AIRROBO PC100 Cordless Robotic Pool Cleaner review

REVIEW – I became a first-time pool owner last year. After completing pool school, watching several videos, and a season worth of practice, I finally got the hang of keeping a pool clean. I will say that manually vacuuming the pool was a difficult task all last summer, and it never seemed like I was doing it 100% correctly. So, when this pool season opened this year, I was thinking about finding a better way to vacuum the pool. Then the opportunity came up to try the AIRROBO PC100 Cordless Robotic Pool Cleaner, so I couldn’t pass that up!  Find out what I think…

What is it?

The AIRROBO PC100 Robotic Pool Cleaner is a battery-powered pool cleaning robot that uses suction to remove dirt, leaves, debris, and other items from the pool floor and walls.

Hardware specifications

Size: 41.6*39.2*27.8cm
Weight: 18.7lbs (8.5kg)
Cord/Cordless: Cordless
Battery Capacity: 7800 mAh
Runtime: up to 150 mins
Motors: Triple Drive Motors
Cleaning Area: Pool floors and walls
Speed: 10m/min
Available Pool Size: up to 3100 sqft
Minimum Depth: 1.64 ft
Maximum Depth: 9.84 ft

What’s in the box?

• AIRROBO PC 100 Robotic Pool Cleaner
• Wall charger
• Hook attachment (attaches to standard pool pole and used to pull the robot from the pool after use)
• Replacement parts kit (axle pieces, screws, lubricating grease)
• Instruction Manual
• Warranty info

Design and features

I have now used the AIRROBO PC100 Cordless Robotic Pool Cleaner 5-6 times since I received it (there has recently been a lot of rain/wind causing leaves and other debris to fall to the bottom of the pool). I have used both cleaning settings – standard and floor-only. Here is what I have seen with my use of the vacuum so far.

First, the robot vacuum is very easy to charge. The cord plugs into a port on the side of the vacuum. The port is protected by a waterproof cap that needs unscrewed before plugging it in. Afterward, you MUST screw the cap back on to keep the port dry and protected. The vacuum also charges relatively quickly (along the lines of a cell phone), which I thought was more than fair. You could easily, if needed, use the vacuum more than once a day.

Next, the instruction manual clearly shows you the steps to start using the vacuum after charging. I thought this was a nice feature as I have had many other products with limited or frankly useless instruction manuals. This one was great.

The robot uses blinking colored LED indicator lights on the back of the robot to indicate what it is doing. To start the robot, place it on the pool deck next to the pool and turn it on. The power switch allows you to toggle between off, standard cleaning mode and floor-only cleaning mode. Once you select your mode, the robot’s lights light up. When the 2 indicated lights begin flashing yellow, take the vacuum by the handle and submerge into the water, letting it fill up with water as you drop it to the bottom. I did this by hand, placing it in the shallow end of our pool. You need to do this quickly after the lights blink yellow, but also relatively slow dropping it in as it needs to fill up with water to sink and not float. A couple times, it almost flipped over or onto its side as it was settling on the floor, so pay attention when dropping it. Once dropped it will take 1-2 minutes to calibrate itself before moving and vacuuming.  In your User Manual, you can find what all the other indicator lights mean during cleaning and for troubleshooting.

Once it starts moving, it is on its own until cleaning is complete. The instructions indicate that it will clean until it believes it is complete or until the battery needs charging. In all cases so far, it appears to have stopped when the charge has ended. Every time I pulled it out, the battery was dead.

 

Like I mentioned earlier, it has 2 cleaning modes – standard and floor-only. The instructions indicate that a difference between the 2 modes is the frequency of your cleaning. If you are regularly cleaning with the vacuum, the floor-only mode should suffice. If it’s been a while since you cleaned or feel a full clean is needed, including the walls and water edge, then the full standard mode should be used. The standard cleans all surfaces, including the walls up to the water’s edge, while the floor-only mode only, obviously, cleans just the pool floor.

BEFORE

AFTER

For my first attempt using the vacuum, I chose the standard mode. After calibration, it immediately tried to clean the wall surfaces. It is quite impressive to see it climb and stick to the side walls all the way up to the top of the water. It did a great job going up, then back down, then slightly moving over to the next part of the wall and repeating. But it only did a small section of my wall, then stopped and moved on to the floor, never attempting to clean the walls again. After a few cleaning sessions, I think I discovered the issue of why it stopped cleaning the walls. Every time it reached the part where it started getting deeper, it stopped. At that point in the pool, the side walls change, going from 90 degrees off the floor to more like a 60-degree angled wall that grows as the pool gets deeper – a flat floor, then an angled wall, then a vertical side wall. The vacuum does not appear to be able to handle the angled wall and thus stops trying to clean the walls. While I am disappointed that the vacuum does not go up the angled walls in the deep section, I am not too concerned. With regular cleaning and use, the walls will not be that dirty and most debris will be settled to the pool floor. If I need to get items off the side walls, I can brush it to the bottom for the vacuum to get or scoop them with a skimmer net.

