REVIEW – If you are a pool owner, you know the daily task of keeping your pool clean. Luckily, we can rely on our Fanttik Aero X robotic pool cleaner to the heavy hitting of getting the bottom and sides of our pool. However, I bet you are thinking what about all the debris still floating on the surface of the water? We’re used to grabbing the skimmer net to collect all that junk, but what if I didn’t have to anymore? Enter the Bublue BuVortex V5 robotic pool skimmer.
⬇︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $369.00
Where to buy: Bublue, Amazon, and Walmart
What is it?
The BUBLUE BuVortex V5 robotic pool skimmer is a floating, motorized skimmer designed to keep your pool’s surface free of leaves, bugs, hair, and other debris.
What’s included?
- Robotic Pool Cleaner
- Charging Cable
- Hook
- Filtration Pad (2x) (1 extra)
- Overflow Prevention Net (8x) (1 extra set)
- User Manual
Tech specs
- Cleaning Mode – Auto/Corner Boost
- Cleaning Cycle – Max 180 minutes
- Coverage Area – Max 538 ft2
- Cleaning Depth – Min. 1.6 ft
- Charging Time – 4 hours
- Filtration Density – Max 35 PPI
- Filter Basket Capacity – 5 L
- Moving Speed – Max 33 ft/min
- Waterproof Rating – IPX8
- Weight – 11.5 lbs.
Design and features
The Bublue BuVortex V5 robotic pool skimmer is a floating motorized pool skimmer that floats on top of the pool collecting surface debris with its vortex suction feature, trapping the debris in a basket. It has an overflow prevention net on top to prevent items from floating back out of the skimmer once caught, a basket to trap the larger items collected, and a filtration pad over the motor fans to stop the smaller items like small bugs. All three of those are removable to be emptied and cleaned at the end of its use.
The BuVortex V5 has a charging port, covered by a rubber seal to prevent water from getting into the plug. It also has a power button that cycles through 2 power modes and the off position. And there is Bluetooth button to allow it to connect to a phone app. When not in use, the charging port can be connected to an included charging cable to charge the device for its next use.
The BuVortex V5 is easy to charge and use. To use it, place the device into the pool, letting it fill up with water and balance itself. Once it is balanced, you press the Power button to turn it on. Then the robot skimmer just moves around the pool, sucking in debris like a vacuum while sucking in water through vortex fans/motors.
The BuVortex V5 moves around the pool quite easily and sucks up nearby debris quite easily. The top of the robot creates a vortex/whirlpool suction of water while pulling in the unwanted junk. Several times during use, the skimmer would get stuck along the edge of the pool against the wall or just stay in one place. Common spots for our specific pool was next to our pool ladder on the edge of the pool. It would eventually get loose again and move to another part of the pool, but I don’t think it ever got 100% coverage of our pool surface (our pool is approximately 16 ft x 32 ft) on one charge. It did a good job of collecting what it got near, and the basket was typically full of leaves, bugs, dog hair (oh the joy of dogs who love pool days like us) and other small debris, but not once did it get everything off the surface of the water.
There are 2 modes – Auto Mode and Corner Boost Mode. I tried both modes, but I have to be honest, I really could not tell the difference in performance. The included Quick Start Guide describes the difference as the Corner Boost mode is good for smaller pools (surface area <215 f t2) and is where the robot parks at the pool edge and draws in debris from the surrounding pool surface to acheive elevated cleaning of pool edges and corner. While the Auto Mode is the mode to regular surface cleaning.
Every time so far using the robot, I have placed it in the pool and let it run for a few hours (never really timed it) and I believe only once did it complete its cycle, stop its vortex suction and moved to the edge of the pool (or it is possible it stuck there) for easy removal. In all the other instances, I powered it off and pulled it out of the water.
