Beatbot AquaSense X Review: The Self-Cleaning Pool Robot

Photo: Chris Null

Naturally, AstroRinse also requires a power supply, so if you don’t have a regular electrical outlet near your hose spigot, you’ll need another extension solution here. The unit must be level to run properly, and it has adjustable feet and a built-in spirit level to help you achieve that.

After all, you’ll need to think carefully about where you’re going to place the AstroRinse, making sure you have access to water, power and drainage—and that the location isn’t too far from a pool. Since the AquaSense X robot itself weighs 29 pounds (and more when it’s out of the water), you probably don’t want to haul something around the yard to clean and charge it. Unfortunately, given the availability of the above three services in my backyard, that’s what I had to do.

A Friend Who Knows Water

The Beatbot AquaSense X robot is almost identical in appearance to the Beatbot AquaSense 2 Ultra except for some changes to the design of the basket (which is one piece here instead of two). Installing it is much easier than AstroRinse.

The physical setup involves installing two side brushes—these are only used with the sliding function—but this is a very quick affair. After the brush is connected, the robot must be placed on top of the AstroRinse cleaner so that the two devices can be connected together wirelessly. (The quick start guide lays out the specific keystrokes you have to make to complete this process; don’t lose it.) Finally, the system must be paired to the Beatbot mobile app; you will need Bluetooth and a 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz Wi-Fi connection to complete this task. One small hiccup I encountered: After completing all this work, both devices downloaded firmware updates, which immediately broke their pairing connection. It was easy to reset, however, by simply repeating the pairing process.

After a full charge, I put the cleaner through its paces in a pool on the floor and surface, and as expected, I saw no real difference in performance versus the AquaSense 2 Ultra. During floor tests with organic and synthetic dirt, the device absorbed an average of 97 percent of the test material, performing very well on steps and platforms. On the surface, the unit was predictably medium to rough, collecting less than half of the floating debris and sinking most of the rest. The device is too slow to collect much material on the surface, although its rotating side brushes help, to a small extent, to pull the leaves into its vagina.

On the pool floor, the maximum run time is about 4¹/₂ hours, courtesy of a 13,400 mAh battery—the same as the battery on the AquaSense 2 Ultra.

ScreenshotBeatbot Software via Chris Null

As with other AquaSense robots, a variety of operating modes are available in the Beatbot software, allowing you to choose from many possible combinations of floor, wall, gutter and surface cleaning, each with up to two sequences per location and different operating times. AI Quick Mode activates the on-board camera to let the robot search for debris instead of randomly encountering it; It’s great for quick cleaning when there isn’t much to take but more than you can easily scoop up with a net.

Again, not much of this is different from how the AquaSense 2 Ultra does, and apart from the poor surface performance, it works very well.

Charging and Cleaning

Go to the main event: cleaning. After each run, the AquaSense X parked itself in the waterline to await retrieval, and I obviously carried it on the pool deck until I set up the AstroRinse station. Although it may take a little trial and error to get the robot to sit in the right spot, once you do, the cleaning system starts automatically within seconds.

When the rinsing system starts, the upper arm changes and connects to the mouth that the robot uses to glide across the surface. Then, a stream of high pressure water (quite a loud bang) begins to blast out of the arm and into the filter basket, which is placed directly below this opening. The sprayer runs uninterrupted for three minutes before the arm retracts and the system shuts down. (Fast mode, which runs for one minute, can also be selected in the program.) After that, the hand returns and the unit is done. The dirt is caught in a mesh-covered basket built into the base of the cleaning station. Any remaining water drains through the mesh screen at the bottom of the unit.

Photo: Chris Null