Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've been taking care of my pool and buying stuff for it for several decades. In that time I've had a number of automated cleaners, so the question is how do you choose one. Note that all of them are expensive, but the range of price is large, so what do you get for more or less money. First off, my preference is strongly for the self contained corded units. I've owned the barracuda type cleaner and polaris types that are dependent on suction from your skimmer or external pump. When you most need them, when the pool is really dirty, the suction is least reliable. The hoses are also bulky and a nuisance to deal with. If you look at the range of Aquabot cleaners you will see price ranges for in ground cleaners from $300 up to $2000 and more. This unit is now my 3rd Aquabot (so yes I like them, but yes they don't last all that long). My FIRST AQUABOT was an Aquabot Turbo, probably similiar to Aquabot AB Aquabot Classic In-Ground Robotic Swimming Pool Cleaner for which I paid about $800 This was a terrific cleaner for 2 seasons. It climbed the walls and the stairs and did a great job. By the 3rd season I needed to replace treads and belts at a cost of about $200. This lasted me a another season at which time The steel braces that hold the filter bag rusted out (looks like a $3 part, but they would only sell me whole new bag assembly for a couple of hundred. Combined with a few other maintenance issues, I threw in the towel and bought ..... AQUABOT #2 an ECOJET Turbo Aquabot Ecojet Turbo for around $500. This also worked well, but did not climb walls so I did need to occasionally brush the walls, no biggie. But after 2 years this stopped working well (was very sluggish moving about). I took it to the repair place who couldn't find anything wrong. After limping through another season, threw in the towel again. AQUABOT #3 This guy for slightly less than $300 So far so good, it climbs wall (with a radius) but not stairs or walls at an angle. So it seems to work better than the $500 Ecojet worked for me. There are 2 bags in the unit, somewhat easier to takeout and clean than on the other 2 units, although after only 2 weeks the Velcro on one of the bags has come unattached and needs either to be sewed up or replaced. ( I emailed Aquabot about the defective bag and they sent me a free set of replacement bags which have been good for several months now) If you look at the various units you will see there are a several Aquabots that look very similiar (except for the colors) ...S2-40 (this unit) goes for about $300 ...S2-50 Color is yellow, has 50 ft cord instead of 40, otherwise seems to be the same but costs about $400 ...NE-3285F an orange colored unit appears to be pretty much the same for about $320 Bottom line. Don't waste your money on a high end AquaBot. The $300 model works nearly as well as the $1000 model, and will likely last as long. Even if it doesn't, its still more economical. If cost is truly irrelevant, there are better models. Update May 2014: It is a little over the one year mark and all is still good. Absolutely no problems over the past year, so I am raising my rating from 4 stars to 5. Update March 2015. Well I now know how long it lasts. It is essentially dead now. The blue lights flash when I try to use the cleaner. I believe the motor is not strong enough to handle the load now. I just order a new nearly identical unit to replace it (actually the new unit is called S2-40i ) but appears to be essentially identical and was actually a few dollars less expensive then I paid 2 years ago. Bottom line is I got 2 full season out of this. While I would have liked getting more, it did give me 2 trouble free years and the annual cost is still a lot less than any of the more expensive cleaners I've uses over the years.