Customer Reviews

Aquabot ABTTJET Turbo T Jet Robotic In-Ground Pool Cleaner

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

With so many things to maintain for a pool already, the last thing I want to do is to maintain an automatic pool cleaner. If I have to replace belts, tracks, booster pumps, and so on, then I might as well spend that time with an old fashioned pole vacuum instead. Before I bought this T-Jet I had a tough time deciding between the Polaris series, T-Jet, and the Turbo T2 model.

I ended up buying the T-Jet because of the simplicity with so few moving parts that can break. I'm happy with the decision. The T-Jet cleans the pool crystal clear. But to get the best performance, first I had to make some adjustments to the setup out of the box. So here are some tips.

The settings on the T-Jet when it first arrives are for impressing you with the speed in which the water jets propel it across the pool - to maximize the water flow but not maximizing the cleaning potential. The changes I made were the following: 1. snap on the intake extender so that the suction port is closer to the pool surface, 2. slide the internal tab to narrow the intake slightly for more suction power, and 3. add two of the foam squares to the inside for more neutral bouyancy.

By increasing the bouyancy with the included foam pieces, the T-Jet more easily jets up the curve from deep to shallow. I also found that by increasing the lap time from 30s to 40-60s (max 90s) this gives it enough time to make the length of the pool (rather than just the width) before it reverses direction.

I read one review where someone said their T-Jet flipped upside down sometimes. I don't understand that because what I observed is that even when I push it around with my hand it wants to stay upright, and the floating power cord keeps vertical tension on it to keep it oriented correctly. I think that must have been user error.

Lately I just drop it in the pool once every few days and let it run all day long, or overnight. I was surprised how much dirt gets collected in the fine filter bag because the pool already looked clean but the filtering is really effective. I can run the main pump less so the DE filter doesn't have to work as much; I noticed that the PSI gauge doesn't increase as fast when I use the T-Jet. So it saves on electricity, since the T-Jet uses a fraction of the electricity as the main pump.

The only negative I found (and this is pretty minor compared to all the positives) is that the cord tends to get twisted up if I leave it in the pool for several days in a row. I have to remove it anyway to rinse out the filter bag. Then I untwist the cord.

I am happy that I bought this instead of the Turbo T2. I don't think the track models like the Turbo T2 can do anything better than this one, at least for my pool. I think those just have more moving parts to maintain.

Update 1/9/2010: I found out why people report sometimes that it stops climbing the wall. Those user-replaceable foam buoyancy squares on the bottom plate soak up water and wear out over time. Just replace them or add some more, takes 10 minutes. When mine wouldn't climb the wall as high anymore I inserted some more styrofoam squares from a shipping box. Now it climbs all the way up again. With this pool cleaner it is important to maintain the neutral buoyancy.

**Update: After a year of use, I'd still give it a 4 star rating. Over the past year, I never had to clean the filter cartridges on my pool. All the dirt and debris that usually went into the filter cartridges got vacuumed up by the robot. I also never had to vacuum the pool using a vacuum head connected to by pool's filtration system. This spring my pool was a mess with dirt and leaf debris. I put in the robot with the leaf bag and several hours later all the debris was vacuumed up. Then I switched to the fine filter bag and a few hours later had a pristine looking pool again. For the money, this has been a great purchase. **

Before I bought the turbo, I was cleaning my pool using a conventional vacuum head on a pole that was connected to my filter system. It would take me at least 30 minutes to move the vacuum back and forth across the entire pool to clean it. I have a cartridge filter system so all that dirt I vacuumed up just went into the filter. At times I would have to clean the filters every 4 - 6 weeks if we had a lot of dust blow into the pool. So I finally decided to get a robot to do the cleaning. The great thing about the robot is that it is not connected to my filter system so I don't need to clean the filters as often.

The robot does climb and clean the walls, but not all the time. It also is not computer controlled so it does not learn your pool. One axle on the robot pivots and is locked in place with a pin. As it moves around and runs into a wall, the axle will pivot so the robot follows a different path when it reverses direction. I have a 15' x 30' pool. After about 2 hours, it has cleaned at least 90% of the pool. Some times I will use a pole to give the robot a little nudge to steer it to areas it has missed. It does not do stairs at all so I always brush the stairs first.

