Are Robotic Pool Cleaners Worth It this Summer 2022 and 2023?

Yes

That’s my TED Talk, thank you for attending!

End.

Here at Mr Pool Man, we love our robotic pool cleaners not just because of their unmatched cleaning power, but more importantly, it gives us something that we can never recover, and that’s TIME! You see, robotic pool cleaners are so easy to use they literally blow every other type of automatic pool cleaner out of the water when it comes to time saved. You only need a few minutes to set it up, and you can leave it in your pool while you do other things, or spend that time with your family.

To expand on that, let’s revisit some of the main benefits of having a robotic pool cleaner and why they’re worth the money shall we?

The first benefit of a robotic pool cleaner is obviously, it cleans the pool for you. Unlike manually cleaning your pool where you have to brush your pool then vacuum out the dirt and debris, robotic pool cleaners do it all in one go! This goes the same for other automatic pool cleaners, they don’t really give your pool surfaces a good scrubbing, they just suck out the dirt and debris that have been loosened from brushing! Not only that, robotic pool cleaners also filters the pool water for you as it goes about cleaning your pool!

As we mentioned earlier, since robotic pool cleaners operate independently from your pool pump and pool filter so you can actually multitask when it comes to your pool maintenance. Need to clean your pool while changing out your sand filter’s sand? No problem! Plug in your robotic pool cleaner and it’ll clean your pool while you take apart your sand filter and replace the media. Need to give your filter cartridge a soak in some Water TechniX filter cleaning solution? No problem! Just let your robotic pool cleaner do the water filtering for you as you wait for your filter cartridge to get cleaned up. Need to do some minor plumbing work? Same thing! Just plug in your robotic pool cleaner to clean the pool in the background while you go about tinkering with your pool’s plumbing system.

This comes back to robotic pool cleaners being independent of your pool’s pumping system. Since it has a tiny electric motor when compared with your pool pump’s massive machine motor, it consumes much less electricity! To illustrate it clearly in numbers, a standard pool pump consumes about $0.40 to $0.50 per hour of runtime while a robotic pool cleaner consumes about $0.04 to $0.05 per hour of runtime! That’s a lot of money saved if you consider that it actually takes a lot more time to clean your pool using a combination of manually brushing your pool and an automatic pool cleaner versus having a robotic pool cleaner do everything for you. To learn more about which type of Pool Cleaner to buy, check out this separate blog post we have prepared here.

Unlike suction pool cleaners and pressure pool cleaners that go about the pool randomly, robotic pool cleaners actually have built-in navigation systems that allow them to cover every single inch of your pool, leaving no spot uncleaned. Sure, given enough time other automatic pool cleaners can cover all of your pool surfaces, but remember, they rely on your pool pump (or booster pump) to function so that’s extra energy being expended as well.

Since robotic pool cleaners have their own built-in filter, they save water by extending the time needed before you need to backwash your sand filter or rinse out your cartridge filters. It takes about 1,000 to 4,000 liters of water to backwash a sand filter while the filter of a robotic pool cleaner? If you’re really being frugal, you can get away with cleaning your robotic pool cleaner’s filter with just a bucket of water! Think of the thousands of liters of water that you can save on a yearly basis!

If there are two things that don't naturally come together, then its cleaning the pool and relaxation. Why? If you're manually cleaning your pool, then you're exerting a lot of effort. If you're using a suction or pressure pool cleaner, then the noise from the pool pump alone will not allow you to lounge around poolside while the cleaner is doing its job. With a robotic pool cleeaner, it's going to be super silent! You won't even know that it's running if you don't look at it every once in a while!  

A robotic pool cleaner is not meant to replace your pool’s filtration system even if it does sound like it would do a great job at it. It’s only meant to take the added stress on the filtration system away when it comes to cleaning tasks! So to answer that question, no, you can’t leave a robotic pool cleaner in the pool even though it’s really tempting to do so. A robotic pool cleaner is supposed to go in and out, wham, bam, thank you mr robotic pool cleaner! On top of that, you wouldn’t want to leave an expensive piece of pool equipment for the pool chemicals and the elements to do a number on it right?

The technology used in robotic pool cleaners is maturing quite fast and we’re seeing the prices of robotic pool cleaners starting to go down when you look at it from a benefits vs price standpoint. On the other hand, we’re seeing more and more suction pool cleaners adding more features, trying to catch up to robotic pool cleaners when it comes to efficiency and ease of use. We’re seeing high end suction pool cleaners approaching the price ranges of the lower-end robotic pool cleaners and there’s already some overlap there. If you’re going to go with suction pool cleaners, then we’re always going to recommend the most cost-effective ones like the Water TechniX Rapid Automatic pool cleaner which doesn’t try to become a robotic pool cleaner and you’re always going to get the best value for your money.

Once suction cleaners go up to the $600-$700 range, we’re suggesting that you spend a little bit more and go with an actual robotic pool cleaner like the Zodiac Tornax TX30 where you’ll get the full benefits of a robotic pool cleaner!

SEE ALSO: Pros and Cons of a Robotic Pool Cleaner

This blog post has been based mainly with our experience with the Tornax TX30 and the Robo-Tek Robo-Plus Robotic pool cleaner, so yes, these are all things backed by actual experience and we’re not going by what the manufacturer says on the box! And unsurprisingly these are the top selling robotic pool cleaners on our online pool shop.

P.S. Don't let the price difference of the TX30 and the Robo-Tek fool you! The Robo-Tek already comes with a caddy that will bring the price of the TX30 to about the same when purchased separately.

We also have another post here that outlines all of the benefits of a robotic pool cleaner if you want to read more about the other benefits of robotic pool cleaner ownership. We also have a guide which we published here which details how to use a robotic pool cleaner (hint: it’s pretty short and straightforward). And finally, if you need more reasons why you need a robotic pool cleaner then you can check out our 11 reasons to buy a robotic pool cleaner!

So, back to our original question: Are Robotic Pool Cleaners worth it? Absolutely.