Wybot S2 Photo voltaic Imaginative and prescient evaluation: Similar bot, new battery-charging possibility
Knowledgeable’s Score
Professionals
- Photo voltaic charging signifies that, in concept, you by no means must plug on this robotic
- Very efficient cleansing (at the least whereas its battery lasts)
- A number of working modes
Cons
- The effectiveness of photo voltaic charging varies with the climate, and it may take days even in optimum situations
- Couldn’t clear my complete pool on a single cost, attributable to an undersized battery
- App is liable to disconnects
Our Verdict
A solar-powered pool robotic feels like an ideal cleansing answer, nevertheless it seems the solar can present solely a lot juice in a day.
Value When Reviewed
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Greatest Pricing At present
Greatest Costs At present: Wybot S2 Photo voltaic
The dream of each swimming pool proprietor is that some machine will come alongside that can clear the pool with out requiring a lot—or any—interplay. Pump-powered robots are obtrusive and ugly because of their snaking cables. Battery-powered robots have to be manually retrieved after a number of hours, cleaned out, and recharged. The holy grail stays elusive.
With its S2 Photo voltaic Imaginative and prescient, Wybot takes at the least one child step in the precise path, outfitting a modified model of its current Wybot S2 robotic with a solar-powered docking and charging station. In easy phrases, a photo voltaic panel sits on the sting of the pool, charging the robotic via an inductive plate that sits beneath the waterline. Higher nonetheless, the docking station can talk with the robotic whereas it’s within the water, so it may discover its means again to the dock when its battery is getting low.
The Wybot S2 Photo voltaic Imaginative and prescient does a tremendous job on partitions and the waterline—it actually churns up the water with its front-mounted scrubbers.
Specs
The Wybot S2 Photo voltaic Imaginative and prescient’s docking station encompasses a photo voltaic panel that sits on the fringe of the pool, the place careless–or malicious–youngsters would possibly step on it and harm it.
Christopher Null/Foundry
A number of specifics might assist fill out the image. Your entire system is available in two containers. The robotic and docking station fill one, the photo voltaic panel occupies one other. The photo voltaic panel and docking station have to be related via a easy, albeit not instantly intuitive, course of, and the assembled dock can then be (roughly) adjusted and balanced on the sting of your pool. (The purpose is to get the dock fairly flush with the pool wall, so the robotic can simply climb into it unaided.)
The 20-pound, treaded robotic features a battery with a 5200mAh capability. The docking station has a capability of 2600mAh. The 30-watt photo voltaic panel itself has no battery of its personal. Each robotic and docking station embody commonplace A/C adapters if you wish to cost them extra shortly, although this, in fact, defeats the purpose of the setup to some extent. The unit guarantees a operating time of two.5 hours (or longer in its low-speed “eco” ground mode) and an “preferrred pool dimension” of as much as 3,230 sq. toes. My take a look at runs usually ended after nearer to 2 hours.
A cautious studying of the battery capability numbers cited above would possibly reveal one of many greatest issues I had with the Wybot S2 Photo voltaic Imaginative and prescient: The photo voltaic panel prices the docking station’s battery, and the docking station’s battery in flip prices the robotic. That is essentially inefficient and, as a result of the dock’s capability is half that of the robotic, one thing of a mismatch.
The Wybot S2 Photo voltaic Imaginative and prescient’s poolside docking station and photo voltaic panel.
Christopher Null/Foundry
Even when 100% of the power within the dock made it to the robotic, it could nonetheless solely be half full. In concept, the solar ought to recharge the dock whereas it’s discharging into the robotic, however even eight hours of daylight wasn’t sufficient to recharge the robotic in a well timed trend in my checks. Within the lifeless of the Texas summer time, it took greater than 2.5 days to take the robotic from a 19 p.c cost degree as much as 100%.
That’s dangerous information when you’ve got a very soiled pool and need to run the robotic day by day—and it’s worse information if the climate isn’t cooperating. You’ll be able to at all times revert to eradicating the robotic from the pool and manually recharging it, in fact, but when that’s going to be a daily prevalence, it can save you $1,000 by forgoing the docking station and photo voltaic panel and shopping for the non-solar Wybot S2—with a bigger, 7800mAh battery—for $800.