Overall I am happy with the robot, especially for the price. A true computer controlled robot will cost almost $1000 and has many parts that wear out. Several pool supply shops have told me that the treads on those robots need to be changed every year. The only thing that will probably wear out on the turbo t-jet is the filter bag. I also like how much dirt it picks up. Sometimes the pool looks very clean, but I will put it in anyway. After 2 hours the filter bag has a lot of dirt in it. So it does vacuum very well. And that's all dirt that would have ended up in my filter cartridge at some point.

So overall, 4 stars because it does a good job. I'd give it 5 stars if it truly cleaned the entire pool with no intervention from me.

I purchased the Turbo T Jet primarily to help deal with occasional heavy algae build-up in my in-ground, kidney-shaped pool. Using the fine cloth filter bag the robot does clean up algae from the bottom of the pool, but within 20-30 minutes it stops in its tracks due to loss of suction caused by the collected algae. It takes about five minutes to remove the robot from the pool, clean out the filter bag, reassemble it, and restart the program. I have to do this 3-5 times before the majority of the pool has been cleaned. What I had really hoped for for was something that I could "set and forget". No such luck, unfortunately, at least not with heavy algae. When the pool has just a light amount of algae (i.e., barely visible) the robot will run for 90 minutes or so before it has to be cleaned.

The other drawback is that it does not do a very good job of covering the full pool area -- possibly because of the irregular shape of my pool. I watched it for 10 minutes today as it went back and forth over the same swath; I eventually had to pull it to another area of the pool to get it out of that mode.

Pros:
* Has a variety of controls for changing amount of suction, floatation, type of filtering, and amount of time between direction reversals
* Simple design
* For leaves and larger debris seems to do well
* Picks up algae effectively until it clogs

Cons:
* When cleaning heavy algae build-up, robot clogs up quickly. May have to remove and clean filter bag multiple times before pool is cleaned.
* Does not clean pool sides very well
* Does not have very good coverage with kidney-shaped pools
* The control panel has an interface that only an engineer would love

Bottom line:
For me, it requires too much intervention to be considered a truly useful tool.

I use the turbo t-jet in my 33' round above ground pool which is dished out to six feet(in the majority of the center). This is not a wall climber but works very well. You will have to run your pool brush to clean the walls. I have seen that people say the cord gets tangled. Mine has been tangled before but if you extend it out fully and get the coils out it corrects it.You only have to do it on occasion. The cord does float very well. I have used both of the filter bags and clean whichever one I use after a full day. I don't have too many leaves or big debris so the fine micron filter bag works best for me. I have forgotten about it for 15 hours and it's still running at the same speed. I imagine if the bag was full it would slow down. It does catch pollen and dirt. I did use the other filter bag which worked well with sucking up leaves and bigger things. I purchased one that was returned and saved a couple hundred dollars. After much research and debate, I purchased this over the pool rover because it has the jets that spray underneath, don't think that really makes much of a difference now. This does say for inground pools but I think thats a sales gimmick. Who is gonna pay six hundred bucks for a pool cleaner that says it's for above ground (I probably wouldn't). I asked the seller and others if this is ok for aboveground and they said yes. After using it, it does nothing to harm my liner. The jets underneath dont spray hard enough to tear/hurt the liner at all. The jet propulsion that moves it keeps it against the wall until it reverses. You set the timer that tells it how long to go forward/backwards. The wheels on the front that are on a single axle make it turn when it bumps the wall. Very simple yet great design. It does manage to cover the whole pool and cleans it well. It has been stuck next to the ladder. I've determined thats from having the filter running, the circulation helped to steer it the same direction against the ladder. I have a salt water pool so I have to run the filter to get chlorine. When I dont run the filter it covers the whole pool, looks crystal clear. This does suck up algae but if you use algaecide and maintain your pool, you shouldn't have algae in the first place. I would definitely recommend this product; however if I was paying full price I would buy the Pool Rover (which is for dish shaped pools). I forget if the Pool Rover comes with a fine micron bag. I would recommend getting that if it doesn't then you don't have to run your filter as much. Hope this helps and remember to fill out reviews for both good and bad products. Take into consideration that some people don't have the smarts to use something properly. Occasionally you may get a defective product.

