Tiger Shark QC vs Dolphin Diagnostic vs Aquabot Turbo

Automatic pool cleaners, vacuum heads, pool covers,
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coach_dorsey

Tiger Shark QC vs Dolphin Diagnostic vs Aquabot Turbo

Postby coach_dorsey » Fri 05 May, 2006 12:42

Trying to decide between the 3.

I'm a new pool owner who has already made the mistake of using a plain tarp-like pool cover with water bags, which fell in the pool in February and is full of leaves, pollen and tadpoles. So I'm trying to avoid the same mistake with a robotic cleaner.

Pool size = 20' x 40' with a diving board and a slide.
It is a chlorine pool.

I also would appreciate any advice on opening and maintaining with chemicals the pool throughout the summer.


Thanks for any advice,

Mike


Korey

Pool cleaners - pool robots

Postby Korey » Fri 05 May, 2006 14:24

Tiger Shark QC - has a choice of quick cleaning or heavy cleaning cycle. 5 micron filtration. Comes with a 3 year unconditional warranty.
Dolphin Diagnostic - poorest filtration of up to 20 microns.
Aquabot Turbo - filters down to 2 microns. Great track record.

Chemical advice - what specifically?
Hank

Dolphin Diagnostic

Postby Hank » Tue 09 May, 2006 23:31

Dolphin Diagnostic has a 2 micron filtration bag.
jwp

Aquabot

Postby jwp » Fri 26 May, 2006 18:10

I bought an aquabot turbo this year for a 16 x 36 pool, the thing has worked great so far. was especially helpfull at pool opening getting gunk out of the bottom. Had to stop and clean the filter bag every 2 hours - but that beat vacuming to waste by a long shot. It has also cut in half the number of cleanings of the main cartrige filters.
Guest

Re: Tiger Shark QC vs Dolphin Diagnostic vs Aquabot Turbo

Postby Guest » Fri 07 Jul, 2006 18:01

I bought a Dolphin Diagnostic in Feb 2005 and it lasted not even one year before it broke. The power supply seems to be the major problem. It gets wet then the circuit board fails then all bets are off. I tried to buy a new circuit board (2"x2" board) but they only want to sell me an entire power supply for $288.00. I paid almost $1000.00 for this unit originally and it lasted only one year! REALLY LAME! I know the warranty is for one year and the motor is good for 3 years. Too late for me cause I didn't realize it was broken till after the warranty expired. I understand now (after talking with the person who fixes these units) that the power supply is completely redesigned due to a high number of failures. I know my transformer and motor are still good but the circuit board is bad. No schematics are available either. I got screwed again!

jimb
cjsolar
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Postby cjsolar » Sun 20 May, 2007 21:46

I was also looking between the Tigershark, Dolphin and Aquabot Turbo T. So far, I am leaning towards the Aquabot. It seems to have much better reviews. Of the 3, which are you leaning more towards? It's a lot of money to purchase, so I want to make the right choice. All of your advice is great!
Buggsw
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Postby Buggsw » Mon 21 May, 2007 00:00

I've seen so many poor reviews on the Dolphin's. I was all set to buy one when I ran across several forums that poster's said they had nothing but trouble with the Dolphin.

If you do decide to get a Dolphin, buy it from some place like Costco (they have the Dynamic online) where you can return it easily.

Hammacher Schlemmer is a good place to purchase an Aquabot Turbo T2. They give lifetime warranties on everything they sell.
Aquabot's seem very reliable according to all the poster's I've talked to.

I don't know anything about the TigerShark except it is the only one of the robotics that I can think of that uses a cartridge instead of a fine filter bag. It doesn't filter as fine as the others. It's only 20 micron whereas the others filter down to 2-5 microns.

