Aquabot vs. Aquajet

[Mark]

am looking to buy the AquaJet or AquaBot as a gift to a person who has an inground pool, year round use.

could someone please tell what you think of these? my main interest was the small power consumption, listed as 24v device which would cost less than $1 / day even if run for 8 hours.

how about maintenance? what about parts? are they controlled by some dealer network?

I read this online

but could not find one for the AquaBot.

Similar discussion was found on google groups with search value "Aquabot Turbo eats it own cord", link at

[buffalobill]

generally these devices are not a magical cure for a properly maintained pool which needs frequent visits depending on bather load and climate and local problems of blowing dirt or sand or leaves, etc. your friend's pool must have sparkling clear and properly chlorinated water to start with, and then be regularly shocked and skimmed and vacuumed. if you would give the person a gift for their home of a new vacuum cleaner or a roomba, then i guess you could give the gift of a poolman certificate or new filter pump or a pool robot device. we have a neighborhood friend Meg who loves our pool. she stops over every sunny summer morning and cares for the pool. get a Meg! :)

Mark wrote:

[CommFunding]

[Mark]

costco appears to sell the DD for about 900, much more than the same version of the Aquabot/Jet versions

where did you buy yours or are you a dealer?

[Richard J Kinch]

Takes power to clean stuff. Why do you want a cleaner that doesn't use much power?

The Polaris units with booster pumps are the thing to have. 180, 280, or

380 models. It doesn't just pick up debris, it circulates the water and chemistry that would otherwise stratify and stagnate around the bottom. It might cost 10 or 20 cents an hour to run a 3/4 HP pump, but it gets the everyday job done in an hour or two.

I have cleaned up after several hurricanes using the 180, where the bottom was literally covered with debris. Other than hauling out the Polaris to empty its bag, I never touched a vacuum unit or scrub brush.

[CommFunding]

[Harry Chickpea]

NO!!! It DOESN'T take power. It doesn't take a lot of power to clean the debris that falls to the bottom of a pool, and that is where most of the stuff ends up if you use a shock with a coagulant. Other pool cleaning techniques than the Aquabot and Aquajet are horrendously wasteful of power.

Looks like I'm the only one with experience with both the Aquabot and Aquajet. My judgement? Aquajet, hands down.

The Aquabot has too many parts to fail. The Aquajet does not do quite the job on the first pass that the Aquabot does, but it is simpler, last longer, and costs a lot less to repair.

The average pool pump powered cleaner is a energy wasting, money wasting, piece of sh*t. I had a Barracuda that lasted about one season and required the heimlich manuver every time a twig or stem got caught in the throat. Never again.

[Richard J Kinch]

You're already depending on power in the circulation pump. Might as well apply a fraction of that to make the most effective cleaner. A Polaris

180/280/380 is like a robot shop vac, versus a wimply little Roomba and its precious "cleaning".

No fair depending on chemicals. You're just substituting chemical power for mechanical power, the former being generally much more expensive per unit of cleaning.