[bob@bieler.ca @bobbieler-ca Participant]

First let me say that I got the Seagull Pro delivered less than a week ago and have only used it once for about an hour or so.  My pool is irregular shape with no straight walls.  I have two shallow ends with one on each end and deep end in between.  A couple of things that I notice on first use are the following, along with a few questions –

(1) the cleaner does not really manage to climb the walls at all.  It starts to go up and then changes its mind and goes back down.  I suspect that this is because with the curved walls it cannot maintain enough suction to climb.  I don’t consider this a big issue and can live with it as a floor only cleaner if there is no solution to this.

(2) The cleaner gets hung up on my main drains.  I will try it with the main drains turned off since the suction of the drain against the suction of the cleaner is probably contributing to this.  I have had 2 other corded pool cleaners in the past and one of them had this same problem (Hayward) and the other did not (Polaris).  I think this issue could be easily fixed by having slightly larger diameter drive wheels to give the cleaner the ability to clear the top of the drain while maintaining enough wheel traction on the ground for it to dislodge itself.  Question:  Is there any way to reduce the suction pressure on the cleaner, as this may help as well?  On my old Hayward cleaner I was able to get an inlet nozzle extender which did help reduce (but not fully eliminate) the main drain hang-ups.

(3) For most of the first hour the cleaner was in the pool it remained in one of the shallow ends and would not go down the slope (less than 30 degrees) to the deep end.  Eventually I prodded it down to the deep end with the retrieval pole, where it did a good job cleaning the bottom (most of the debris collects there), until it got hung up on the main drain.  Question:  Does it in fact learn the shape of the pool over time through its own exploration, or will I always need to prod it from area to area?

4) As it was getting dark and I didn’t want to leave the cleaner in the pool, I retrieved it mid-cycle with the retrieval hook while it was running.  Once I lifted it out of the water, the cleaner stopped and I turned it to the off position.  It seemed fine to do it this way.  Question:  Is there any way to reduce the time of the cleaning cycle  and is there a proper way to remove the cleaner mid-cycle?

One tip I would offer to some of the others in this forum is that I wouldn’t get overly optimistic about any robotic cleaner climbing and cleaning the stairs.  Of all of my cleaners, none of them could do this at all.  I usually use the broom to sweep the dirt from the stairs and corners onto the flat pool floor when I start my robotic cleaning, which has always given me the best results.

For me, I am excited to not have to wrestle with the extension cord, pool cleaner cart and cleaner cord every time I need to do a light cleaning of the pool floor.  Most of the dirt in my pool accumulates in the deep end and on first use (once prodded down there) it cleaned it all up nicely.  I choose to ‘manage my expectations’ and I do understand that no robotic cleaner to is perfect.  For me, I accept that is is a big advancement and huge convenience to not wrestle with the cords.  I will keep my Polaris corded cleaner for the bigger jobs, like the first opening spring clean-up, but the Seagull Pro will be my ‘go-to’ regular cleaner to keep the pool dirt free (even if it takes a bit of pole prodding!).

 

 

[Bill Myers @bill-myers Participant]

Suction isn’t the primary reason that the cleaner is able to climb the wall. It’s a combination of that, but mostly the outflow, which keeps the cleaner pushed up against the wall. All so-called wall climbing cleaners work that way no matter what company sells them.

Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t able to get a Seagull Pro in a timely fashion because there were no units to ship when I ordered. It was my understanding that Aiper was experiencing a high volume of sales because of their push into Europe. Nonetheless, I know from other people that the Seagull Pro does in fact climb walls without a problem.

I ended up getting another model with another company that was able to ship, and deliver the new unit very quickly since I live near one of that company’s fulfillment centers. The one I use climbs the walls of my pool without any problems at a 90 degree angle, and it stays at the top to scrub the water line. It also climbs up onto the stairs in my pool. But your Seagull Pro should be able to do the same. After all, models like it, and mine are designed to do that.

As for the main drain of your pool, your suggestion to have slightly larger diameter drive wheels to give the cleaner the ability to clear the top of the drain is a good suggestion.