Let me start by saying this: Buy the cheapest in the category you like, it is not worth to spend the extra money.

I spent 3 months looking at every robot available in the market...you name it, I have reviewed!!!!! There was no model I reviewed, that had 100% great reviews. I was quite disappointed in not finding one particular brand within the range of $500 to $3000 where the customers were completely satisfied with the product... In all of the reviews I read, the customers were happy for the first three months. All of the customers I read that had the product 4 months or longer, regardless of the model, brand, and price... All of them had something very negative to say about the products.

After all this research I concluded as follow.

There is no robot yet in the market that does an excellent work.

2. The cord in most of them gets tangled
3. The motors get busted after the warranty expires
4. The bagging capacity is very limited
5. The moving parts need to be replaced soon after you buy the robot
6. The robot get stuck in the middle of the pool
7. The robot does not clim the wall

AND MY FAVORITE #8: YES, MR. CUSTOMER, THE ROBOT HAS 4 YEARS OF WARRANTY........ PRORATED.... WOW..........PRORATED IN CASE YOU DO NOT KNOW MEANS THAT YOU YOU WILL END UP PAYING FOR THE PARTS, REPAIR OR WHATEVER.... THAT IS NOT A WARRANTY. IF A MOTOR FAILS, THEY NEED TO REPLACE IT AT THEIR COST, NOT AT THE CUSTOMERS'.

SO I CONCLUDED AS FOLLOWS:

If the manufacturers can not completely resolve the above concerns
WHY SHOULD I SPEND SO MUCH MONEY IN THEIR PRODUCT....???#@@$$^



The AQUABOT TURBO T is far from been the best..... I takes for ever to clean the pool, it goes over and over the same spot until it changes direction. You need at least 3 hours for the robot to do a decent job. I normally leave, so I would not get frustrated.. Based on my research, this type of robots are the ones with the least amount of parts to get damaged. , worst case scenario, I will put it in the trash can and at least I would not feel as bad as those who spent a thousand plus on a product that did not work.

After two season of use, my Aquabot Turbo stopped working. The authorized dealer who sold it to me said I need a new motor--for a mere $500, half the price of the whole machine. He also said this is a common problem, and they don't advise people to buy them any more. Lesson learned. Very unhappy.

Bit of background; this is the third type of cleaner I have owned. Had a Polaris supply-side with booster pump, and Kreepy-Krauly suction side. Happy with both of them, except for needing to run the filter all the time to use them. Thought I'd try a robot.

Did a bunch of research, this Aquabot had good reviews and had a moderate price. Setup was a breeze, came pre-installed with the larger mesh bag which I swapped out for the fine bag. Immediately noted problems climbing the walls, and recalled a review that said to add a square or two of extra flotation. That helped a lot, but it still only goes up to about 2 feet below the waterline. Had to experiment quite a bit with the run time before switching directions in the pattern, my 15' x 32' pool seems to do OK with 48 seconds, but the coverage is not great; the robot frequently gets stuck covering the same spots for 10-20 minutes, just going back and forth, maybe moving over a foot or two on the wall before reversing, then finally getting a new direction after way too long. Sure, it moves three times faster than the Kreepy-Krauly, but wastes I would say at least half its time redundantly cleaning. Definitely handles large leaves better than ol' Kreepy, but fine particles are SLOWLY accumulated.

It's also quite a bit of work to clean out. You have to pull it out, turn it over & drain it, remove the bag holder, remove the bag, turn inside out and power-wash. WAY too much work, compared to a suction cleaner.