With other cleanings, I used the floor-only mode. As the name implies, it only vacuums the floor. It will occasionally go slightly up the angled walls as it bumps into them but did not actively clean them or treat them differently than the standard mode. However, twice now, the vacuum has gotten stuck on the pool drain, which required me to push it off with our pool pole. Not a big deal, but something you need to periodically pay attention to, so it doesn’t get stuck, drain its battery, and not continue cleaning.

When the vacuum is done or dead (it should know when its charge is about to end), the vacuum is supposed to stop at the side of the pool to allow you to easily pull it out. In my use so far, only the first 2 times did this happen. The other 3-4 times it stopped in the middle of the floor, twice in the deep end. Again, not a big deal since it is easy to retrieve. Using the very nice hook provided with the vacuum attached to your telescopic pool pole, simply hood the handle on the top of the vacuum and pull to the surface. As you pull from the water, give it time to drain.

Regardless of which mode I used, the results were great. I was very impressed with the amount of debris the AIRROBO PC100 Cordless Robotic Pool Cleaner vacuumed off the bottom of the pool, even if I thought it was mostly clean before use. All debris is sucked up through the bottom of the vacuum using a motor to pull water and debris through it. It also has 2 rubber brushes at the front of the vacuum that help direct debris to the hole a the bottom of the robot. Once through the hole, the debris is captured in a micro-filter basket that does a great job of trapping all the dirt, leaves, and other debris at the bottom. Once out of the water, simply open the lid of the robot and remove the basket. The basket has a latch that can be opened to see the inside and all the debris. Every time I am impressed with what I see – dirt, small twigs, bugs, leaves, worms, etc. I empty the filter by gently tapping it against by fence and letting the debris fall into my yard. Then anything remaining is hosed out. The instructions imply cleaning right away, when it is still wet as that will be easier than if you let it dry out first. I did not test this and cleaned it right away.

When I first used the vacuum, the battery lasted at least 2.5 hours and up to over 3 hours. The last 2 times I used it, it only lasted 2 hours. Again, it appears to have died and not finished early (and died in the deep end not against a wall like it should). I am not sure why it did not seem to last as long, and I hope to see its run time rebound. Also, with the last use, it did miss a few leaves, which perhaps it would have gotten if it ran longer. I think it would be nice if there was some way to better control or monitor the time – perhaps a timer setting on the vacuum or a connected smart phone app. For reference our pool is 16’ by 32’, but the floor is smaller than that once you account for angled walls.

Finally, I also was never able to get it to clean the three steps we have in the shallow end. It once, in standard mode, attempted to go up the side of the bottom step, but stopped and did not try again. I my opinion, this is not a big deal as the steps can be brushed off rather than be vacuumed.

Care instructions

In order to make sure your AIRROBO PC100 Cordless Robotic Pool Cleaner performs its best, it is important to note the cleaning and maintenance recommended by the company.

After each use, make sure to clean the unit and the filter basket after each cleaning cycle.  Store the vacuum out of direct and strong sunlight and make sure to dry around the charging port before charging.

Every 3-4 months (or after a deep cleaning cycle where the pool is exceptionally dirty), make sure there is no debris stuck in the impeller, track treads and cogs.  You will also want to clean and lubricate according to the image below.

Every 12 months (or if the robot is found not working or turning slowly), check track treads and brush rollers for wear and replace when signs of wear are observed.  Clean and lubricate as indicated in the 3-4 month maintenance and image below.  If the cleaning and lubricating isn’t working, it’s time to replace the axle sleeves.

Your AIRROBO PC100 Cordless Robotic Pool Cleaner comes with a replacement parts kit which includes axel sleeve-transfer gear x2, axle sleeve-front wheel x2, axel sleeve-rear wheel x2, lubricating grease x2 and screws x4.

For off-season storage or if the vacuum will not be used for an extended period of time, here are a few recommended maintenance steps:

• Thoroughly clean and dry the filter basket, brush rollers, track treads and cogs.
• Make sure there is no water left in the unit.
• The vacuum must be fully charged before storing.
• Make sure the AIRROBO is stored in a well ventilated, shaded and lower humidity location
• Charge battery at least once every 3 months to protect it from over discharging

Refund and warranty info

AIRROBO offers a 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee, as well as, 1 year warranty.  Undamaged products may be returned for a full refund for any reason within 30 days of the date the item was delivered. AIRROBO also provides a straightforward warranty that appears to be simple and straightforward.  Additional information and fine print details on refunds and warranty information can be found on AIRROBO website.

What I like

• Easy to operate
• Nice, easy to follow instruction manual
• The cleaning results
• Floor or all surface cleaning options
• Fast charging
• Self-guided navigation
• Cordless design
• 1- year warranty

What I would change

• Better job of cleaning angled walls
• Ability to clean stairs
• Timer feature would be nice (as opposed to going until the battery dies)
• A smart app

Final thoughts

I am impressed with the results of the robot cleaning my pool. It does a great job of getting all the debris off the pool floor. I think I have manually vacuumed for the final time. Although I would like to see it perform better on the walls and steps, my main concern is the floor and it does an amazing job cleaning the floor. I look forward to using the AIRROBO PC 100 for the rest of this pool season and all future pool seasons.

Price:  Retail $799.99 (Currently discounted on all 3 websites)
Where to buy: AIRROBO, Amazon, Walmart
Source: The sample for this review was provided by AIRROBO.