Wybot F1 Pool Skimmer evaluate: It is loud, however it’s very efficient

Photo voltaic-powered pool skimmers flit alongside the floor of your pool working beneath the concept if they will scoop up particles earlier than it sinks, you received’t want to scrub the underside of the pool.

It sounds logical, however in apply, most pool skimmers don’t do the very best of jobs—there’s solely a lot floor space a skimmer can cowl earlier than leaves get waterlogged and sink to the depths. However robotic skimmers are higher than nothing, particularly when you don’t have a great in-wall skimmer.

Specs

Wybot’s F1 Photo voltaic Skimmer is maybe the beefiest, burliest skimmer I’ve examined up to now. The 14-pound beast is technically lighter than the 17-pound Beatbot iSkimmer Extremely I reviewed in January, however its look is extra dominating, with a gaping maw in entrance because the gateway to an enormous, 7-liter particles basket. (A small ridge contained in the filter basket prevents particles from coming again out.)

As with all photo voltaic skimmers, a big photo voltaic panel makes up the complete high floor of the robotic, the 33-watt panel feeding a 5200 mAh battery contained in the chassis. An included plug-in charger can high up the battery when you don’t have sufficient solar to do the job.

Not like most different skimmers I’ve examined, the F1 doesn’t have seen paddles to propel and switch it within the pool. Reasonably, its propulsion system is hidden contained in the chassis, secreted deep inside two channels on both facet of the system.

Two vents on both facet of the robotic are used when the Wybot F1 must again up, jetting water out so the robotic can reverse. An extended LED bar on the entrance of the system gives a fast have a look at standing (working, charging, low battery, and so forth), and homeowners of swimming pools with very shallow areas can come out 4 anti-stranding bars on the underside of the system to stop the robotic from reaching sure areas the place there’s not sufficient water to work in.

Efficiency

When beginning up the robotic, what you’ll discover instantly is how loud it’s. The impellers contained in the robotic sound just like the props on a small airplane, whirring and sputtering and blubbering to a level I’ve not encountered in any pool-cleaning system. The robotic putters across the pool (at a wholesome clip) scooping up particles, however it nearly appears like an precise boat. A couple of customer recognizing it at work within the pool remarked about its noise manufacturing.

The Wybot F1 has two working modes, which you’ll choose via the Wybot app: customary mode and good mode; with the latter—sarcastically—being its default mode. Commonplace mode runs the robotic constantly till its battery dies, then waits till it’s absolutely charged to begin working once more.

Christopher Null/Foundry

Good mode adjusts the robotic’s runtime primarily based on accessible sunshine to maintain it working on and off all through the day, ostensibly sustaining sufficient cost on the battery to keep away from lengthy intervals of downtime. The app additionally features a distant management that may—quite crudely—direct the robotic across the pool to areas of specific bother.

The skimmer just isn’t essentially the most clever I’ve examined, as it’s vulnerable to winding itself as much as most velocity then run headlong straight into the wall. Hand it to the F1 although, because it doesn’t like to surrender. After a number of seconds of relaxation, it is going to usually attempt to push ahead instantly into the wall as soon as once more earlier than, finally, it realizes it’s not making progress. Eventually, one of many backup vents will have interaction and the robotic will make a flip, then jet off to greener, dirtier pastures.

Someway this all works fairly nicely. Its quick velocity and sheer tenacity let the F1 cowl lots of floor rapidly, however it’s the large opening for the filter basket that appears to be the key sauce. Different photo voltaic skimmer designs usually push particles to both facet because the ploddingly sluggish robotic creeps nearer, inflicting that particles to be completely missed, the the F1’s huge mouth permits for no escape.

The Wybot F1 was far more efficient at capturing floating leaves in my testing than another skimmer I’ve used up to now, amassing about 85 % of the leaves in my check samples whereas the rest sunk to the underside. (Solely a pair remained on the floor after about 4 hours of working time.)

Though it may be robust to dislodge its filter basket, cleanup is fairly simple, because the basket splits into two elements, permitting for a neater washout. That stated, it could be useful if the rear of the basket additionally opened to permit particles to move via to the opposite facet.

The inevitable caveats

Christopher Null/Foundry

Sadly, the Wybot F1 isn’t good. That additional velocity equates to a brief battery life, and I used to be by no means in a position to get the robotic to run for a full day with out its battery dying, even beneath the summer time solar of Texas. Its battery can also be sluggish to cost. Even on comparatively sunny days, I usually discovered the robotic didn’t run in any respect throughout the day in customary mode as a result of it had by no means absolutely recharged.

Wybot’s app could be very easy, primarily used to pick between the 2 working modes and to activate the distant management; however the Bluetooth and a couple of.4GHz Wi-Fi-connected system additionally gives one important metric: remaining battery life.

The issue is that I might by no means get this battery indication to replace with out force-quitting the app and restarting it. It doesn’t matter what I did, the battery indicator would stay caught on no matter degree it was on the final time I checked it.

This evaluate is a part of TechHive’s in-depth protection of the most effective robotic pool cleaners.

This is usually a actual ache once you verify the app and see the robotic has 98 % battery life remaining, solely to restart the app to search out that the true remaining battery life is simply 13 %.

Must you purchase the Wybot F1 Pool Skimmer?

At $330 (road value), the Wybot F1 is vastly cheaper than the $1,499 Beatbot iSkim Extremely I reviewed in January, and it’s aggressive with the $340 Smonet SR5 I evaluated in November 2024.

Should you don’t thoughts the din it creates whereas it’s puttering across the pool—heck, you would possibly even discover the noise endearing—it’s arguably the skimmer to beat.