Bit of a tangent for Save the Panel, but there’s a Home Assistant thread in here, so stick with me.
After 20+ years dealing with various Polaris cleaners I finally reached the point of getting tired of it missing certain areas, and cleaning one step repeatedly. I therefore decided to jump to a cordless robot. I thought this would be a quick weekend of research. It was not.
The usual sources were nearly useless. Like with most product reviews - each YouTube reviewer has a different favorite, comparison articles are affiliate marketing with a thin coat of paint, some manufacturer websites (cough. Aiper. cough.) just show a huge product lineup where it is impossible to understand the differences. (And no decent comparison sheet existed.)
So, what does one do? Post to Reddit… maybe in a subreddit about pools…
I posted in one of the largest pool subreddits and found my post to be removed, since it doesn’t allow individual posts asking for robot recommendations. Instead, you have to drop your question into a megathread. Ok fine. Did that. And no one answered. Makes the group useless for this purpose. My opinion is that moderation policies like that show that the moderators have forgotten what their community is for, but I digress.
The best part is Reddit suggested other forums to post to but they were for robot home vacuums, not pool vacuums. Ugh.
I changed gears and opened ChatGPT.
I crafted a prompt as follows to start:
I need help. I’m looking at an Aiper pool robot. THey have so many models and no comparison chart. Can you help me understand the differences? I have a 16x32 inground pool with vinyl liner. I want cordless, long run time and ability to charge it only once per week.
Then I added the following to refine it:
no trees above. Most is grass clippings and leaf blow-in from landscapers visiting, and dirt wash in from the pavers around the pool. We do have custom inlaid steps and a seat in the deep end that is a challenge for our current Polaris robot.
please expand this to Aiper Maytronics and Wybot.
please create a comparison, but can you include a column that says if it has some level of Home Assistant or alarm.com integration?
You get the idea.
In the end, I gave it these actual specifics:
- 16x32 vinyl liner, in-ground
- Built-in bench, custom steps
- No overhead trees, so no leaf load
- Mostly grass clippings and dirt after the landscapers come through
- Cordless
- Real set-it-and-forget-it scheduling
- Home Assistant integration if it exists
We spent about an hour going deep on Aiper, Dolphin (Maytronics), Beatbot, and WYBOT. Including battery replacement paths, parts availability, waterline behavior on vinyl, whether the “smart navigation” types, warranty realism, and what the community Home Assistant integrations look like for each. I even asked if any had alarm.com integration (spoiler - none of them did).
It created a rather elaborate comparison spreadsheet. (Link below). While this sheet is particular to my requirements, I thought it was good enough to share. I suppose you could upload this to your LLM of choice, change your requirements and have it update with then-current data to do the same for yourself.
Sharing it here if you want a copy:
Click Here to Access the Pool Robot Comparison Sheet
Why post this on Save the Panel
Because pool robots are quietly becoming connected devices. Some already have community HA integrations, others are getting there. Once one of these is in HA, the interesting automations follow:
- Notify when the cycle finishes
- Alert on low battery
- Trigger a run the evening after the landscapers have been through
- Empty-basket reminders
- Cleaning status on the dashboard
None of that is necessary. It’s fun, which is enough. But it also allows for the continued consolidation of your home’s management in a single pane of glass.
What’s your experience?
Feel free to comment on your pool robot experiences below, and even post your custom spreadsheets. I’m curious how others are using AI to help with the shopping experience.
Update: I ended up going with the Aiper Scuba S3. Once I’ve lived with it for a season, I’ll post a full review, including whatever HA story it has (or doesn’t). (NOT an affiliate link… just a link. 
)
-Darren