Blue Dolphin and Blue Pearl are both reviewed well. Home Depot carry's the Blue Pearl at their online site for a good price (as well as other online pool sites) I got a good price for the Blue Dolphin at poolsupplyworld dot com

Aquabot also now has the Bravo and Viva which I'm willing to bet are OEM's of the Blue Dolphin/Pearl.
Viv

Klean-A-Tron

Postby Viv » Mon 11 Jun, 2007 22:27

We recently bought a robotic cleaner called "Klean-A-Tron" from SSP. I believe they are the only place selling them right now. It is WONDERFUL. It does have the PVA rollers and although it cleans the walls and floor in 3 hours and floor only in 1.5 hours, it is very gentle on the vinyl liner. It is made by Aquabot and SSP and sold by SSP,exclusively, as I understand.

We had also read the reviews of the people having slits in the liner after using the Dolphin so we researched all the cleaners we could find and finally settled on this one. It came with a remote (usually not used because it never leaves a speck in the pool), and cart with cord wrap to make rolling it to the pool easy. The remote is used to change over from "floor only" mode to walls and floor mode.

It is very attractive while cleaning, (nice sophisticated colors rather than the screamming-at-you colors all the rest seem to be...

It leaves the water polished looking and the filter bag is easy to clean (can be washed in the washer). The best part is that none of that stuff goes near your pool filter!! Saves wear and tear and also chemicals since the pool is so clean. I would buy it again in a heartbeat, even though it was expensive. It also has a 4 year warranty which is much longer than most.

No, I don't sell them!! I just enjoy the extra time it provides my family!
BlackBottomInFlorida

Dolphin from Costco

Postby BlackBottomInFlorida » Sun 01 Jul, 2007 23:40

Regarding the suggestion to buy a Dolphin from Costco = I did just that and opened the box ten days later to find a USED Dolphin Dynamic. The cord was badly worn with the jacket abraded almost to bare conductors. The unit had minor scrapes and scratches and all the miscellaneous stuff had been opened and scotch taped back closed. Cheesy. I dropped the Dolphin Dynamic in my black bottom pool anyway to see how it worked before I take it back to Costco. I rate it a 3/5. It did suck up most of the muck on the bottom of this pool which hasn't been cleaned in months. I had to clean out the filter every two hours. The filter is a pain to clean. Nasty mess. And the Dolphin seemed somewhat braindead. It would every time wind up in the same spot in the pool just going back and forth up and down 1/4 of the way up the walls. It never cleaned the whole water line. I'd use the remote to drive it back to the shallow end and it would 20 minutes later wind up back in the same spot in the deep end.

So I would have returned it even if it weren't a used unit. Maybe there's something wrong with this one. Or maybe not. I ordered an Aquabot Turbo from Costco and when it lands in ten days I will drop off the Dolphin at my local Costco store for a refund. Hopefully the Aquabot will actually be new and won't be stuck in a rut like the Dolphin. The Aquabot doesn't have a remote (I think) so if it's braindead I'll have to manually drag it by its cord and it too will go back to Costco.

I have owned numerous Roomba robots and currently have a Roomba Scheduler, Scooba, and two Dirt Dogs. I expect my pool robot for $1000+ to work at least as well as my floor robots do for $250.
BlackBottominFlorida

Update

Postby BlackBottominFlorida » Sun 08 Jul, 2007 22:39

My Aquabot arrived from Costco and it was new. But I was struck immediately upon unpacking the unit at the fit/finish deficiencies. The Aquabot appears to have been assembled by children. Screws were loose. The plastic mesh that holds the filter bag out of the motor was mis-aligned.

I was also struck at how the Dolphin and Aquabot are virtually identical machines internally. Same basic design. They use different filter bags although I think they're fully interchangeable. The Aquabot's power unit seems very cheap (like an old car battery charger) and susceptible to water damage. The Aquabot's cord is thinner.

Having said all that, I dropped the Aquabot in my pool and turned it on. Immediately I saw a huge difference in water flow between the Aquabot and the Dolphin. The Aquabot picked up six full filter bags of junk the Dolphin missed. That's a lot of sand and grit. Plus the Aquabot didn't release as much debris removing it from the pool as did the Dolphin.

