Smart Pool Owners Are Future Thinking Their Pool Cleaners

A pool cleaner purchase is rarely just a purchase. It’s a long-term decision about repairs, downtime, and whether the “convenient” option becomes the most expensive option three seasons later.

We walk through the real-world tradeoffs between suction side cleaners, pressure side cleaners, corded robotic pool cleaners, and the ever-popular cordless robotic pool cleaner. I break down why suction cleaners remain the most economical and most repairable choice for many pool service routes, and why cordless robots can feel amazing right up until you have to deal with warranty claims, shipping a unit back, or paying for a battery and drive assembly that isn’t designed for an easy swap. We also talk about what to look for in brand support, including whether there’s a true U.S. repair center or if you should expect a mail-in exchange and possibly a refurbished replacement.

From there, we get practical about daily use. Corded robots can offer strong cleaning power and programmable weekly cycles, but the cord can be a hassle. Suction cleaners can run 24/7 with the pump and keep debris under control, yet hoses, swimmers, and solar surface skimmers can create friction. Pressure cleaners bring their own quirks too, especially when customers remove them and break quick disconnects or wall fittings. I share customer training tips that prevent common disasters, like leaving a suction cleaner on the deck while the system runs or exposing a skimmer opening after disconnecting hoses.

If you want a smarter way to choose the best pool cleaner for your pool or your customers, hit play, then subscribe, share the show with a pool owner or pool pro, and leave a review so more people can find it.

We break down how suction, pressure, corded robotic, and cordless robotic pool cleaners perform in the real world, not just on the box. We also get honest about warranties, battery repairs, service centers, and the customer habits that can turn a simple cleaner into a weekly problem.  
• comparing cleaner price points and why suction stays the budget winner  
• calculating cost per season versus long-term repairability  
• understanding cordless robot battery design and why repairs get expensive  
• checking for U.S. service centers and planning for shipping and refurbished replacements  
• weighing corded robot power and programming against cord hassle  
• using suction cleaners for week-long maintenance and spotting common annoyances  
• handling pressure cleaner quick disconnects and avoiding broken wall fittings  
• training customers on skimmer safety, baskets, and preventing pump air issues  
Learn more at swimmingpoollearning.com.  
you can learn more at coolguycoaching.com.  

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Transcript

Welcome And Cleaner Choices

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Hey, welcome to the Pool Game Podcast show. In this episode, I'm going to take a little different take on automatic cleaners for you and talk about real world situations and some things to consider when you're shopping for a suction site, pressure site, or robotic pool cleaner for your pool or for your customer's pool. Are you a pool service pro looking to take your business to the next level? Join the pool guy coaching program. Get expert advice, business tips, exclusive content, and get direct support. From me, I'm a 35-year veteran in the industry. Whether you're starting out or scaling up, I've got the tools to help you succeed. Learn more at swimming poollearning.com. I'll talk about the first consideration, and that is the price point of the cleaners. Of course, your suction cleaner is going to be much more cost effective than, say, a high-end cordless robotic pool cleaner. It's also going to be a less expensive than a pressure cleaner that you would get for the pool. So just be aware that the suction cleaner is still the most affordable pool cleaner out there. And for pool servers, I think it's the more most effective one. And I'll touch on that a little bit later. The second thing that you have to really consider, and this is a really big one that I don't think a lot of consumers think about too much when they make a big purchase with a cordless robotic pool cleaner, is that the service of that cleaner, how are you going to service that cleaner

Price Point And True Value

SPEAKER_00 1:41

after a couple of seasons or maybe three seasons when it runs into problems? If you pay fifteen hundred dollars for a high-end robotic pool cleaner, you expect it to last more than three seasons, and then you would run into some maintenance issues after that point. They have pretty good warranties usually on these cleaners, and you have to consider where these are going to be repaired. For instance, Polaris and Dolphin have a lot of service centers here in the United States. You could take your Polaris

