Pool Cleaner

UPDATE: Customer service replaced the unit. New unit performed the same way. After working with customer service for a week they feel the issue is the pool is dirty. The unit works much better in a clean pool. On a Positive note, Aiper customer service is excellent and very responsive. I believe based on my tests that the performance can be improved via firmware update.ORIGINAL REVIEW:Based on reviews and videos, I was expecting to receive a clear that overcame the missed spots by my current tethered cleaner. I charged the unit, updated the firmware set for bottom only and placed it in the pool. I traversed the pool as expected turned around and started to go back when it began doing a wheelie. The front of the cleaner eventually reached a 45 degree angle and the cleaner assumed it had reached a wall. It turned back around moved forward slightly and did another wheelie and shortly assumed it had reached a wall. For the next two hours it traveled back and forth across a very small area of the floor until the battery ran down then stopped in the middle of the pool. I called support who asked to try it -23 more times to give it time to learn the pool. Each time it did the same wheelies and only covered a very small area of the pool. As a last attempt to troubleshoot, I attached a small weight to the handle which made a significant improvement in the operation. It appears that there is balance or buoyancy issue with the design. Aiper customer issued a return label and it is headed back for replacement. I will up date this review once the replacement is received and tested. From my little bit of investigation, it appears there have been several iterations of the product since its release and the inventory may not all be current.

I ordered this robot based on other's reviews. It seems it's just not as advertised.1. Owner's manual mentioned a "hydro comm" (a buoy), which allows an app on your phone to monitor the robot, get water quality updates, etc., etc. No mention of it on the Aiper website (no search capabilities either). Internet search yielded no results. Emailed customer service to inquire about it, they want my product order number. I explained I ordered through Amazon and just want the buoy. Seven emails later (a bot?) and still haven't received a straight answer.2. Called C/S, she explained they no longer have or support the "hydro comm" but may in the future. This took 20 seconds. Huh.3. Charged the unit up and put in the pool to do floor only sweeps. Placed in the shallow end. This joker vacuumed about 200 sq ft with enthusiasm, but kept coming to the wall and turning around, never hitting the remaining 80% of the pool floor. Fished him out and set him on his way along the long axis of the pool, and it seemed to wander around a bit better.4. There is a LED band on the front along the width of the unit. Fully charged it shows blue, down to a certain percentage shows yellow (I never observed this directly) and goes red when near or at depletion. Charged it up for the second time and only about 2" of the band lit up blue. I put it in the water and cut it loose. Not sure how much I got out of it, but in the end, I'm just sending it back. Caveat Emptor.

The Scuba S1 Pro could be fantastic, since the hardware design appears flawless and is quite amazing for the price (good value if it works for your pool). The construction is solid and perfect for the job. It's a beautiful machine visually.But the firmware isn't compatible with our pool (gunite with wedding cake steps) . I would have no hesitation about buying another Aiper pool cleaner, or this same model after the firmware matures. Aiper customer service was responsive, but even with the latest firmware the cleaner doesn't work for us. Returned.The machine has powerful suction, so it climbs our walls to the waterline just fine. It's impressive that the battery life is so long, as it runs these strong motors for hours. The battery status indicator (colored LED strip) is effective and quite visible even in sunshine (and it looks modern and pretty). In floor mode, the cleaner picks up a lot of fine debris that we can't see (mostly fine sand). The filter basket is large and easy to rinse, and the second filter does trap fine silt (also easy to rinse clean). The plastic scrubbers do a good job at the waterline and don't show rapid wear from the rough plaster. The Scuba S1 Pro has obstacle sensors on each corner, but we can't tell that the firmware uses these sensors for anything (it just bangs into obstacles).HINT: it's important to power-up the robot at the "correct" corner of the pool; it always turns one direction (to the right) at the end of the first pass, and you want that to be toward the rest of the pool not toward the end where it started. We also found that the machine remembers its start-up orientation. Getting it pointed correctly during start-up means it cleans more of the floor area.On the downside, our pool seems to confuse the firmware so the cleaner does a haphazard job and needs rescue often. The bottoms of our walls are gently rounded into the floor, and our wedding cake stairs are gently curved. Maybe this robot works better with other pool designs.At the wall corners, the robot can keep only one drive track in contact at the bottom; the result is that the robot turns itself back toward the wall it just completed and endlessly cleans that small section until we rescue it. The latest firmware causes the robot to abandon the corner, reverse into the middle of the floor, and then turn away to a different section of the pool (skipping the next wall entirely).It also gets stuck at the pool lights, which are slippery glass domes: the cleaner gets disoriented when one drive track slips on the glass. Eventually, the robot descends at an angle and gets stuck cleaning the same section of wall at the pool light until we rescue it. Better position sensing could correct that.There are other firmware tweaks that would help this become the ideal pool cleaner. First, it should move slower in floor mode. The robot marches so fast that small leaves and other almost-buoyant debris are pushed up or to the side by the advancing bow wave -- they never get sucked into the vacuum so the pool never looks quite clean. Second, when the robot turns at the end of each floor pass, firmware should reverse a bit to clean the end of the next pass but instead it skips that area. Third, the cleaner should overlap its floor passes slightly to accomplish a full cleaning in one cycle, but instead it advances too far so that a strip of floor several inches wide is skipped on each pass. If we run numerous cleaning cycles, eventually it covers most of the floor.The firmware gets totally confused near our pool steps, so it gets stuck until rescued. With the latest firmware, it eventually abandons the steps and marches off to clean a different area of the pool... we then have to vacuum the remaining areas manually.Overall, it's an amazing hardware design with some serious firmware incompatibilities which could well be unique to our pool -- perhaps it works great for most other pools. Aiper software designers should study household robotic vacuums that are effective at detecting and avoiding obstacles. Those robots use their inertial sensors to map out the entire floor area and ensure full coverage without becoming confused. Aiper should also take inspiration from DJI drones, which use obstacle sensors to excellent effect.