There’s nothing like a refreshing dip in a swimming pool after yet another hot summer day. There have been plenty of those so far this year. One spoiler in the scenario is upkeep. Keeping a pool clean is extremely important, but also time-consuming. Debris accumulating on the pool bottom is just plain gross (no-one wants to swim when dirt is visible), it promotes algae growth that makes the surfaces slippery and it can throw the water chemistry out of whack. But manually vacuuming a pool is no fun. It takes time and can result in wasted water. Enter cordless pool cleaning robots, the wireless, throw-it-in-and-forget-about-it solution that frees pool owners from the worst of their daily maintenance chores.
I just wrapped up testing on the AiRROBO PC100, a rechargeable pool cleaning robot that promises to bring the power of AI for even greater efficiency.
AI-Powered Intelligent Routing?
Artificial Intelligence is having a moment. Put AI into anything and people assume it’s going to offer superior performance. AiRROBO describes itself as “a smart home appliance brand with a focus on AI-enabled technologies.” The PC100 is promoted as having “set-and-forget AI automation” with a combination of motion sensors, a navigation ship and algorithms to map out a zigzag path that never repeats and is “10 times more efficient than traditional cleaning equipment.”
Check the marketing image below and you can see what AiRROBO is claiming. It looks pretty good…
Unfortunately, in my experience the PC100’s path more closely resembled the Others side of the image. Once dropped into the pool, the robot would move around in what appeared to be a completely random fashion. I would watch it zoom forward a few feet, stop, ponder for one or two minutes, back up a few inches, pivot, creep forward a foot or so, then repeat. I wasn’t watching it constantly–I have better things to do for two hours at a time–but over the course of three weeks I never saw anything even slightly resembling a zig-zag pattern. Or any kind of a pattern.
Maybe the pool robot’s AI determined this was the most efficient path…
Highly Effective Vacuum Cleaner
Despite the apparently random cleaning path, the AiRROBO PC100 proved to be an extremely effective robotic pool vacuum.
Every time I pulled the robot out (and it parks itself near the edge of the pool so it can be easily hooked and hoisted out), the pool floor was sparkling. On a full charge, it would go for nearly two and a half hours in our modestly-sized (28 x 14 feet) pool. Its large 4L basket with fine mesh collected everything from dirt and sand up to twigs, leaves, crabapples and insects. Simply pop the basket out, spray it down with the hose and it’s ready to go again. The soft scrubbers (I expect they are silicone) scrubbed the floor as well, so it never got slippery.
AiRROBO says the bottom suction port filters water at a rate of 55GPM, with its 188W water pump. This pool robot’s AI angle may have underwhelmed, but its performance in terms of keeping the pool floor clean was stellar.
Climbing Walls and Cleaning the Waterline
One of the cool features of a pool robot like this is the ability for it to climb a completely vertical wall, break the surface and scrub along the waterline. That’s a “wow” moment.
I know the AiRROBO PC100 can do this. I saw it climb the walls of my pool several times and poke its scrubber above the surface of the water. The problem is that I saw this only several times in three weeks of near-daily testing. In contrast my current pool robot does it dozens of times every pool cleaning session. Ours is an in ground pool with a vinyl liner, which should be fine– AiRROBO says the robot works with vinyl, fiberglass, gunite and concrete.
The AiRROBO PC100 really seemed to have issues with the rounded edges where the floor meets the wall all around the perimeter of the pool. I watched repeatedly as the robot would hit that slope, pause, then back off. Occasionally, it would start to creep forward and up, but before it hit the vertical wall it would stop and reverse course. When the robot encountered the stairs in the deep end of the pool, it would sometimes attempt to climb the vertical surface and then end up flipped over, drifting through the water on its back until it righted itself.
The user manual does state it is not designed for use with stairs or sun shelves less than 50cm below the water surface. It also cautions that a slope of greater than 25 degrees from the deep to shallow end may trap the robot in the shallow end. I didn’t observe an issue with the deep to shallow slope, but those rounded floor to wall edges certainly appeared to cause it problems and seemed to be at the heart of its reluctance to climb the walls. In contrast to my experience, I didn’t see any complaints on the company website or Amazon among user reviews about wall-climbing performance.
My guess is your mileage may vary on this feature based on your pool design.
About the LED Lights
The AiRROBO PC100 is equipped with a long row of 11 multicolor LED lights. These provide valuable diagnostic indicators and serve to show the degree to which the battery is charged when plugged in. So far, so good. However, they are also a key part of the robot’s operating procedure. When preparing to drop it in the pool, the user turns the robot on, selects a mode, and then waits until the second LED on each end flashes yellow to indicate it is ready for use.
The problem is that in bright sunlight it can difficult to see those LEDs. Using different colors to indicate issues is one thing (a definite nice-to-have) but I do wonder if tying a specific color to a key function–being ready to go in the pool–might also be problematic for anyone who is color blind.
Spare Parts
A swimming pool is a harsh environment for a robot. Salt water, chlorine, other chemicals, plus a regular dose of sunlight can do a number on plastics and delicate components. I’m in only my second year of pool ownership, but I’ve already experienced one pool robot failing due to a seized wheel that is not user-repairable.
So I was impressed to discover that AiRROBO has taken this into account. The user manual includes instructions on removing panels to access the gears driving the robot’s tracks. The company also includes lubricant and replacement axle sleeves. Being designed for user maintenance and even a degree of repairability is a win for owners. The robot is also covered by a one-year warranty.
AiRROBO PC100 Recommendation
The AiRROBO PC100’s NaviClean technology seems to have stumbled in its stated capability of mapping out the pool bottom, then plotting and following an ultra-efficient zigzag pattern. At least in my pool. After hours of observation over several weeks of testing, this pool cleaning robot gave every appearance of moving completely randomly. It also seemed to have issues with the curved edges of my pool bottom, it got into occasional trouble with stairs (although it was able to recover without intervention) and I only saw it manage to break the waterline to scrub the walls on several occasions. Its reliance on colored LED lights as part of operation could cause issues in bright sunlight–or if the user is color blind.
However, the saving grace here is that as a robotic pool vacuum, it worked very well, every time. Somehow, amid all the pauses, circles, short runs, and apparently random motion, it always left the pool bottom completely spotless and its filter basket captured everything from large leaves to the tiniest of particles. It’s also worth noting that this pool robot has been designed to support a degree of user maintenance and repairability instead of being essentially a sealed unit.
If keeping that pool bottom clean is your primary concern, then the AiRROBO PC100 does the job effectively, even if the path traveled isn’t pretty. As for cleaning walls, maybe you’ll have better luck than I did with my pool.
Disclosure: AiRROBO provided a Rugged Case for evaluation purposes but had no input into this review.
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