So, the Dolphin wins on aesthetics and on fit/finish hands down. The remote control is great. The power unit is splash proofed. You get a carry caddy with the unit.

But for cleaning the pool, the Aquabot wins easily. It has more suction and the filter material is vastly superior (not such an issue since, again, the filters are undoubtedly interchangeable).

The only question remaining is whether my Dolphin, which Costco sent me USED, was defective. Is this a fair comparison? The Dolphin specs say it moves as much water as the Aquabot. Side by side, the Aquabot clearly moves much much more. I may order yet another Dolphin just to be sure since $1000 is a lot of dough for a stupid pool cleaner and the Aquabot's fit/finish worry me.
Frustrated Dolphin User

Don't buy Dolphin

Postby Frustrated Dolphin User » Tue 18 Mar, 2008 23:23

I have had three Aquabots in the past, and decided to buy a Dolphin. I did like the design and just assumed, like the Aquabot, that you could purchase the parts. The Dolphin lasted about two years, and now needs a circuit board. Called Dolphin (Maytronics) and they will only sell the ENTIRE motor unit, at a cost of $395.00. I will not only not fix this thing, I will go back to the Aquabot. There are very few parts for the Dolphin. I will learn to check next time.
jemae
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Posts: 21
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Location: malaysia

Postby jemae » Thu 20 Mar, 2008 12:16

hi guys, trying to decide between aquabots and dolphin. more incline towards dolphin because i can easily get it from australia where the voltage is the same with my country.

now i think twice, i have 20ftX30ft inground concrete pool with mosaic surface, some help please, will be visiting perth next month to buy one.

thanks
jemae
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Posts: 21
Joined: Thu 20 Mar, 2008 11:54
Location: malaysia

Postby jemae » Thu 20 Mar, 2008 12:34

sorry guys, perhaps i should be more specific, the aquabot model is aquabot turbo and dolphin 2001.

after reading post from Frustrated Dolphin User, need some other info on the aquabot.

thanks
Guest

Re: Klean-A-Tron

Postby Guest » Sun 10 Aug, 2008 19:27

Viv wrote:We recently bought a robotic cleaner called "Klean-A-Tron" from SSP. I believe they are the only place selling them right now. It is WONDERFUL. It does have the PVA rollers and although it cleans the walls and floor in 3 hours and floor only in 1.5 hours, it is very gentle on the vinyl liner. It is made by Aquabot and SSP and sold by SSP,exclusively, as I understand.

We had also read the reviews of the people having slits in the liner after using the Dolphin so we researched all the cleaners we could find and finally settled on this one. It came with a remote (usually not used because it never leaves a speck in the pool), and cart with cord wrap to make rolling it to the pool easy. The remote is used to change over from "floor only" mode to walls and floor mode.

It is very attractive while cleaning, (nice sophisticated colors rather than the screamming-at-you colors all the rest seem to be...

It leaves the water polished looking and the filter bag is easy to clean (can be washed in the washer). The best part is that none of that stuff goes near your pool filter!! Saves wear and tear and also chemicals since the pool is so clean. I would buy it again in a heartbeat, even though it was expensive. It also has a 4 year warranty which is much longer than most.

No, I don't sell them!! I just enjoy the extra time it provides my family!
Who is SPP and where are they located?
\I 'm interested in buying a Klean-A-Tron
TomD

Dolphin Diagnostic

Postby TomD » Sat 30 May, 2009 15:26

I would never purchase another dolphin. It does a poor job climbing walls but the absolute worst feature is the power cord. It tangles, it twists and halfway through each cycle the dolphin has a limited range due to the twisted cord. It is impossible to restraighten completely, nor should you have to. Changing the filter bag is a chore - you would think that for 700-800 dollars they could supply a decent cord. The company answers no emails - I consider the dolphin JUNK

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