Robotic pool cleaner buying guide

Start with your pool type

Pool type is the one choice you can't fix later, so it's the first filter in our finder and the first thing to check on any spec sheet. Makers state it plainly: a robot is listed for in-ground pools, above-ground pools or both.

In-ground pools have the widest choice. The questions that matter are size, surface and whether you want the waterline scrubbed. Above-ground pools narrow the field more than most people expect. You lift the robot over the wall after every run, so weight matters, and some robots struggle on steep vertical walls; Aiper notes its robots may slide on above-ground walls steeper than 80 degrees. Our above-ground pick has to be listed by the maker for above-ground use and weigh 20 lb or less. If your pool is above-ground, our above-ground guide goes further, including cheaper floor-only robots.

Size: read the rating the right way

Makers rate robots by floor area in square feet or by pool length in feet. Work out your floor area (length times width for a rectangle) and buy a robot rated at or above it. A rating is a company claim made for a simple, flat pool; steps, a deep end, a spa spillover and a free-form shape all eat into it, so leave headroom if your pool is any of those.

Bigger isn't automatically better. A robot rated for 3,000 sq ft costs more, weighs more and often has a bigger battery you'll never use in a 600 sq ft plunge pool. In our database, 68% of robots publish a pool size rating at all. If a maker won't tell you how big a pool its robot can handle, treat that as an answer.

Surface: plaster, vinyl, fiberglass, tile

Surface decides how well a robot climbs and whether it can scuff anything. Plaster and gunite are rough and give good grip. Vinyl liners are softer: pick a robot whose maker lists vinyl as supported, and keep the brushes clean so grit doesn't wear the liner. Fiberglass and tile are smooth, which is easy on brushes but hard on traction; Aiper says very smooth walls can reduce traction on its Scuba S1. Whatever you buy, read your liner or finish warranty for any rules on cleaners before you order. Our vinyl liner and saltwater guide covers both in detail.

Salt pools add one more check. Hayward puts a typical salt system at 2,700 to 3,400 ppm; make sure the robot's salt rating clears that, and rinse it in fresh water after each run. Only 11% of the robots in our database state a salt rating.

Leaves, sand or pollen: match the filter to the mess

This is where most buyers overpay or underbuy. Open pools under trees get leaves, and leaves want a big basket and, ideally, surface skimming that catches them before they sink and stain. Our leaves pick has to list surface skimming. A separate solar skimmer is the cheaper fix if your floor robot is fine; see our solar skimmer guide.

Screened Florida pools are a different problem. Screens stop leaves but let fine particles through, so a caged pool collects pollen, sand and dust. That's a filter-fineness problem, measured in microns: lower is finer. Our screened-pool pick goes to the finest published filter among robots that also clean the waterline, where pollen collects. A coarse 180 micron basket that's perfect for oak leaves will pass much of what lands in a lanai. Our guide to algae and pollen in screened lanais goes further.

Cordless or corded

Cordless robots are easier to live with: no cable to tangle, no power supply by the pool. Corded robots never stop to charge, and their weak point is a cable you can replace rather than a battery sealed inside the body. Here is how the two groups compare in our database today.

Our take: cordless is the right default for most home pools in 2026, as long as you buy inside a long warranty. None of Aiper, Beatbot or Polaris lists a replacement battery on its own site, and one Polaris owner reported a quote over $700, so the warranty is the battery plan. Pick corded if your pool is big, leafy and used hard, or if you'd rather replace a cable in year five than a robot. Our pool robot lifespan guide has the warranty terms by brand.

Specs that matter, and marketing that doesn't

Five numbers on a spec sheet decide most of the result: what the robot cleans (floor, walls, waterline, surface), the pool size rating, the filter fineness in microns, runtime per charge, and the warranty length with or without the battery. Those are the inputs to our score. Here is how often makers actually publish them across the 107 robots in our database:

Be wary of the numbers built for the box. Suction in gallons per hour isn't measured the same way across brands, so a bigger figure doesn't prove a cleaner pool. Branded navigation names describe a feature, not a result. Ultrasonic sensors, cameras and app maps help a robot avoid missing spots, but a robot that skips the waterline still skips it with a camera. We record those claims in the database and label them, but they carry no points on their own.

What it really costs over four years

Owners of corded Dolphins report 3 to 6 years of use, and cordless batteries are the usual end of life. Four years is a fair planning number. Divide the price by four and you get the figure that matters for each pick:

Then add the parts. Filters wear out, and ultra-fine ones faster: Aiper's US store lists a replacement MicroMesh filter at $59.99, and Beatbot sells an ultra-fine basket for the Sora 70 at $59.99. On corded robots the cable is the part that fails; Maytronics lists a 2-wire cable with swivel at $229.99. Out of warranty, a dead cordless battery can mean a dead robot, which is why a 3-year warranty that covers the battery is worth real money: on a $799 robot, a third year of cover is worth more than most discounts.

To keep a robot to the long end of that range: rinse it in fresh water after each run, store it out of direct sun, and charge it in the shade. Aiper, for one, says to keep its charger at least 11.5 ft from the pool.

Robot or pool service?

A robot replaces the brushing and vacuuming, not the chemistry. Full weekly service in Florida runs about $120 to $185 a month in Pool Service Map's 2026 guide (a directory blog), and that service balances your water too. If you're paying for full service, a robot alone won't let you cancel it. It earns its keep when you already test and dose your own water, or when it lets you drop to a cheaper chemicals-only plan. Even our most expensive pick costs less per month over four years than one month of full service in that range. Run your own numbers in the robot vs pool service calculator, or read is a pool robot worth it in Florida?

Robots we couldn't price

32 robots in the database show "Check price" because neither the maker nor a major US retailer we use listed a price we could read on Oct 29, 2026. Most are corded models from Polaris, Hayward and Maytronics, which sell largely through pool dealers. They stay in the database with their published specs, and they can't win a pick until a price is visible. If you're quoted one by a pool store, compare it against the robots above at the same score.

Maytronics Dolphin Liberty 600 · Maytronics Dolphin Oasis Z5i · Maytronics Dolphin Liberty 400 · Polaris 9450 Sport · Hayward SharkVac XL (Open Line) · Hayward TigerShark · Hayward TigerShark QC · Hayward The PoolCleaner R130 (Open Line) · Hayward AquaVac 250Li · Hayward The PoolCleaner R110 (Open Line) · Hayward SharkVac · Polaris ERA 710 · Polaris 7000 · Polaris 7240 Sport · Polaris 8050 Sport · Polaris 9650iQ Sport · Polaris ALPHA iQ · Polaris ALPHA iQ+ · Polaris Epic 8520 · Polaris Epic 8640 · Polaris EPIC 8642 iQ · Polaris ERA 820 · Polaris ERA 842 · Polaris FREEDOM LT · Polaris P70 · Polaris P724 · Polaris P825 · Polaris P965iQ · Polaris Phenom iQ+ · Polaris Scout 40 · Polaris Scout 42iQ · Polaris VRX iQ+

How this guide stays current

This is the 2026 edition. Prices refresh monthly in the pool robot price tracker, new models join the database as soon as their makers publish US specs, and every pick on this page recomputes from the database on each update. Once a year we review the weights in how we rate pool robots, roll the edition, and say what changed.