AiDot Enhulk 20V Handheld Pool Cleaner review

REVIEW – I finally got the pool I have always wanted two years ago.  I knew a pool would require maintenance, and I am determined to maintain the pool myself.  If you keep your water balanced and clean, I really don’t spend more than an hour a week maintaining it.  I was smart and ensured I have a Polaris that runs daily for a couple of hours.  It does a really good job of vacuuming the bottom of the pool.  It can’t clean the stairs or the bench seats in the pool.   I also plan on getting a hot tub; the Polaris can’t run in a hot tub.  Hooking up a hose to the skimmer and vacuuming to the filter is not optimal for a couple of reasons.  For one, you are putting more waste in your filter and will end up cleaning that more often, and secondly, there is a huge length of hose you have to manage around the entirety of the pool.  It gets very heavy and hard to manage.  I have been eyeballing cordless and hoseless pool vacuums for a while, so when the offer to review the AiDot Enhulk 20V Handheld Pool Cleaner came up, I volunteered to review it.

What is it?

The AiDot Enhulk 20V Handheld Pool Cleaner is a cordless and hoseless pool vacuum.  It has brushes and rollers on the head that scrub the bottom as it vacuums.  It has a short handle for hot tubs or small pools and a telescoping pole for larger pools.  It will work with in-ground, vinyl, gunite, and above-ground pools, along with hot tubs or ponds.

What’s in the box?

• 7.5-foot telescoping pole
• short handle
• AiDot Enhulk 20V Handheld Pool Cleaner vacuum head
• charging cord
• user manual
• four filter bags – one is inserted inside the vacuum
• The vacuum itself.

Hardware specs

• 4200 L/h water displacement
• 60 minutes run time
• 1.5-hour charging time
• 20V 40W motor
• 7.3 ft telescoping pole

Design and features

The AiDot Enhulk 20V Handheld Pool Cleaner basically comes in four parts.  There is the main vacuum unit which is pictured below.  It has a power switch and charging port.   When you turn the unit on, you push the switch up, which covers the charging port.   I appreciate this feature.  I get caught up in cleaning and tend to forget the little things, like putting the rubber cover back over a charging port before submerging the device!

The second piece of the AiDot Enhulk 20V Handheld Pool Cleaner is the filter holder.  The filter holder sits on top of the main vacuum body and is held in place by a plastic half-circle clamp.  It clicks into a notch on the main filter to hold it in place.

This is a picture of the back side of the filter holder.  It has a teal-colored rubber gasket around the filter.  The gasket clips into the filter holder via the rubber tabs on the front and back of the filter.

Here is a picture of the filter holder removed from the main body of the Enhulk 20V Handheld Pool Cleaner.  You can see that the filter bag itself is not very large.  If your pool has many leaves, it will fill up very quickly.

This is a picture of the main vacuum from where the filter bag attaches.

The third part of the vacuum is the vacuum head.  It attaches to the opposite end of the filter attachment.

I took a picture of the bottom of the vacuum head.  There are multiple scrubbing brushes.  The bristles on the brushes are very stiff, which is what you need in a pool cleaner.  I also noted that the brushes can pop out of their holders.  I hope Enhulk will sell replacements, which will eventually wear out over time.

The fourth and final section of the vacuum is the handle area.  There is a simple v-clip in the handle attachment on the main vacuum.

This picture shows the AiDot Enhulk 20V Handheld Pool Cleaner vacuum with the short handle attached.  I think this would be perfect to use in a hot tub.

This next picture has the vacuum with the 7.5-foot telescoping pole attached.  I did confirm that the attachment section on the main vacuum is standard.  I was able to attach my 12-foot telescoping pole to the vacuum.

Setup

The setup of the Enhulk 20V Handheld Pool Cleaner was simple.  I plugged the charger into the vacuum and the charger into the wall socket.   The charger has an LED that will glow red when it is charging.  It turns green when it is fully charged.  I did find that the vacuum charged very quickly in about an hour and a half from empty.

Performance

I took a couple of pictures of the AiDot Enhulk 20V Handheld Pool Cleaner with the telescoping pole attached and fully extended.  The first picture is in the shallow area of my pool, about three and a half feet deep.  The second is in my deep end, about five feet three inches deep.  I came to realize pretty quickly that the included pole was not going to work for me and my pool.  I had to be bent over in half to try to reach various areas of my pool.   I was able to attach the vacuum to my 12-foot telescoping pole, and it made my job much easier.

I took a picture of the inside of the filter holder.  You can see a flap in there that is supposed to keep the debris inside the filter.   I read other reviews where people complained that the debris would come out as you removed the vacuum from the water.   I don’t know if they got an older vacuum version without this flap in place or used a different technique. Still, I found that if I lifted the vacuum out of the water to expose the switch, turned the vacuum off, and immediately pulled it out and turned it upside down to drain, nothing went back into the pool.

I am fortunate that I don’t get a lot of large debris in my pool.  To test the vacuum out, I threw in seven pieces of firepit glass I had from some firepots.  Yes, I know glass is bad around a pool!  I chose these because they are heavy and easily seen at the bottom of the pool.  I would know if the vacuum missed any.   The vacuum had no problem picking them up.  I also ran the vacuum over my benches and steps.  I could not vacuum the top step because the unit needs to be submerged in one and a half feet of water, or the motor will burn out.  It picked up a surprisingly large amount of fine debris that I did not know existed.  I love that these filter bags can trap such fine debris.

I had to be sure to let the unit fully dry out before recharging it again.  I let it dry overnight outside, and that seemed to work well.  I also made sure to rinse it off with clean water after using it.

What I like

• They include four filter bags.
• It charges quickly.
• It runs for around 60 minutes which is more than enough time to clean my pool.
• It comes with a short handle and telescoping pole.
• Standard telescoping poles can be used with it.
• Lightweight and easy to maneuver

What I’d change

• Include a longer telescoping pole.  7.5 feet is really not long enough for most pools.

Final thoughts

I enjoyed using the AiDot Enhulk 20V Handheld Pool Cleaner, especially compared to my old hose attached to the skimmer version.  It runs more than long enough to take care of the few areas of the pool I need to vacuum, and when I get a hot tub, it should be perfect.  It charges fast.  It also picks up very fine debris.  My only complaint is that I needed to use a longer telescoping pole for it to be truly effective for my pool.  Folks with larger and deeper pools will definitely need to upgrade to a longer pole.

Price: $169.99 – 10% off coupon for new users
Where to buy: AiDot and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Aidot.