Solar Breeze - Automatic Solar Powered Pool Cleaner NX Cleaning Robot

Who would have thought as a first time pool owner that a large pine tree next to your pool might be an issue. Suffice to say that I have put in a lot of time keeping our pool clean. Well, two full months in with the NX that my daughters have named "piney" and I couldn't be happier. This thing has crushed the pine needle onslaught From the gate. I had to clean my filter once a month when it would hit 30-35 psi. I last cleaned it two months ago when I first put Piney into action and the psi is only at 20. I have backed off the Polaris pool sweep by an hour a night and may adjust down from there as there isn't much left to clean up. What used to take 30-45 minutes of manual skimming before I let people swim is now a 5min skim around the walls to catch anything stuck around the edges. Piney is still bumping around at 10pm and picks up pretty early in the AM. As you can see from my pictures, the NX picks up two full skimmer baskets of needles and gets down to the tiniest bugs and pollen. I cannot believe there is a heavier use case than ours so the NX should be a home run for any pool out there. If you do not have a towering pine right next to your pool then you might get away with running a pool sweep once a week or less. The drop in electricity from that alone will pay for the NX.

Has some design flaws which cause it to fail. I ran this for a season, then in November this year (2017) the rear paddle stopped driving. When out of the pool the paddle rotates slowly, but as soon as it hits the water the force needed to drive it is insufficient. Overall the design is pretty great, but there are obviously some build quality issues. For example the bottom tray fits into a groove in the base, but both the tray and the groove in the unit are roughly moulded and although it works, it's not a quality fit. Now I have this drive problem, which may either be something like poor quality plastic gears, or a drive belt. Deeply disappointed about something so expensive with such quality issues.

Overall the system is brilliant with one very simple flaw!!! You can tell that this product went through multiple design iterations to optimize the function of the Vacuum system and how it navigates the pool. But once they started manufacturing this in mass production they missed the mark.What is the issue:The one issue that does need to be improved is the actual skimmer tray. The side flanges are not large enough to allow the plastic tray to flex without popping off. Which means that a few times a week the tray is sitting at the bottom of the pool and all of the leaves are scattered around the pool. I thought that i had put the tray in wrong the first time it happened. But after seeing the skimmer bump into the side of the pool and then the tray popped down on one side and then floated to the bottom.What works well:The moving wheels at the front are truly functional especially since I have a large free-form pool with lots of curves and corners. The solar system is also very efficient and powers the skimmer well into the evening after dark. The skimmer method works very well and grabs large and small leaves. the screen is fine enough to even grab the dog hair from my Black Lab that spends most of his life in the pool.Solar Breeze really needs to get this issue fixed, but once they do this thing will be perfect.

This has been the best purchase I have made for our pool. I get a lot of junk in the pool from the bushes and trees around the pool. In addition, the bug population in my area decided my pool is where they want to commit suicide, so I spent on average 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours a day skimming and cleaning the pool. Since I started using this auto skimmer, my total cleaning time has been about 15 to 20 minutes.Pros: Easy to use, just set it in the water, turn it on. Constantly skims so very little ends up on the bottomCons: Some of the bugs/ leafs fall out when removing from the pool to clean its filter. I just keep the hand skimmer near by to pick up what falls out.

Haven't had to charge it since getting this. Sun takes care of it. So I like that! Gets most of leaf litter and bugs that meet their demise. I gave it four stars as misses areas and usually have to hand skim as well. One tip is to turn it off before taking it out of the pool- hold both ends evenly otherwise will empty out into the pool along with what it picked up! Would recommend with notice of these comments.

Have this in use for just a couple of weeks now. The pool is screened in with ~ 18x14 tpi screen, and lots of tiny debris gets in. My leaf net is about as coarse as the the screen, so I cannot pick up all that little visible debris. We occasionally get bugs, small frogs, worms and lizards in the pool (oh, and one small snake!). So far this has only captured bugs and the expected debris (even fine non-organic fibers from a plastic tarp that was ripped up in a prior hurricane.) I am amazed at the size of particles being swept up, which I was hoping it would do. My pool is currently shaded in the later afternoon and the Solar Breeze gets put into retirement early on a daily basis. I pull it out, clean it and rest it vertically to face the sun next morning. I left it out overnight in the pool just a couple times to film its little Blinky lights. I don't put it back in the pool until I'm sure we have no bigger critters like snakes floating around. Don't want to be surprised when emptying out the trash bin 8-(Operationally, it stays mostly near the edge of the pool, moving CW until it approaches a spill-over spa. Then the currents tend to push it CW. It does hit the opposite side and often moves CCW. It rarely spends much time in the middle of the pool, but overall it is picking up the debris. The biggest issue is getting stuck near the skimmer gate - I blocked that partly with some PVC pipe. If the water level is of the ideal height, it works as advertised. It will head into a concave section near the spa, and ultimately reverse out (after a maximum of 4 minutes). Only if the overhang of the deck to the water line is of a certain range will this get stuck. I think I'll keep it and see how long it holds up. I've put a GOPRO on it to film its path around the pool for entertainment, LOL. I was thinking of opening a cruse line for lizards...?