I was around when the 1st generation of robotic pool cleaners hit the market. They were dumb, hard to clean, and unreliable at best. And very expensive. But a lot has changed in 15 years and today’s robotic pool cleaners are smart. Easy to clean, very reliable, and affordable.
Let’s touch on the first big change, robotic pool cleaners used to just go back and forth in a mindless pattern. A lot like the Kreepy Krauly bouncing type suction side cleaners. If the pool got cleaned you were lucky that day. Today robotic cleaners have mapping technology and gyroscopes so they can clean a pool very efficiently by scanning and mapping the pool. With the gyroscope, the cleaner always knows where it is in the pool, whether it be the deep end, the step area, or the waterline.
The older robots were hard to clean out because they had a cloth debris bag on the bottom which was awkward to clean and very time-consuming. I call them “robot diapers” and if you have ever cleaned one you will see that this description is accurate. The new robotic cleaners with few exceptions are top loading and the debris canisters are very easy to clean. Simply pop them out of the top and hose them off. This makes them much more appealing and they are fun to clean now.
Unreliable is a good word to describe the early generation of robotic pool cleaners. The seals were not that great, and water would eventually work its way into the motor, rendering the cleaner useless. Today the seals are so good you can leave the cleaner in a pool all week long and some of the seals are so good that they are rated for a 10-year lifespan. Robotic cleaners are much more reliable today and most are backed by a 2-year, 3 years, and even 4-year warranty.
BWT is trying to break into the US market and technically they have always been in the US market under the Aqaubot brand name. BWT is the new parent company of Aquatron which was part of Aquabot for years. There was a messy split of Aqaubot when Fluidra bought Zodiac Pool Systems. In a nutshell, since Fluidra owned Aqaubot the European trade union wanted the company sold so Fluidra would not have a monopoly in the European market. Aqaubot consisted of two companies at that time, Aquatron and AquaProducts. Fluidra kept the AquaProducts line of cleaners and Aquatron was sold to BWT. BWT took the Aqautron robotic line and redesigned most of those cleaners. The confusing part of all of this is that BWT owns the Aquabot name even though it no longer contains many of the well-known cleaners like the T4, T2, and Aqaubot classic. It’s a bit confusing and BWT is going to move away from the Aqaubot name in the coming years.
I’ve tested two of the new BWT cleaners and they do remind me of Aqaubot in the golden years. The RC60 and Cosmy are two solid cleaners and as they become more available in the US they will become popular choices. The RC60 is a powerful robotic cleaner that features a very fine top-loading debris chamber that will capture very fine dirt as well as leaf debris. The Cosmy is a very light cleaner weighing just 12 lbs but with the features of a larger robotic cleaner. To learn more about both of these you can watch my review videos.
BWT Cosmy the Bot 250 -Clean Your Pool In Style! Compact, Light-Weight, and Smart!: https://youtu.be/rOwFnGO6luc
BWT RC60 Robotic Pool Cleaner - App Control, Transport Caddy & Amazing 4D Fine Filtration! https://youtu.be/MmJ5py-4_Uo
Sean McDermott Director of Sales BWT US
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Visit my Website: http://www.swimmingpoollearning.com/
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