The power button is on top of one of the 4 float modules along with a Bluetooth button, the charging port and a light indicator. The light indicator cycles through assorted colors to let the user know what mode it is in. A blue light indicator is for normal use in the Auto Mode. Orange indicates the Corner Boost mode. A constant yellow light is the low battery warning, while a flashing yellow light indicates the cycle is done and it is self-parked against the wall. A green light indicates that it is charging. And finally, a red light indicates and error or blockage in the motor/water inlet jets. I had a really challenging time seeing the light outside when using the robot in the pool. The sunlight was too bright to clearly see the light indicator, but I feel this is something that can be said of trying to see anything in direct sunlight. In my use so far, I have yet to get a red light error light. *Knock on wood
Using that Bluetooth button on the Bublue BuVortex V5 robotic pool skimmer, you can connect the device to a free BUBLUE Smart Phone App available in both the Apple or Google Play Stores. I did not think the app brought much to the use of the robot. The app is not necessary to use the robot. The app, once connected, does indicate the battery level and how long the robot has been running in its current operation. To use the BUBLUE app the Bluetooth button has to be activated first on the skimmer (so before putting it in the pool). Every time I used the app, I had to re-connect to the device and let it connect, before I could see the small amount of information it provides. The app tried every time to connect to our home Wi-Fi network, but I could never successfully connect. Connecting to Wi-Fi was not necessary to use the App, but it was a step I had to go through every time. The App provides no features like remotely guiding the robot across the pool surface to target a certain area or loose debris.
Cleaning the Bublue BuVortex V5 robotic pool skimmer when done is quite easy. The cover with the overflow prevention nets come off first, followed by the basket with all the large debris, and then the filtration cotton pad that trapped all the smaller debris that fell through the basket. Dump out the large debris from the basket first, then all three parts can be sprayed with a hose to clean . Once cleaned, the items go right back onto the robot in the reverse order, so it can be used again. Note: It is recommended to replace the filtration cotton pad every 3-6 months to maintain optimal filtration and the BuBlue BuVortex V5 comes with two spare pads. The guide mentions once those are used to contact customer support and at the time of writing this review I could not find where you can purchase if needed at this time.
Charging the skimmer is also easy. Simply open the rubber cover on the port, plug in the charger and let it charge until completion. There is an indicator light on the charging cable that is red when charging and green when charging is complete.
Assembly, Installation, Setup
The BuVortex V5 robot pool cleaner comes ready to use right out of the box, fully assembled with a charged battery. I did ensure the battery was fully charged before the first use, just to be safe. The App was easy to download, but I thought the setup was a bit tedious with trouble connecting to our Wi-Fi as I discussed before.
Performance
For what it is, the BuVortex V5 robotic pool cleaner does a good job of using it vortex mechanism to collect and trap floating debris of various sizes off the surface of the pool. But in many instances, it did seem to get stuck in one area or against the wall for several minutes before it moved to another area or bounced along further down the wall. There’s no clear indicator how long it’s been running or how much time is left unless you use the clunky app. You basically let it run until it thinks it done (3 hours max time) or until you are ready to pull it out of the pool. It does come with a hook that attaches to a standard pool stick if you need to retrieve from the middle of the pool.
Final thoughts
I have enjoyed having the BuVortex V5 to use to help clean up surface debris from our pool, especially right now in late summer as leaves start dropping more often, but it is just a tool to help with that removal and not something I can rely to get all the debris in its (max 3 hour) run time. It’s a tool to use alongside a pool skimmer net. I will continue to use it, but its not the game changer I was hoping it to be.
What I like about the BUBLUE BuVortex V5 pool skimmer
- Easy to Use
- Fast Charging
- Overflow Prevention Nets – Once debris is caught in the basket, it does not let any debris escape.
What needs to be improved?
- The App – Easier to connect and could it have more features/controls to the robot
- The Indicator Lights – Not bright enough outside in the sun to see
- Floating in the pool – getting stuck or not covering the whole surface.
Price: $369.00
Where to buy: Bublue, Amazon, and Walmart
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by Bublue. Bublue did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
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