleaner?

When can you say that you really need a machine to help you manage your pool sanitation? Can you still clean your pool on your own without any external help? When is the best time to decide that you really need a robotic pool cleaner?

Let’s face it. Robotic pool cleaners are not cheap. It can be a little too pricey. That is why, even if this website promotes robotic pool cleaners, we still want to ensure the best for our valued readers. Your interest comes first before anything else.

So before you pull out your credit card, here are questions you need to answer first.

1. Are you alone in cleaning your pool?

It is difficult to do all the household chores alone, not to mention cleaning the pool. If there are more people lending hands, it would be easier to complete the task and it wouldn’t be as exhausting.

If you are a family person, ask your husband/wife and children to help you clean the pool. It would also make a great bonding moment for the family. Set up a date for the family to gather at least twice a month for the general pool cleaning.

If you don’t have pool cleaning buddies, then you must already be worn out from all the demanding tasks. Not to mention, you will get frustrated easily if your pool needs attention every week. By this time, it would be a necessity to find a new reliable partner in the form of a  robotic pool cleaner.

2. Are you spending way too much on pool cleaning services?

Pool cleaning services provide pool repairs, chemical balancing, and general pool cleaning services.

Something to think about: is spending on pool cleaning services worth your money?

Try observing what the pool guys do during their pool service. Skimming debris, scrubbing and brushing walls, backwashing pool filters. Can you do it yourself, or do you really need someone else to do it for you?

True, it is very convenient to just hire someone to clean the pool for you, especially if you have the budget.

The price range depends on the company or the area you belong to. For metropolitan cities, the base charges will reach around $500 a month on 4 visits. There are also companies which offer for as low as $70 a month, not bad eh?

To surprise of many pool owners, there are times when they receive monthly bills from pool cleaning companies and would find out that there are extra hidden charges above from the flat rate you signed up for. Whether it be additional pool chemicals or spare parts used in fixing the drain systems.

If by this you are already thinking that you need an RPC that acts as your pool guy, then it would be the time to consider a robotic pool cleaner.

3. Is your suction/pressure-side pool cleaner giving you a hard time?

Do you have suction or pressure automatic pool cleaner for quite some time now?

Although these are fantastic systems to help clean the pool for you, they are also not perfect especially if they do not meet your demand for your specific type of pool. Have you thought before if you need a robotic pool cleaner to replace all these?

One of the major issues concerning suction cleaners is that the hose can be quite a handful to deal with.

At most times, leaks can also go unnoticed. You will just wonder why your suction is not working well after checking the suction system, until you realize there are small leaks in the hose that prevents proper cleaning.

Some hose are also too short to reach certain parts of your pool. They get stuck in one spot. Although you can always fix this by extending it and moving to a different source, it would still be a hassle, right?

When your old auto pool cleaners are not giving you 100% quality service that your pool deserves, it might be best to switch to a more reliable pool cleaner.

4. Are you managing a large swimming pool business?

From swimming pool complex to water themed parks, managing a pool business is a difficult task that requires strenuous efforts. Your huge business with high rate of quality demand needs a robotic pool cleaner.

Even your own pool staff would find it rigorous to maintain the sanitation of the pool. If you want sparkling blue water, the tiniest dirt should be scrubbed off from all areas of the pool including lines between tiles and corners. Human labor can only do as much. Employees get tired too and may provide lackluster performance.

That is why there are automatic pool cleaners to help your staff maintain the perfect pool for your business. There are things machines do that humans are not capable of, and vice versa.

Make your employees happy by giving them the best partner in pool cleaning. Robotic pool cleaners will do the trick.

You need a robotic pool cleaner if…

You need a robotic pool cleaner if you have answered YES in at least one of the four above mentioned questions, then it is time consider the most convenient way in pool maintenance. Say goodbye to your old habits and start saying YES to the future of pool cleaning: robotic pool cleaners.

5 Major Steps Before Choosing a Robotic Pool Cleaner

Pools have different standards and needs. It is important for pool owners to determine the best robotic pool cleaner that is appropriate for their pools. Make sure to follow these simple but important steps before choosing a robotic pool cleaner.

Let’s face it, RPC’s are not cheap. Even if you have the budget to purchase it, make the most of your money by choosing the right robotic pool cleaner that is just perfect for your pool.

1. Determine what type of pool you have.

There are two types of pools basing on how it is built.

First is the above ground pool. These are pools that can be assembled by the pool owners themselves. Most of the above ground pools are simple in size and shape and they are likely for family use only. Choose a robotic pool cleaner that caters to the needs of aboveground pools.

Second is the inground pool.  This type is more concrete and it has a solid foundation. They are built by digging up the ground and forming the pool within it. If you have an inground pool, choosing a robotic pool cleaner that specializes to this type would be ideal.

It is easier to find an RPC for above ground pools because there are only few available in the market to choose from. If you have an inground pool, plenty of other factors are needed to be considered.

2. Determine the purpose of your pool.

Is your pool for residential use or for commercial use?  It is relevant to understand for which type of pool your robotic pool cleaner will work on.

When you have a family backyard pool, a residential robotic pool cleaner can do the trick. If you are managing a swimming complex or water theme parks, make certain that you are choosing a robotic pool cleaner that are cordless which could cover a vast diameter and space for a long period of time.

3. Determine the volume and size of falling debris on your pool.

If your pool is surrounded by trees, you probably have plenty of falling leaves that floats on your pool. Or debris such as twigs, acorns, or flowers that are lying on the pool bed especially in fall seasons.

Choose a robotic pool cleaner that not only collects debris underwater, but also rises to the surface of the pool to clean up floating leaves.

If you only worry about the floating debris, choose a robotic pool cleaner that will only run along the pool surface, but has no capability of cleaning the pool bed. A popular brand to consider is Solar-Breeze.

There are robotic pool cleaners that have huge filter bags to fill up more debris, and some pool cleaners that can suck up larger-than-usual debris.

4. Determine the elements and dimensions of your pool.

Does your pool have multiple steps, inclines, and slopes? Choose a robotic pool cleaner that has the ability to climb steps and inclines.

A lot of robotic cleaners don’t clean on difficult corners or don’t climb steps. Make sure to avoid these robots if your pool has too many corners and steps.

There are also types that can climb walls vertically. If you have an above-ground pool, then this type is not for you. Make sure that your pool walls are sturdy enough for the machine to suck up to.

5. Determine the bottom surface of your pool. 

Is your pool floor flat, irregular, or rocky? Determining what type of pool floor you have is an important factor in choosing a robotic pool cleaner. There are RPCs that have the capability of cleaning even in non-flat pool floors.

Is your pool floor made of tiles, vinyl, or fiberglass? Make sure to investigate first if certain robotic cleaners are compatible or non-compatible to certain types of pool floors. Usually, it doesn’t matter but in some cases, there are robotic cleaners who don’t operate in glass.

What Choosing a Robotic Pool Cleaner Means

Before making the purchase, it is imperative to study the item first to make certain that what you are going to buy is perfect for your pool. Careful and meticulous inspection, research, and pool assessment is needed in choosing the right pool cleaner.

Robotic pool cleaners are created differently and so is your pool. Your pool has unique wants and needs. That is the reason why it is important- stress on important– to assess these needs first before choosing the right robotic pool cleaner.