My Dolphin: Now I'm getting rid of it

[CarlD]

What's a pool buster??

It's just like a Dust Buster only underwater. Rechargable and goes on the end of a standard pole.

[KirstenHW]

Awesome!! I was just thinking yesterday how I need something just like that for the crushed rock particles left over from redoing the pavers around the pool edge. They are everywhere. Can this thing be hand held under water too -- like I could dive into the deep end and use it? And where do you recommend getting one? Sorry - I know its a tangent to this thread.

[jimwnola]

hzz, as an owner of both an Aquabot Turbo and Dolphin, any great preference between 2?

[jabre]

CarlD, I'm still very curious about Maytronic's position on this. Are they still doing nothing to resolve this problem and leaving it to their contracted service company? Are you going to continue to post updates on what is being done, if anything, to resolve the problem?

[hzz]

hzz, as an owner of both an Aquabot Turbo and Dolphin, any great preference between 2?

Good question.
Here are some of the differences between the two:

Aquabot-lighter, works well even in cold water,which is great for when the pool is just opened, cord easier to manage(doesn't tangle)
Had some climbing issues at the beginning but I was sent climbing rings which solved the problem

Dolphin-heavier of the two.....a factor for my wife when she has to remove it from the pool,cleans the pool much faster than the Aquabot, has the remote feature(which is why I bought it), has a caddy that is not well made but is better than nothing,does not work at all in cold water

I have a soft spot for the Aquabot.....I throw it in the pool right when I remove the cover....water is sometimes as cold as 40 degrees,pool is full of worms, and the Aquabot just keeps cleaning...it is a real workhorse.

Hope this helps

Zane

[CarlD]

CarlD, I'm still very curious about Maytronic's position on this. Are they still doing nothing to resolve this problem and leaving it to their contracted service company? Are you going to continue to post updates on what is being done, if anything, to resolve the problem?

Maytronics has said they will prod Smart Pool to do something. We shall see.

In the meantime I expect the Blue Diamond to arrive today or tomorrow and if it lives up to half the hype, the Dolphin is going up for sale.

After all, Smart Pool says there's NOTHING wrong with it and it has no visible signs of wear...

(must be me. pH of 7.5 instead of 7.2 makes it my fault. If only I had worn a tinfoil hat and started it at midnight under a gibbous moon...Do I sound jaded and cynical???? )

[brent.roberts]

The entire problem with your dolphin is your fault.

You have your tongue in the wrong side of your cheek when you start the dolphin and you need to stand on your left foot and push the button with your right pinkie.

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After some thought I sent off an email to Maytronics as well and challenged them to log into the forum and become proactive. I just plunked down $ 1000 for the dump lump of plastic.

I don't expect a real eureka on how to make it work. I do beleive it is over hyped in the advertizing.

But I would love to have it work for a couple year like yours did. By then there will be some available that will figure out where they are in a pool and how to set up a reasonable pattern and clean a pool in an hour or so instead of taking a whole night.

Fingers crossed. I hope the new toy gives you better results.

[hzz]

Since mine is still working I assume it must be because I am in Canada.

Does anything work in New Jersey?

Good luck with the Blue Diamond. Looking forward to your review of it.

[brent.roberts]

Carl

when you sent the unit back to SmartPool, did you send the cleaner AND the power supply ????

The symptom sounds to me like a partial failure of the power supply. The slow speed makes me think the power supply has lost a / some transistors / rectifiers and is simply not putting enough voltage out to the motor. With a single motor driving the whole thing, the speed would be slow and the water flow would be slow. Without the water flow the cleaner would not generate enough thrust to get traction to climb the walls ?? Sound like your situation.

I'd love to dig into mine to see how it's put together. My day job is running a machine tool business and we analize and repair AC and DC servo drives on the CNC machines. This should not be a major issue to sort it out. SmartPool should be up to speed on this and be able to fix it in about an hour flat.

[CarlD]

Right now not much is working in New Jersey--the Gov. shut down the state to force the leg. to finally balance the budget. The casino operators are FURIOUS, but helping Don Trump and Harrah's get richer isn't high on my agenda.

The hardest thing, though, is reading that Camp Marcella, a camp for blind kids, has to shut down. We used to live within walking distance of Camp Marcella--and it's a real special place.

Of course I sent back the power supply and the remote to Smart Pool. I KNOW it's working perfectly--after all you plug it in and the motor runs....Right?

Gotta run--sad duty this morning--the husband of a lady in my office dropped dead on the 4th--he was only 50 years old (my age) and it was totally unexpected. So I'm off to the funeral.