How to choose a robot pool cleaner: the specs that decide it

Start with capacity, and check the basis

The first filter is whether a cleaner is rated for your pool. The trap is that makers publish capacity on different bases, so the numbers are not interchangeable. Beatbot rates the AquaSense 2 Pro at a recommended pool bottom area of 3,875 square feet, and the AquaSense 2 at 3,230 square feet, both stated on a pool bottom area basis. Polaris and the held Dolphins instead publish length only: the Polaris EPIC 8642 iQ is rated up to 50 ft for in-ground pools, with no square footage published.

An area figure and a length figure answer different questions, so do not rank one cleaner above another across that line. Aiper publishes both where it can, for example the Scuba S1 at 1,600 square feet and 50 ft in length. When only one basis is published, take it for what it is and no more.

• Area basis: Beatbot AquaSense 2 Pro 3,875 sq ft, AquaSense 2 3,230 sq ft (pool bottom area).
• Length basis: Polaris EPIC 8642 iQ up to 50 ft, in-ground.
• Both published: Aiper Scuba S1, 1,600 sq ft and 50 ft.

Decide what you need cleaned

Coverage is the clearest way to separate budget from flagship, and makers state it as named modes. At the floor-only end, the Aiper Scuba SE publishes a single floor mode, with no wall or waterline cleaning, for above-ground pool floors up to 860 square feet. In the middle sit floor, wall and waterline cleaners such as the Wybot C2 Vision and the Aiper Scuba S1 Pro. At the top, the Beatbot AquaSense 2 Pro covers five cleaning tasks: floor, walls, waterline, surface, and water clarification (Beatbot's app publishes six selectable cleaning modes), though Beatbot notes the clarification mode needs an AquaRefine kit sold separately.

Surface-only skimmers are a separate category that clean the waterline film rather than the floor. Our only researched skimmer is held because its maker publishes no numeric pool-size spec, so we mention the category to explain the boundary rather than to recommend a unit. Match the modes to the debris you actually fight: a floor-only unit is a real answer for a simple above-ground pool, and paying for surface and waterline modes only makes sense if you have that debris.

Read runtime by its stated basis

Runtime is where non-comparable numbers do the most damage, because a headline hour figure often measures one mode. Beatbot publishes up to 4 hours of continuous floor cleaning for the AquaSense 2, a floor-only basis, not a whole-pool runtime, so we chart no comparable runtime for it. The AquaSense 2 Pro is similar: its published up-to-11-hours figure is continuous surface cleaning, again a single-mode basis, so no whole-pool runtime exists to compare.

Cordless cleaners that publish a general runtime are easier to line up, though still as up-to figures. The Scuba S1, Scuba S1 Pro and Wybot C2 Vision each publish up to 180 minutes, all as up-to figures; Wybot ties its 180 to Eco Mode and Aiper flags the S1 Pro figure as lab-derived, so heavier modes run shorter. Aiper's own comparison table even lists the Scuba S1 at up to 150 minutes against the 180 on its product page. When a runtime is tied to one mode, treat it as that mode's number, not the machine's.

Filtration: compare the same layer

Filtration is quoted in microns, where smaller is finer, but the catch is that a fine number can describe a secondary layer rather than the whole filter. Aiper's Scuba S1 and Scuba S1 Pro publish a 3 micron figure that is the ultra-fine secondary layer, sitting behind a 180 micron primary basket. Beatbot's AquaSense 2 publishes 150 microns as its filter figure. A 3 micron secondary layer and a 150 micron single figure are not the same measurement, so our chart labels the axis finest layer to keep the comparison honest.

Read the layer, not just the number. The Wybot C2 Vision publishes a 10 micron finest layer behind a 180 micron cartridge, and several corded models publish no micron rating at all, in which case we say not published rather than infer one.

Flow rate, and whose lab it came from

Flow is published in gallons per hour, and it is the spec most likely to conflict on a maker's own site. The Wybot C2 Vision is the clearest case: its own comparison table lists 3,592 GPH while a marketing bullet on the same page claims 3,883 GPH, and the spec section carries a laboratory-environment, reference-only disclaimer. We chart the tabular 3,592. Beatbot publishes 5,500 GPH for the AquaSense 2 and 2 Pro but footnotes it as the highest rate tested in its internal labs, so it is a peak lab figure, not a rated continuous flow.

The lesson is to read flow as a claim with a basis, not a guarantee. Aiper's Scuba S1 Pro spec table publishes 6,000 GPH while a comparison table on the same store page says 6,600 GPH, and Polaris publishes no GPH figure at all for the EPIC 8642 iQ. Where a maker gives no number, we leave it not published.

What not published means, and the held-model rule

When a datasheet omits a figure, we say not published and stop. We do not convert a spare-part listing or a marketing aside into a spec. That rule is why some well-known cleaners appear here only as method notes: the Dolphin Nautilus CC Plus, Dolphin Premier and Dolphin E10 are held because Maytronics does not publish a cable length on the official datasheet for those corded models, and the surface skimmer is held for a missing numeric pool-size rating. Held models get no page and no recommendation from us.

So the framework is: confirm capacity and its basis, pick the coverage modes you need, read runtime and flow by the basis stated, and compare filtration on the same layer. Every number here is the manufacturer's own claim, attributed and not endorsed, and where two of a maker's pages disagree we have said so rather than pick a winner.