Ultenic S1 Pool Skimmer assessment: A uncommon combo of low cost & efficient

Finest Costs At the moment: Ultenic S1 Pool Skimmer

As a class, pool skimmers aren’t the simplest at cleansing your pool, however they’re higher than simply letting floor particles sink to the underside. What makes them doubtlessly extra compelling is once they’re cheap, and the Ultenic S1 Pool Skimmer is as low cost as they arrive.

And far to my shock, it really works in addition to (or higher than) the rest in its class that I’ve tried.

Specs

The Ultenic S1 measures 8 x 15 x 19 inches (HxWxL) as soon as it’s assembled, and it weighs simply 6 kilos. Like many trendy pool skimmers, it incorporates a photo voltaic panel on high (this one places out 9 watts) that retains its 5200mAh battery charged. If the climate isn’t cooperating, you’ll be able to cost it manually with the included customized USB cable (energy adapter included). The unit affords a 6-liter particles basket, and as its sole bonus characteristic, it comes with a slim distant management that allows you to drive the robotic across the floor of the pool on demand.

The filter basket features a small chamber that can be utilized to carry a chlorine pill, dishing out chemical substances because it strikes across the pool. This may be eliminated when you don’t want it.

The gadget doesn’t have any wi-fi capabilities except for its distant management, and it doesn’t connect with a cell app.

Set up and setup

Christopher Null/Foundry

The Ultenic S1 is available in a jumble of items, and contemplating how easy the product is, it’s remarkably complicated to arrange. You’ll want to connect varied elements to the core gadget, together with two propellors, information wheels, anti-stranding bars, and the filter basket, which is available in two elements. Meeting is much from intuitive and even after finding out the quick-start information, I struggled for longer than I care to confess to determine how the information wheels clipped into place. The longer, printed guide is, luckily, extra thorough and explanatory, however the course of nonetheless took longer than I anticipated to finish, about 5 minutes.

I absolutely charged the gadget because the guide instructed through wall energy upfront of its preliminary deployment. At this level I seen the facility port on the underside of the gadget has no cowl to stop water ingress, although I finally didn’t discover any sick results of water stepping into this a part of the gadget throughout a number of days of testing.

Christopher Null/Foundry

Lastly, a skimmer blocking system—a slim piece of froth rubber—is included within the field must you discover your robotic getting caught within the wall-skimmer consumption. I didn’t encounter an issue with this, so I didn’t use it.

Utilizing the Ultenic S1 Pool Skimmer

A bodily swap on the entrance of the S1 is all it takes to energy up the robotic; and actually, it’s the solely onboard management. It’s clear that, very like Ultenic’s Pooleco 10 floor-cleaning robotic, there may be not a whole lot of intelligence constructed into the gadget.

There’s no actual rhyme or purpose to the way it strikes, alternately pushing straight forward or opting to show. In the case of a wall, the S1 simply plows proper into it, and the information wheels in entrance of the robotic will not be delicate or padded in any method. Over time I can think about this would possibly have an effect in your pool’s waterline tiles, probably resulting in cracks or looseness. The gadget simply feels flimsy, nearly like a toy.

Christopher Null/Foundry

Ultenic guarantees 15 hours of working time on a full cost, and whereas that’s troublesome to correctly check on condition that solar energy is consistently recharging the battery—and there’s no battery stage meter—I did notice that the Ultenic S1 would generally run all day, even in comparatively cloudy climate, stopping just for occasional breaks after which beginning again up once more as soon as it had sufficient juice. The gadget can all the time be charged through cable in a single day, however I often didn’t hassle and let the unit choose up the place it left off every morning as soon as the battery had sufficient cost to work with.

The distant management works properly, and whereas it’s all the time troublesome to regulate one thing that has momentum on water, I used to be simply in a position to navigate the skimmer across the pool to select up particles on demand. One other button can be utilized to instruct the S1 to “dock” towards the aspect of the pool with a single press, however I discovered it simpler to easily drive it to the wall.

Christopher Null/Foundry

I had low expectations for the Ultenic S1, however a lot to my shock it was simpler than I guessed it will be; the truth is, it was higher at cleansing than many different way more costly skimmers I’ve examined. Regardless of an consumption that measures nearly 14 inches throughout and no actual sense of path, the unit wolfed up greater than 50 % of the check materials in my check run, after about 5 hours of uninterrupted operation.

Whereas a lot of the remaining particles sank to the underside of the pool, which could not sound like an excellent end result, it’s as a result of particles gained’t float without end. The underside line is that that’s the most effective rating I’ve seen from a skimmer to this point.

Christopher Null/Foundry

My principle for explaining the Ultenic S1’s surprising effectiveness is that its very gentle weight creates much less bow wake because it strikes throughout the water. This, in flip, causes fewer leaves to be pushed out to the perimeters, escaping the skimmer’s “mouth,” as you’ll see with bigger skimmers. The front-mounted paddlewheel, in the meantime, is efficient at pulling in particles—it even captured small branches.

The particles basket’s complicated two-part design, however, makes cleansing a bit harder than different skimmers; however when you’ve executed the disassembly and reassembly a number of occasions, the trouble eases.

Do you have to purchase the Ultenic S1 Pool Skimmer?

I’m nonetheless not satisfied most pool house owners want a robotic skimmer in any respect, however in occasions of serious wind and rain, it may be useful to have one thing to enrich the wall skimmer if the pool will get a heavy dusting of leaves.

The value is, in fact, what makes this product worthwhile: At lower than $200, the Ultenic S1 is an exceptionally low-risk funding to have readily available in case of emergency.

This assessment is a part of TechHive’s in-depth protection of the greatest robotic pool cleaners.