Thankfully, my cleaner doesn’t get stuck on the main drain of our pool. Sometimes, though, it gets stuck on the steps of my pool at a sideways angle of the steps themselves. I’m not sure why it does that since it should move along the steps to the wall to drop away, and continue elsewhere. In any case, I’m glad that it doesn’t get stuck on the steps very often.

I’ve had various pool cleaners over the years with a few different companies. Collectively, their designs change with newer, and better models to mitigate, and do away with flaws along the way. Like other good companies, Aiper seems to be staying up to date with those improvements.

Have fun with your pool, and take care.

[Bill Myers @bill-myers Participant]

By the way, to Aiper reps, if you could offer an edit function in this forum to correct mistakes and/or delete replies, that would be great.



For instance, even though there were breaks in between paragraphs when I was typing my post, those breaks didn’t apply after I used the Submit icon.



If breaks appear in this post, it’s because I typed in the BBCode for breaks versus simply using the text box that’s provided (and breaking with the “enter” key).



If no breaks appear in this post, that means even the BBCode I used didn’t work. So, let’s see what happens. 😉

[Paul McGlone @pjm361 Participant]

Just to let you know the seagull pro was not designed to do stairs.

[Bill Myers @bill-myers Participant]

Ah, so the BBCode for breaks does work, although it seems that I inadvertently doubled up on the breaks. Oops!


Hopefully, the one BBCode for a break that I used this time will have worked. 😉

[Bill Myers @bill-myers Participant]

Nope.


That didn’t work either.

[Bill Myers @bill-myers Participant]

No matter what BBCode I use, the break doubles up.
[p]
Maybe this page break will work better than the line break. 😉

[Bill Myers @bill-myers Participant]

Lastly, when it comes to hoping for an “edit” or “delete” option after posting, either one of those would have obviously been helpful.

[Paul McGlone @pjm361 Participant]

If you look in the manual it says in regular mode it will clean the floors first and then when it’s down to 50% battery power it will start to do the walls. So going up the walls just a little bit is normal on floor cleaning. If you switch it all the way to wall cleaning from the beginning you will be able to test if it will work on your pool. Mine did a good job on the walls and would scrub the waterline for a few seconds. It had a problem with the corners because I have a rectangular shaped pool with angled walls at the deeper end (4.5′) since its a vinyl lined pool with concrete walls and sand bottom.

[bob@bieler.ca @bobbieler-ca Participant]

bob@bieler.ca wrote:

First let me say that I got the Seagull Pro delivered less than a week ago and have only used it once for about an hour or so.  My pool is irregular shape with no straight walls.  I have two shallow ends with one on each end and deep end in between.  A couple of things that I notice on first use are the following, along with a few questions –

(1) the cleaner does not really manage to climb the walls at all.  It starts to go up and then changes its mind and goes back down.  I suspect that this is because with the curved walls it cannot maintain enough suction to climb.  I don’t consider this a big issue and can live with it as a floor only cleaner if there is no solution to this.

(2) The cleaner gets hung up on my main drains.  I will try it with the main drains turned off since the suction of the drain against the suction of the cleaner is probably contributing to this.  I have had 2 other corded pool cleaners in the past and one of them had this same problem (Hayward) and the other did not (Polaris).  I think this issue could be easily fixed by having slightly larger diameter drive wheels to give the cleaner the ability to clear the top of the drain while maintaining enough wheel traction on the ground for it to dislodge itself.  Question:  Is there any way to reduce the suction pressure on the cleaner, as this may help as well?  On my old Hayward cleaner I was able to get an inlet nozzle extender which did help reduce (but not fully eliminate) the main drain hang-ups.

(3) For most of the first hour the cleaner was in the pool it remained in one of the shallow ends and would not go down the slope (less than 30 degrees) to the deep end.  Eventually I prodded it down to the deep end with the retrieval pole, where it did a good job cleaning the bottom (most of the debris collects there), until it got hung up on the main drain.  Question:  Does it in fact learn the shape of the pool over time through its own exploration, or will I always need to prod it from area to area?

4) As it was getting dark and I didn’t want to leave the cleaner in the pool, I retrieved it mid-cycle with the retrieval hook while it was running.  Once I lifted it out of the water, the cleaner stopped and I turned it to the off position.  It seemed fine to do it this way.  Question:  Is there any way to reduce the time of the cleaning cycle  and is there a proper way to remove the cleaner mid-cycle?