Battery Robots And Repair Reality

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Freedom back into Leslie's or wherever you bought it, and they should initiate the repair for you under the warranty if it's still covered at that point. But once you get past the warranty, this is where things kind of get into a gray area, especially with a lithium-ion battery. They haven't come up with a robotic pool cleaner yet where you can just slide the battery in and pop it out. Mainly because of the water seal issues. It's really hard to seal them to begin with. And to make like a hatch where you can like just push a battery in there and make it water sealed, there's some difficulty there. And there would be some user error, obviously, water would get in there and ruin the cleaner. So a lot of them have the entire drive system and battery connected together in one component. And so when you replace the battery, you're replacing all the electrical components, and basically the whole heart and brain of the robot gets replaced at the same time when you replace the battery. It's kind of not like an organ transplant where you just put a new heart in, which is the battery. You have to actually change out everything at once in most cases, and that keeps the water seal. But that also raises the price of any major repair. So I have the warranty, and that's something to consider when you buy a cordless robotic pool cleaner, three or four years down the road, hopefully you get that much out of it without having major problems. You're gonna have to take it in for repairs, and most of those will be at a warranty at that point. And how much will it cost to fix that? And how much better would it be maybe just to buy a new one at that point? So if you do the math and you pay a thousand dollars for a cordless cleaner in the last three seasons, that's like $300 or so a season. Not terrible, but it is that's almost the cost of a suction cleaner that you can get for $400 and put in the pool and continuously repair that cleaner, probably for nearly seven or eight years, maybe even a decade, you could just change parts out and keep repairing that suction cleaner for the cost that you would get out of the robotic pool cleaner for just kind of one prorated year of use. You would have the suction cleaner, and then you would just pay for parts over the course of that eight or ten year period. So, of course, the suction cleaner is much more economical, not only at the beginning, but also throughout the years as you're maintaining it and repairing it. And by the way, not all of these robotic cleaners have service centers in the US. For instance, IPair, you can send it in to their main headquarters. I think they're in Atlanta, Georgia. I don't know if that's where the cleaners go, but basically, they really don't repair these cleaners per se. They'll just probably take the cleaner back, and a lot of times you can get a label from them to send it back and they'll charge to you. You have to contact them, they'll give you a shipping label and you send it back. So kind of keep the box handy that the cleaner came in, don't throw it away in case you need to do send it back. That's really important. Once you throw that box away, then you're using like a Home Depot box or something at that point. So keep the box and you'll send it in, and more than likely, they're going to send you a refurbished

Service Centers And Shipping Back

SPEAKER_00 5:20

unit back to you. They're not going to repair the unit that you sent in and send it back to you because I don't think they really do that. They'll send you a unit that they have gotten back from a return. They've checked it out and it works fine, and they'll send that one to you as a replacement. So don't expect again the original robot to be repaired by them. They'll just send you a refurbished unit and pretty much say that it's an even exchange. You sent in a used one because it's used and it's broken. They sent you a used one back to you, and they probably won't send you a brand new unit in most cases when you go make a warranty claim. So consider that as well. That not every single cleaner you purchase has a US repair center. You can't take the IPair cleaner back in to a local pool store and expect them to have parts for it. It's one of those things where you have to send it back to the company. And so that's a wrinkle to think about when you buy the cordless cleaner. Not to say that getting three years out of it and then maybe getting a new one at that point, because truthfully, every year the technology gets better and better. The new ones right now have AI cameras that map the pool. How effective that is is to be seen. But every year they have new upgrades and better and better cleaners. So repairing an old cleaner that's two or three years old may not be logical, and you may just want to factor in the cost per year of that robotic pool cleaner, and then call it a day once it breaks down and get a new one. The corded robotic pool cleaners, although they're not as fashionable, do have some advantages over the cordless cleaner still. Number one, there is no lithium ion battery in there, it's just a motor. Pretty well water sealed because the corded cleaners can be left in the pool all week long, and a lot of them are programmable for a weekly cleaning cycle, which is very like a suction cleaner or pressure cleaner, which I do like the corded cleaners with a weekly programmable cycle. Those are really nice cleaners to have in your pools. And the quarter cleaners are a little more powerful. There's no need to worry about the runtime because you would just restart it when the timer runs out and there's no need to charge it. But it does have the cord, and the cord is a little bit annoying sometimes, especially if you have a solar surface cleaner, or if you're going to use the pool.