I bought this pool cleaner 2 years ago . First , it needs to be in the pool much longer than the company mentions .Even after a couple of hours or more there are missed spots .Poorly designed as well as you are 'not supposed to pull it by it's cord' but how else can you retrieve it from the bottom of the pool ?? Ridiculous and totally lame instructions that come from an earlier model . Cleaning out the "diaper" bag is a chore and putting it back is problematic . I wonder who engineered this product !
The warranty pretty much sucks because it is pro rated only for the motor ,the timer and power box is not -as the company's repair people told me . So after 2 years the power pack died ,sent it back costs $18 shipping ,then being told I needed to pay them to fix it and pay shipping ,yes another $93 ,this after paying over $750 for this piece of garbage !!With this lame warranty and by next year it will be out of warranty and will be big $$$ and shipping if it breaks . I will be a much more careful consumer next time ..
Truth be told ,there are much better choices out there and make sure the warranty covers the WHOLE product not just pieces!

The Aquabot works great with little exception. It moves smoothly throughout the pool and varies it's path. However, the bag fills up so quickly due to it's small size and it only takes a small amount of stuff in the bag to change it's suction. Lessening the suction prevents it from moving up onto the sides of the pool. It will travel up onto the sides when it goes into the pool initially, but once it has made one or two passes it no longer will due to loss of suction from having stuff in the bag, even though the bag is far from being full.

There are essentially three types of automatic pool cleaner: pressure side, e.g. Polaris, suction side, e.g. Kreepy Krauly, and robotic pool cleaner, e.g. Aquabot. I assume that you have gone through the pros and cons of them and decide that you want to get a robotic pool cleaner. If you have not, I suggest you find reviews on the web to see which one is best for your pool.

I chose Turbo T-Jet because it is the least expensive of all models, and it doesn't have a lot of parts to possibly go wrong (belts, motors). It has only one motor. That motor sucks water through a filter bag and also propells the cleaner forward.

1. Effectiveness: It is quite effective for the area it goes through. It comes with two filter bags: mesh one for big leaves and debris and fine one for sand and silt. I use the fine one all the time. It picks up tiny sand and even algae.
2. Clean time: It goes random paths and has no clues about where is covered and where is not. I found that I have to run at least 6 hours (yes, 6 hours) to completely cover my 35 x 18 kidney shaped pool. The advertised two hours are definitely not enough. The cleaner moves vey slowly or even won't move if the filter bag is dirty. I have to clean it after two to three hours and let it go for the rest of six hours if the pool is very dirty. That is because the same motor sucking the water throught filter bag is also the motor propell the cleaner forward. More expensive models have separate motors for that.

I have two tips to share with you.

Adjustment to climb the walls and get out of the deep ends: If you read other reviews here or on the web, you will see that people complain that it won't climb the walls as advertised. It has also a difficult time to climb out of deep end of the pool. When I first got mine, I have exactly the same problems. Thanks to "FlyingPolarBear"'s review, I added two Styrofoam blocks to the bottom lid. It then climbs the walls and has no problems going through the whole pool! I wrap the Styrofoam blocks with clear tapes and then tape them to the bottom of the lid. You have to experiment the size of the blocks. If the aquabot spends too much time on the walls or even floats on the water surface upside down, then you have to cut back the floatation. By the way, your walls need to have bowel shape transition for it to climb.

There is an optional floatation kit you can buy. It has four pieces of floats and two sets of extension windows. Search for part number "SPK9600" on the web. It costs about twenty bucks. I found it extremely helpful. It really should have been shipped with the product. But you can do the same thing with the Styrofoam blocks above.

Timer: The adjustable timer only exists in high-end models. I bought an external timer from Amazon and disable the internal timer. It works really well. And it is less than twenty bucks.Woods 59204 All Weather Outdoor Timer with Rain Tight Case, Repeats Daily with 3-Prong Plug

Overall, it is not as convenient as Polaris or Kreepy Krauly. But it cleans really well. Cleaning the filter bag is a chore. But I don't want to add a booster pump for Polaris or overwork my filter system with Kreepy Krauly. I guess this is the best option I can get.