One tip I would offer to some of the others in this forum is that I wouldn’t get overly optimistic about any robotic cleaner climbing and cleaning the stairs.  Of all of my cleaners, none of them could do this at all.  I usually use the broom to sweep the dirt from the stairs and corners onto the flat pool floor when I start my robotic cleaning, which has always given me the best results.

For me, I am excited to not have to wrestle with the extension cord, pool cleaner cart and cleaner cord every time I need to do a light cleaning of the pool floor.  Most of the dirt in my pool accumulates in the deep end and on first use (once prodded down there) it cleaned it all up nicely.  I choose to ‘manage my expectations’ and I do understand that no robotic cleaner to is perfect.  For me, I accept that is is a big advancement and huge convenience to not wrestle with the cords.  I will keep my Polaris corded cleaner for the bigger jobs, like the first opening spring clean-up, but the Seagull Pro will be my ‘go-to’ regular cleaner to keep the pool dirt free (even if it takes a bit of pole prodding!).

 

 

Now that I have used the vacuum a few times, I thought I would post an update to my original comments and address some of the subsequent discussions.

I have done a couple of things since my original post – (1) I read the manual and (2) I used the Aiper Seagull Pro several times, including for full cycle, walls only and bottom only.  To summarize my overall impression first, I am very happy with this product and it does what it should do – and does it quite well.

First thing I found is that it does split the cycle with the first half of the time being on the bottom and the second half being the walls.  In fact, my experience with this unit climbing walls is that it does it better than any vacuum I have seen or used, climbing right up above the water line, cleaning right up to the edge of my coping.  No issues here – this vacuum excels at cleaning the walls of the pool.

Regarding drain hang-ups, I found that patience is a virtue here.  I have run it several times with the bottom drain turned off and while occasionally it does hang up, it doesn’t give up and stop on the drain like my Hayward vacuum did.  It eventually frees itself (usually after a couple of minutes) and continues the cycle.

Also, while the programming may cause it to stay in a single area of the pool longer than I am used to, the vacuum does cover all areas of my pool.  While my prior vacuums seemed to cover my irregular shaped pool in more of a random pattern, this one seems to stick closely to a back and forth path until a full area is covered.

Overall my impression is that this is a great product and works as advertised.  I am very happy with this purchase and give it 5 stars so far.  As a bonus, I must say that the Seagull Pro was also substantially cheaper than the other high-end corded vacuums on the market (it least here in Canada).  Well done Aiper!

1 user thanked author for this post.

tdeglow

[Aiper Official @aiper-official Keymaster]

Bill Myers wrote:

By the way, to Aiper reps, if you could offer an edit function in this forum to correct mistakes and/or delete replies, that would be great.



For instance, even though there were breaks in between paragraphs when I was typing my post, those breaks didn’t apply after I used the Submit icon.



If breaks appear in this post, it’s because I typed in the BBCode for breaks versus simply using the text box that’s provided (and breaking with the “enter” key).



If no breaks appear in this post, that means even the BBCode I used didn’t work. So, let’s see what happens. 😉

I’ll be sure to pass that along to our web team, thanks for the suggestion!

[Bill Myers @bill-myers Participant]

Thank you. It’s much appreciated!

[tdeglow @tdeglow Participant]

bob@bieler.ca wrote:

bob@bieler.ca wrote:

First let me say that I got the Seagull Pro delivered less than a week ago and have only used it once for about an hour or so.  My pool is irregular shape with no straight walls.  I have two shallow ends with one on each end and deep end in between.  A couple of things that I notice on first use are the following, along with a few questions –

(1) the cleaner does not really manage to climb the walls at all.  It starts to go up and then changes its mind and goes back down.  I suspect that this is because with the curved walls it cannot maintain enough suction to climb.  I don’t consider this a big issue and can live with it as a floor only cleaner if there is no solution to this.