Corded Robots And Backup Plans

SPEAKER_00 7:35

So the cordless cleaners, of course, are popular because of the convenience factor, but just remember that convenience factor comes with another side of that, which is the inconvenient factor. If something happens to it and it breaks down, you have to send it in. Then you don't have a cleaner for your pool. I always thought Polaris should sell a two-pack, they should sell like the Polaris Atlas with a Polaris Freedom, you know, the cordless freedom, and then you have the Atlas cleaner to use when you need to. And having both of those would be a great addition to the pool. But then that kind of defeats the purpose of having a cordless cleaner when you have a kind of corded suction cleaner in the pool. But I always thought that it's a good combo to keep the pool really clean. The robot can polish it, and the suction cleaner can clean the pool during the week. But that's just me and that's kind of thinking like a pool guy and wanting the pool pretty clean every week. And the drawback, of course, with again robotic pool cleaners is that most pool pros can't just take them out of the pool on the deck, take out their tools, and fix the problem with the cleaner. You have to send that into a warranty center or take it into a local warranty shop to work on that cleaner. So those are again robotic pool cleaners are great. I think they're highly effective. I have a cordless cleaner that I use, and I have a suction cleaner as well. And it's one of those things where if you know what you're buying and know the limitations of the repair of this cleaner, then go for it. But I think a lot of people buy these cleaners without having any kind of future thinking of what happens when this thing breaks, or what happens when I have to send it in for warranty or repairs. So let me go back to the suction side cleaner, which is preferred by most pool pros here in my area of Southern California. We of course like them for a number of reasons. The number one reason is that you can leave them in the pool pretty much 24-7. The pool will turn on, the cleaner will activate, and it'll be like if you're standing there vacuuming the pool all week long. And they're pretty robust now, where a lot of these will work with pools with kind of medium debris, I wouldn't say heavy debris, but they're great for medium debris pools and dirt, of course. And this makes your job easier because then you would just go to the pool and spot vacuum the pool, clean the spa, and not have to vacuum the entire pool with the suction cleaner in there. Now they do have the hoses and they can be a little bit of a pain point when customers want to use their pool,

Why Pros Still Prefer Suction

SPEAKER_00 10:03

taking them out, putting them on the deck. But truthfully, there are a number of customers on your pool route that probably never use their pool, to be honest. They do use it, it's just like once or twice a year. And there are of course those that use it continuously. So you may want to steer those that use the pool continuously to maybe a corded robotic pool cleaner, like the Polaris Alpha, where you can program it for a week and they could take it out, put it on the deck, and throw it back in. It's convenient in that case, I think, if the pool is like a really heavy use pool. Or you could teach the customer how to remove the suction cleaner. But I find that that's really a pain point for those customers that use their pool a lot, and it's something that they find annoying having to take the cleaner out whenever the kids need to use it. A lot of people will swim with it in the pool, it's not a big deal, but it can be pulled out of the wall, and then you have to come back later in the week and reconnect it. So there are drawbacks with the suction cleaner with pool use for sure. There's also the drawback if you have a solar surface cleaner with a suction cleaner in there because the hoses kind of interfere with the cleaning. You can easily get hose weights and drop a few hoses down below the water line, and that's pretty effective with those solar cleaners, and it'll go right over the hoses at that point. But it is one of those things where if they use the pool a lot, the suction cleaner can interfere with their use of the pool. I find that as long as the customer is educated, you teach them how to take it out and lay it lengthwise on the deck, there's really not a lot of problem. And most customers understand that the cleaner does serve a good purpose because it keeps the pool clean all the time for them. But there is that little annoyance of you know that they take it out of the pool, they break the leaf canister, or the leaf canister opens up while they're getting it out of the pool. All these are little annoyances that you have to deal with with a suction cleaner. The pressure cleaner, you're kind of in the same position, even though the hoses are thinner, they're still in the pool. It does have a quick disconnect that you can the customer can easily disconnect the cleaner from, but they tend to break those as well. So just be careful that if the customer is having a big party and they want to remove the pressure cleaner, that you can remove it on your service day. I do that all the time around 4th of July when customers are using their pool and they have a pressure cleaner. I don't like them taking it out themselves because they can easily break the tabs off the quick disconnect. Then you're in a world of hurt getting that out of the pool. And by the way, I have a video on how to get the threaded wall fitting out without breaking it, without using a wrench, and without you know twisting it and cracking it. And so you can refer to that

