Blue Pearl Robot - anyone know anything about them?

[cleancloths]

Well my Blue Pearl came about an hour ago. FedEx dropped it at the front door, rang the bell, and then just left it without waiting for anyone to sign for it.

Opened it up and my first impression is that it is made cheaper than the Dolphin. What I mean by this is that the plastic is less rugged, but it also costs less so you would expect that. But the proof will be how it works. I don't care if I have to be more careful not to abuse it if it really is a fully automatic cleaner.

I placed it in the pool and away it went. While it may be the bottom end of their line, it sure goes much faster than the Dolphin Dynamic which lists for almost double its price. It appears to travel at about one foot per second!

I saw it get close to but not go over a leaf and figured it would get it next time, but I was wrong. The leaf got caught in its wake and trailed behind the unit by about 4 inches for maybe five to eight feet and then when the unit hit the slope going up from the deep end the leaf got sucked into the back of the unit. I was impressed. The water flow through the unit looks much stronger than from the Dolphin. There is noticeable turbulence on the surface of the pool above where the units is running, much more so that with the Dolphin.

I watched it climb a few walls, climb the steps once and pass over the maindrain without getting stuck. One negative thing (well maybe) that I noticed is that when it stays at the water line for a while when it goes all the way down it appears to tumble a little, but it quickly gets its bearings and moves on. I also watched as it was going straight and then in the middle of the pool made a 120 degree turn just for the hell of it. I like that, no more just going over the same straight path.

Will let you know later in the day how well it actually cleans the pool.

[CarlD]

Sounds like a good unit right off the bat! Dolphins are heavy--but that doesn't make them better.

[cleancloths]

Well the Jury is back and the verdict is in -- so far it seems to be a good purchase!

I was a little worried when I first went out to the pool about 20 minutes ago and saw the unit sitting on the bottom of the pool not moving. I paniced at first and thought oh no not another Dolphin situation. But I called them up and asked what was going on. When I ordered it they told me that one of the differences between the Blue Pearl and the Blue Diamond was that the Pearl had no built in timer and it would run forever. They even told me many people go out and buy a $15 electric plug-in timer to shut it down. But when I told him what happened he said I probably got a 2007 unit (my gut response was yeah right). But he asked me what color the unit was and he said yes, they ran out of the 2006 units and have started shipping the 2007. The 2007 has a built in timer and he said he thought it cuts out in a little less than three hours but was not sure about the exact timing.

In anycase, it did a very good job in cleaning the pool in just under 3hrs, it is a 20'x40' IG vinyl pool. There was quite a bit of crap in the pool too, as it has not been cleaned in 5-6 days since I returned the Dolphin. I'll keep you posted.

[Tredge]

Anyone want to buy an almost new Dolphin?

[Unabomber007]

Nice review.....makes me anxious to try out my new Aquabot Viva AKA Blue Diamond RC when I get home in 8 days.

[mr.bbq]

Good review, my dolphin is 2 years old now and still working great (crosses fingers) I will look forward to the reviews in a year from now as a lot of us loved the dolphin at first, I still do, because of course mine is actually working great!

Anyway best of luck and can't wait for Carl's review of the Diamond.

R

[rak70]

Any new news. Is everything going good with the unit? Mine came in the mail the other day but have not had a chance to use it yet...

[saraha]

My Aquabot is broken. I think it could be repaired if I shipped it in but this is its 8th season and I'm not sure it's worth the trouble of shipping it to a repair place. Figure it will cost me a couple hundred by to get it shipped, fixed, and return shipped. Not sure it's worth that to fix an 8-year-old $800 machine.

Anyway, I'm in the market for another robot. Tempted just to get another low-end Aquabot but am looking at the Blue Pearl based on the recommendations here. I see that the brush-head thing looks to be the obvious difference and it's replacement cost is $115 on pooldr. What is that made of? It looks like the stuff pool noodles are made of, am I right? What is the advantage of that over the rubber brush that is on the aquabot? I'm not sure that would clean as well as the rubber brushes. Seems like it would wear faster and not hold up as well to extended exposure to chlorine as the rubber brushes. I have had to replace the rubber brushes on my aquabot once, they get dried out and crack or split in time.

What is your experience so far?

PS. Look, it says I joined Dec 1969! Wow! Talk about an early internet user! I'm quite the innovator!

[cleancloths]

Its not even close to pool noodle material. I forget the name of the poymer, but it is rock hard when dry and soft and holds about a gallon of water when it is wet. It does a great job of brushing the walls.

[Unabomber007]

The best way I can describe the material is it feels like pipe insulation when wet. You know the black insulation material for water pipes? When dry, it is hard as a rock. It gives you the impression of a sponge in that it's hard when dry/soft when wet though. I believe the material is actually PVA, whatever that means.