(2) The cleaner gets hung up on my main drains.  I will try it with the main drains turned off since the suction of the drain against the suction of the cleaner is probably contributing to this.  I have had 2 other corded pool cleaners in the past and one of them had this same problem (Hayward) and the other did not (Polaris).  I think this issue could be easily fixed by having slightly larger diameter drive wheels to give the cleaner the ability to clear the top of the drain while maintaining enough wheel traction on the ground for it to dislodge itself.  Question:  Is there any way to reduce the suction pressure on the cleaner, as this may help as well?  On my old Hayward cleaner I was able to get an inlet nozzle extender which did help reduce (but not fully eliminate) the main drain hang-ups.

(3) For most of the first hour the cleaner was in the pool it remained in one of the shallow ends and would not go down the slope (less than 30 degrees) to the deep end.  Eventually I prodded it down to the deep end with the retrieval pole, where it did a good job cleaning the bottom (most of the debris collects there), until it got hung up on the main drain.  Question:  Does it in fact learn the shape of the pool over time through its own exploration, or will I always need to prod it from area to area?

4) As it was getting dark and I didn’t want to leave the cleaner in the pool, I retrieved it mid-cycle with the retrieval hook while it was running.  Once I lifted it out of the water, the cleaner stopped and I turned it to the off position.  It seemed fine to do it this way.  Question:  Is there any way to reduce the time of the cleaning cycle  and is there a proper way to remove the cleaner mid-cycle?

One tip I would offer to some of the others in this forum is that I wouldn’t get overly optimistic about any robotic cleaner climbing and cleaning the stairs.  Of all of my cleaners, none of them could do this at all.  I usually use the broom to sweep the dirt from the stairs and corners onto the flat pool floor when I start my robotic cleaning, which has always given me the best results.

For me, I am excited to not have to wrestle with the extension cord, pool cleaner cart and cleaner cord every time I need to do a light cleaning of the pool floor.  Most of the dirt in my pool accumulates in the deep end and on first use (once prodded down there) it cleaned it all up nicely.  I choose to ‘manage my expectations’ and I do understand that no robotic cleaner to is perfect.  For me, I accept that is is a big advancement and huge convenience to not wrestle with the cords.  I will keep my Polaris corded cleaner for the bigger jobs, like the first opening spring clean-up, but the Seagull Pro will be my ‘go-to’ regular cleaner to keep the pool dirt free (even if it takes a bit of pole prodding!).

 

 

Now that I have used the vacuum a few times, I thought I would post an update to my original comments and address some of the subsequent discussions.

I have done a couple of things since my original post – (1) I read the manual and (2) I used the Aiper Seagull Pro several times, including for full cycle, walls only and bottom only.  To summarize my overall impression first, I am very happy with this product and it does what it should do – and does it quite well.

First thing I found is that it does split the cycle with the first half of the time being on the bottom and the second half being the walls.  In fact, my experience with this unit climbing walls is that it does it better than any vacuum I have seen or used, climbing right up above the water line, cleaning right up to the edge of my coping.  No issues here – this vacuum excels at cleaning the walls of the pool.

Regarding drain hang-ups, I found that patience is a virtue here.  I have run it several times with the bottom drain turned off and while occasionally it does hang up, it doesn’t give up and stop on the drain like my Hayward vacuum did.  It eventually frees itself (usually after a couple of minutes) and continues the cycle.

Also, while the programming may cause it to stay in a single area of the pool longer than I am used to, the vacuum does cover all areas of my pool.  While my prior vacuums seemed to cover my irregular shaped pool in more of a random pattern, this one seems to stick closely to a back and forth path until a full area is covered.

Overall my impression is that this is a great product and works as advertised.  I am very happy with this purchase and give it 5 stars so far.  As a bonus, I must say that the Seagull Pro was also substantially cheaper than the other high-end corded vacuums on the market (it least here in Canada).  Well done Aiper!

Thanks for your post. Very informative.

I was worried because the manual page 7 shows what looks like sloped edges going from the wall to the floor with a big X over it. After your post I assume this is a representation of steps? I have these sloped walls and this is a big factor as some companies cannot clean walls and floors like that.

I originally purchased the Elite Pro and it worked great on my pool, riding up the slope of the floor up to the walls with no issue. I had to RMA it because of the power cord, and was given the seagull Pro. My hope is that it will clean the floor and walls even though it has that gentle slop going from the floor to the walls. This is something that I think the company should clarify better on the website and the manual.

 

 

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