I Put the Best Pool-Cleaning Robots to the Test

Swimming pools are fun. Cleaning swimming pools is not fun.

I learned this simple logic as a kid growing up in and around pools—it’s the only way to survive summer in Houston. Four years ago, I became a pool owner myself, and I found that the rule still holds. Jumping into the pool on a hot day remains a rare treat, but if the pool is filled with leaves and dirt, that treat becomes a lot less delightful. And when the thermometer is reading over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the thought of laboring on the pool deck, scooping out debris with a net, is downright cruel.

Robotic pool cleaners were a thing when I was growing up in the ’80s, but there was really only one technology available: pressure-side cleaners that attach to a pump on the surface and use water pressure, not electricity, to move around the pool. These types of cleaners are still around; you’ll recognize them by the length of tubing that floats in the water and connects to a jet set into the wall of the pool.

Today, the market is gravitating to electronic cleaners that don’t require a pump or that big, ugly hose in the…

Original source: https://www.wired.com/