Cleaning a swimming pool ranks right up there with scrubbing bathroom floors, but the consequences of neglecting either chore are equally unhealthy. Fortunately, in the age of robots you can ditch the laborious chores of manually skimming leaves from your pool’s surface and scrubbing algae from its walls and floors.
Invest in a modern robotic pool cleaner and let that machine do that dirty work for you. (Sadly, we haven’t yet seen a robot that can scrub our toilet bowls.)
These labor-saving pool bots come in various shapes and sizes with diverse capabilities, not to mention a wide array of prices. The most sophisticated models go for $2,000 or more. Here are our top picks, followed by a buyers’ guide that will help you determine what you need in a robotic pool cleaner.
Polaris Freedom Plus – Best cordless robotic pool cleaner overall
Pros
- Overall great cleaning quality
- Lightweight, drains water quickly
- Docks at waterline for easy retrieval
Cons
- Slightly less effective than Polaris’ corded model VRX iQ+
- Remote control is somewhat difficult to use
- Very expensive
Why we like the Polaris Freedom Plus
Polaris’s premiere battery-powered pool robot wins on flexibility, even if it makes minor compromises in cleaning prowess compared to its corded–and much less convenient to use–cousin, the Polaris VRX iQ+ (see below). This bot has a large, easy-to-clean debris basket, and it was extremely effective at removing leaves and other debris from our test swimming pool. When the bot has finished its work, it automatically parks itself at the side of the pool for easy retrieval.
Who should buy the Polaris Freedom Plus
The Polaris Freedom Plus is a great choice for homeowners with larger pools who want hands-off cleaning with the option to remotely control their pool-cleaning bot to ensure specific areas are cleaned. It comes with a caddy that provides contactless charging, and its 20-pound weight makes it easy to move from the caddy to the pool when it’s time to clean.
Beatbot Aquasense Pro – Best cordless robotic pool cleaner, runner-up
Pros
- Excellent underwater cleaning capabilities
- App lets you tweak cleaning operations in dozens of ways
- Outstanding battery life of 7 hours or more
Cons
- Can still get stuck on occasion
- Skimming feature isn’t overly effective
- Expensive compared to some other high-end competitors
Why we like the Beatbot Aquasense Pro
Like many robot vacuums, the Aquasense Pro comes with a docking station that automatically charges its battery, eliminating the need to drag a power cord to the device after each cleaning session. It will clean your pool’s floor, walls, waterline, and the water’s surface. It does a great job vacuuming up dirt and debris from the bottom of the pool, trapping it in its two-piece mesh basket. And if you opt in to purchasing its water-clarifying agent, the robot will dispense it while it moves around sucking in leaves off the surface of the pool.
Who should buy the Beatbot Aquasense Pro?
Pool owners looking for the ultimate in programmability and flexibility in cleaning should take a long look at the Aquasense Pro. This machine is outfitted with nine separate motors, which help it cruise around your pool with focus and efficiency. It has four Four preset cleaning modes: floor only; floor, wall, and waterline; floor, wall, waterline, and surface; and an eco mode that cleans the pool’s floor once every other day until its battery dies. But you can also create custom cleaning modes for the floor, walls, and surface that give your more than 20 other ways to keep your pool spotless.
Wybot S2 – Best cordless robotic pool cleaner for large pools
Pros
- Outstanding coverage
- Endlessly configurable via mobile app
- Reasonably lightweight for easy maneuverability
Cons
- Haphazard navigation
- History of cleaning operations seems broken
- App is rough around the edges
Why we like the Wybot S2
Boasting the ability to clean swimming pools measuring up to 3,230 square feet and equipped with a beefy 7800mAh battery, the Wybot S2 can scrub nearly any pool in just a few hours. Don’t let its idiosyncratic navigation fool you. It might look like it’s wandering around with no clear purpose, but it will leave no area of your pool’s floor, walls, and waterline untouched. And its ability to suck up debris is as good as its ability to scrub, thanks to a large basket with two filters, the second of which is great for capturing fine-gra
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