Each day utilization testing
The Wybot S2 Photo voltaic Imaginative and prescient options three working modes on its touch-sensitive management panel— ground solely, partitions solely, or ground/partitions/waterline—nevertheless it shortly turned obvious in my testing that the unit simply doesn’t have a large enough battery to do the whole job successfully. Check runs below the “all the pieces” mode invariably left me with a pool ground that had barely been touched.
The Wybot S2 Photo voltaic Imaginative and prescient does a tremendous job on partitions and the waterline—it actually churns up the water with its front-mounted scrubbers—nevertheless it simply didn’t have something left in my testing to complete the job in spite of everything that motion. On one event it didn’t even have sufficient energy left to return to the dock, and I needed to manually rescue it from a nook of the pool with a pole.
The Wybot S2 Photo voltaic Imaginative and prescient did a superb job cleansing my pool’s waterline.
Christopher Null/Foundry
The excellent news is that in floor-only mode, bypassing the partitions and waterline, it additionally did distinctive work, cleansing up 100% of my artificial take a look at leaves earlier than returning efficiently to the dock. The Wybot shops particles in a easy hinged basket, and it comes with a further filter for finer-grained materials. That mentioned, the basket itself, which does a loads good job by itself. It’s additionally simple to come out and clear when wanted. When the robotic is docked, nonetheless, you’ll want to achieve a couple of foot into the pool to seize its deal with, which received’t be preferrred within the winter months. (A pole can be an possibility, in fact.)
The photo voltaic panel contains two bodily buttons which can be usable for impromptu operations. A Play button begins the robotic on no matter mode it’s at present in, and a Dwelling button calls it again to base. Each of those labored advantageous in my testing, though the robotic may be fairly sluggish to get again to base when known as, and I might usually press the house button a number of instances to make sure the command was acquired.
The Wybot S2 Photo voltaic Imaginative and prescient’s app affords plenty of cleansing choices.
Christopher Null/Foundry
Notice that properties with young children would possibly need to rethink the S2 Photo voltaic Imaginative and prescient altogether, because the panel would doubtless be destroyed if anybody by chance—or deliberately—steps on it.
The Wybot S2 Photo voltaic Imaginative and prescient affords each Bluetooth and a couple of.4GHz Wi-Fi connectivity and a cellular app, however I had such hassle with the app that Wybot despatched me a full alternative robotic, docking station, and photo voltaic panel after a firmware replace killed the system’s wi-fi connectivity fully.
Wybot’s app is okay, however fairly restricted. 4 extra working modes can be found right here, as is a straightforward distant to manually management the robotic for spot cleansing. As with the Wybot F1 skimmer I reviewed on June 18, the app’s battery standing reviews—one for the robotic and a second for the docking station—are liable to inaccuracy until you force-quit an restart the app.
The Wybot S2 Photo voltaic Imaginative and prescient’s giant particles basket captured a considerable amount of materials throughout my checks.
Christopher Null/Foundry
A “weekly cleansing” characteristic enables you to set a day by day schedule for operations, together with each time of day and kind of run; and like the unique Wybot S2, you possibly can set choices for pool form and the best way you need the robotic to go about its work, though I can’t think about why you’d care whether or not it cleans in an S sample, cross sample, or star sample.
Do you have to purchase the Wybot S2 Photo voltaic Imaginative and prescient?
One hiccup of notice: If the docking station battery dies—which it did ceaselessly, usually in a single day, in my testing—the system will lose its wi-fi connectivity throughout robotic recharges. The one answer I’ve discovered for that is manually turning the bottom station again on by tapping the house button as soon as it has a small quantity of cost on it. However which means one other bodily journey to the pool.
Issues like that additional obviate the S2 Photo voltaic Imaginative and prescient’s finest characteristic, which is the promise of comfort. Between cleansing out the filter basket, retrieving a wayward robotic from the pool ground, ready for recharges, and rebooting the dock, I discovered myself trekking out to the pool practically as a lot as I might do with a normal pool robotic—all whereas having fun with solely a 3rd of the supply attributable to sluggish recharging.
And for that, you’ll pay $1,800 after utilizing a coupon on Amazon, making this one of many costlier robotic pool cleansing programs in the marketplace.
You probably have a small pool, plenty of solar, minimal particles to scrub up, and infinite persistence, the Wybot S2 Photo voltaic Imaginative and prescient would possibly work properly for you. However for my circumstance, I merely didn’t see sufficient financial savings in time or effort to justify the expense.