Pressure Cleaners And Broken Fittings

SPEAKER_00 12:42

video if you do have a pressure cleaner that the customer broke those tabs off in the wall and you want to get that threaded fitting out. And you can find this video, it's not a very clever name, but it's called an easy trick to remove a Polaris or Pentar Wall Fitting without breaking it off in the wall. I know it's it actually has done really well on YouTube if you if I look at the analytics here, but it's called an easy trick to remove a Polaris or Pentear Wall Fitting without breaking it off in the wall. It's because the tool they sell, Polaris does have a tool to get these off, but you have to have the tabs in there. And you know, usually when these break, the tabs are snapped off, so there's no there's no real way of using their tool to actually get it out. So it's it's interesting that I discovered this method, and the video has over a hundred thousand views because it does work effectively, and it'll keep you from doing major extensive repairs afterwards when you break that threaded wall fitting. I know I went down a rabbit hole there, but I thought it was important to explain that because a lot of times when the customer does remove the pressure side cleaner, they do break that wall fitting or the tabs off in there, and you have to deal with it on your pool route. I really like it when customers just leave the cleaner in the pool and use it. A lot of times they'll take the suction cleaner and put it up on the deck, keep the hoses in the pool, which is okay, but the danger there is that they'll invariably leave it on the deck, turn on the pool, or the pool will turn on its normal cycle. Then it's gonna suck a massive amount of air because the cleaner is on the deck. That happens every season a few times. It's not a huge deal, but it's something to be aware of with the suction cleaners. And the pressure cleaners, most of the time the customer leaves them in there, honestly, because the hose is thin, they can actually move that to one side of the pool and leave it there. And it's not a deal breaker. I think an automatic cleaner of some type is really crucial for the pool, whether they get a robotic pool cleaner, cordless robotic pool cleaner, pressure and suction cleaner, you can deal with it on your pool route. And over the years, with experience, you'll know how to deal with the cleaners and teaching the customers what to do with them and kind of mitigating the problems that they have with it in their pool. Not a huge deal. One thing I will mention is that if the cleaner is connected at the skimmer, this could be problematic. And I've had this happen a couple times over the years, where the cleaner is connected at the skimmer, and you can, by the way, use my hole in one basket. It's something I invented that makes the skimmer there's a hole in the bottom of the skimmer basket, you stick the cleaner hoses through, and you can still utilize that skimmer basket. But when you take out the hole-in-one basket and the cleaner, or the cleaner without the basket, the skimmer hole is exposed at that point. So I would really recommend that you keep the skimmer basket, the regular basket that comes with the pool skimmer by the equipment. And so whenever the customer takes out the cleaner or disconnects it from the skimmer, they put that basket back in. Because I've had this happen on two occasions. One

Customer Training To Avoid Disasters

SPEAKER_00 15:45

where a floating thermometer got stuck sucked into the skimmer, and I couldn't get it out. I had to call a repair person, and it was a big job. They actually had to cut part of the skimmer to get that thermometer out, it was a mess. And I've had a pool toy get sucked in there, one of those floating kind of rubbery pool toys that's a perfect size to go into the skimmer hole. It's only one and a half inch wide, and so anything can kind of fit in there, and that got sucked in there too. And I was able to get that out with a lot of kind of maneuvering. But if they do take the cleaner out of the skimmer, putting the basket back in would be ideal. All this is customer training. When you have a customer with a cleaner, really train them on, you know, even if you want them to turn the side port off, that's kind of pushing it, I think. Where if you have a side port suction cleaner, teaching the cleaner, teaching the customer how to turn the side port off is kind of out of their league sometimes. So you're gonna have to deal with the fact that if that side port does close, the back lock on the side port, the pool can still operate. It's just not gonna get the full suction, and it may cause a little bit of issues with the pump cavitation, but it's not a deal breaker either. I just really try to train the customers in all situations with their cleaner. And again, I spoke earlier on this that a lot of people don't really use their pool that much anyway. So this is not like a major issue that you're gonna experience on your pool route. But the customers that use do use their pool, kind of use your judgment in explaining what to do with the cleaner and how to work around that aspect of it. And if you're looking for other podcasts, you can find those on my website, swimmingprolearning.com. Click on the banner, the podcast icon on the banner. There'll be a drop down menu there for you with over 1900 podcasts. And if you're looking for my coaching program, you can learn more at coolguycoaching.com. Thanks for listening to this podcast. Have your rest of your week and God bless.