DolphinQuantum Robotic Pool Cleaner (2025 Model) — Oversized Ultra-Fine and Standard Filter Bin, Weekly Timer, Anti-Tangle Swivel, & Waterline Cleaning for In-Ground Swimming Pools up to 50ft

The media could not be loaded. Honest review, not sponsored, etc: this is our best robot yet!The house we purchased 12 years ago, came with a large in ground pool. We're also surrounded by pine trees, birches, maples, oaks, ... . Cleaning manually with a suction hose, wasting so much time, water and chemicals was not an option for me. Thus started the path with robotic cleaners. One particular brand we had 4 failures between motors and control boxes in 10 years; one dolphin robot would not climb walls, another one died and last year, in 2021, we actually ended up with TWO robots. An aquabot ( only really cleans floors despite saying it does walls ) and this mid range Dolphin Quantum.This Dolphin Quantum is hands down our best robot yet.I does not have all the bells and whistles, like remote control, wifi, fancy display ... but forget all that crap. Had it. Doesn't work ... or the robot dies and then you wasted an extra $250 $500 on fancy features you barely use.This robot ticks all the boxes for me:+ extra large volume cleaning basket+ two large soft scrubbing brushes (many others just have 1)+ basket is easy to install, remove, open and clean out+ no bags to clean for 5 - 10 minutes, that may blow off their tray (smart pool brand robots issue) ... just a simple sturdy rigid box with a full bottom that opens up+ dead simple control box: power and pick 1 2 or 3 (for repeat cycle in n days)+ cleans the floor, inside corners between floor and walls as well as the vertical walls+ does a fabulous job cleaning around the water line and even moves sideways across the waterline (see video clip)+ swivel cord = YES (see photo, video and note below)+ has not gotten stuck on our steps into the pool+ has not gotten stuck on our floor drain+ fine and ultra fine filters are super easy to swap outIgnore the review for this robot that says there's no swivel. The white thing in that customer's picture is the swivel! As advertised. Don't know how they missed it. It works and is quite standard across the industry.Now there's a trick to having the swivel work for you - which I learned the hard way with our previous brand robot that we had 4 of, and they were notorious for tangling:>>> only give the robot as much cord as it needs!Put the robot in the water with next to no cord, get the whole cord stretched out on the deck, leave excess cord on the deck, and tuck away whatever amount of cord it does not need, then plug it in.If you have a 15x30 20x40 pool and chuck the robot in with all the cord, it may / will tangle. However if you have a 40 ft long pool and and you give it about 45-50 feet, it will untangle and swivel when it goes across to the deep end on other side of the pool.Has ours tangled in the past year? Minimally so. Sometimes, they just want to run in a circle a bit after they've taken a lot of cord into the pool, and in a year's time, two summer seasons, it's had a few minor issues with the cord. But no cord was tightly damaged and Nothing like when you don't have a swivel or when you give it unlimited cord.This thing has been a beast, with the standard (non pleated) filter, filling up its basket with leaves, seeds, ... it does a solid job on walls with its two scrubbers against algae, it comes up out of the water with the front and then scrubs the wall sideways for a bit. Absolutely fabulous.Now this year, we did end up with some water quality issues and excess algae. After fixing the water for phosphates, instead of doing the vacuuming with a suction brush on waste as they said at the pool store ... don't use a robot, you must hand vacuum to waste ... it was taking way too much time. So, I figured I'd let the robot do it anyhow. I swapped in the extra fine pleated filters and sent the robot on its way. And it was doing great! It sucks up the phosphate that fell to the bottom overnight easy peasy. Within two days, some backwashing, the robot running around, sucking up the dropped material on the floor, our pool is looking a ton better and should be back to pristine condition in a couple days.This is not an inexpensive robot, you can buy a lot cheaper, but for our in ground vinyl pool, with a lot of floor and surface area, tons of cleanup in the fall; it is a very solid performer and gets my two thumbs up.

Stay away from this particular model (Dolphin Quantum) - it has a serious issue with stopping/stalling randomly, sometimes in 20-40 min, sometimes right after it starts moving. Read other reviews, there are numerous mentions of this defect. And don't think "It will never happen to me", because when it does, you maybe outside the return window (I was lucky to be able to return it).Here is my full experience though, and some thoughts/advice.Bought a few weeks ago. First cleaning. Started moving, all looked normal. Then it tried to climb the wall and suddenly stopped after ~40 min. I was puzzled. Power button was "On", but robot was sitting dead on the bottom of the pool (its blue light turned off like it was done?).I didn't pay too much attention first time. Turned it off (by pressing power button), then on. Nothing. After several tries, it started moving again. It moved for yet another 20 min, then stopped again. I was running late so I left it alone. Cleaned less than 30% of the pool (that was kind of almost clean to start with).Next time, a few days later. Start cleaning cycle, everything looks normal - it moves, turns, filters water, etc. then 20 min later it stops (again) and turns off its blue light like it finished its cycle. What? That did not look right to me. Power off, then on: moves a few feet, stops/dies again. Rinse and repeat many times - same thing. If I unplugged it completely, waited for a minute or so, then plugged it back, it would run a bit longer (10-20 min), then it would still stop again.I started googling, reading reviews (should have done better job before buying), and here is what I found:1. User manual does not mention anything like that.2. Some people were saying there maybe some restriction (clogged impeller, etc.). Mine was *shiny brand new*, but I double checked: every part was clean, and moving - nothing was stuck. OK...3. Review here on Amazon were mentioning a lot of cases like mine (do your part, read them).4. One reviewer (engineer) mentioned about a defect he was able to fix by disassembling motor or something (search for it, it's here). That looked totally correct to be as mine experienced identical symptoms.Long story short, I spent 3 hours babysitting it and trying to make it move (with no success). If I cleaned pool manually that evening, I would have been done ~ 3 times already... lol.After all of the above I packed it, and back it went.Like I said, I was lucky it happened right out of the box. Some people were mentioning this would start happening a few month later - and that would have been bad... Imagine paying $1K+ for such a low quality product that cannot even complete its primary function and being stuck with it...Anyway, I turned to completely different model - bought Dolphin Sigma instead. My reasoning was I wanted completely different design of the product. If you look at Quantum, you will find many other models that would look identical or be very similar. I did not want same failing design/part so I tried to get something that looked as much different as it gets.Quantum Sigma. What a difference out of the box. I don't yet have much to say (only used once) but Sigma completed its first cleaning cycle (in 2+ hours), moved *much* faster, navigated the pool much easier (has 3 separate motors), pushed water (during filtering) with *much* stronger force, you name it.So far I am grateful Quantum turned out to be such a piece of junk due to bad manufacturing and/or design, because this made me return it and buy Dolphin Sigma instead, which looks like a much better product (a few hundred dollars more expensive but anyhow).Oh, and one more thing. Advice. Do not buy Dolphin robot universal caddy at the same time with the robot (like I did), because it you happened to have issues with the robot, it would make it difficult to consider another brands. My same brand replacement (Sigma) seemed to have worked fine, but if it did not, the caddy would have been real pain to disassemble and pack before returning.Good luck with whatever robot you decide to choose.