Swimming pool maintenance takes a lot of effort – particularly concerning the elimination of floating debris, leaves, and finer particles. And if you’re asking yourself, do robot pool cleaners work on the surface? — you’re not alone. As interest in this robotic pool cleaner increases, more pool owners are interested to know whether or not these are capable of completely replacing old-fashioned tools such as a pool vacuum or a skimmer.
How do robotic pool cleaners work?
Just like them, a robot pool cleaner is a machine that does the dirty job of cleaning your pool water with as least human intervention as possible. These are machines that work independently of your pool’s filtration system and do everything from vacuum the floor to climb the walls. But the surface-cleaning is model dependent.
The vast majority of pool robot pool cleaners include the ability to scrub the pool floor while climbing sidewalls and cleaning the waterline. But what about surface debris—like leaves or bugs that are floating on the top?These are usually taken care of by a skimmer, which can be built-in, or floating. With that being said, premium models such as the Beatbot AquaSense 2 Ultra, Beatbot AquaSense 2 Pro, and Beatbot AquaSense 2 almost provide a well-rounded cleaning package.
Robot Pool vs Pool Vacuum vs Skimmer
There are separate uses that come with traditional tools such as the vacuum cleaner for pool or pool skimmer. If you’ve got leaves or other particulates on the floor of the pool, that’s where a pool vacuum comes in; for items that are floating, you’ll need a skimmer. What a swimming pool robot cleaner can do for you, though, is to take over much of this work — and, if it has strong suction near the waterline, to be able to double as a surface cleaner.
And for pool robots and algae: Do robots pick up algae? The answer is yes — especially if it’s a pool vacuum specifically designed to deal with algae. Models such as the Maytronics pool cleaners or Beatbot models provide strong filtration that can pick up fine particles such as algae without needing to be committed unless the infestation is extreme.
Walls Climbing and Waterlines Scrubbing Ability
One of the premium features of any pool robot is wall climbing. A wall climbing pool cleaner is able to get up to the waterline, able to go after that hard-to-reach grime where the pool wall meets the surface. They don’t skim floating debris the way, say, a pool vacuum bot with a skimming module would, but they do a good job of surface-adjacent cleaning.
If surface debris is your biggest issue, consider a robot-style pool cleaner with dedicated surface-cleaning technology, or pair your robot with a floating skimmer.
More Pool Maintenance Tips
But even the finest robot pool cleaner has its limits. For heavy algae infestations an acid wash may be necessary. Here’s how to acid wash your pool surfaces safely. You might need to drain water before deep-cleaning, too — here’s how to drain an inground pool without a pump.
You might also come across terms such as what is a pool booster pump – it’s a pump that increases the water pressure in order to improve suction for pressure side cleaners, something usually not required with a robotic unit.
Should I Buy a Robot Pool Cleaner for Surface Cleaning?
Although nearly all robot pool cleaners do not actually skim the surface there are models with improved waterline cleaning that come close. If a sparkling clean pool without the hassle is your top priority, a robot pool cleaner in conjunction with a surface skimmer is the most effective way to achieve it. Opt for one of the smart varieties like Beatbot, which combines floor to surface performance, intelligent automation and superior debris pickup.
Conclusion
So, what about robot pool cleaners? Do they clean the surface? The response is: that depends, more or less, on the model. Though they’ll never fully replace a great skimmer, the best robot pool cleaner models come pretty close with abilities like climbing walls and scrubbing water lines. By selecting one of the best swimming pool robot cleaners such as Beatbot swimming pool Robot cleaner, you could get rid of the manual cleaning a lot and keep a sparkling pool.