AquaSense Pro Review: Sleek, Premium Pool Robot with Half-Baked AI

It’s that time of year: pool robot reviews. Because no one really enjoys the chore of cleaning a pool. I was really looking forward to trying the AquaSense Pro that Beatbot sent for review, as it’s the first one I’ve tried that says it does everything. Not only does it clean the bottom and walls of the pool, but the AquaSense Pro also floats on the surface and picks up leaves and other assorted floating debris that I currently have to skim off by hand with a net. As if that wasn’t enough, this 5-in-1 also offers the ability to dispense pool cleaning chemicals to clarify the water.

The specifications of this pool robot are truly impressive. It features nine motors, a front and rear dual roller brush system with 5,500 GPH suction power, an extra-large filter basket providing ultra-fine dual filtration up to 150 μm , Wi-Fi connectivity (with an accompanying app), and a 10,400 mAh Lithium Ion battery offering up to 9.5 hours of operation on a charge. Its quad-core Cortex-A7 processor and 20 smart sensors support AI-based mapping, navigation, and obstacle avoidance.

On top of all that, the AquaSense Pro is a sleek looking piece of equipment with a nice metallic blue shell. He won an iF Design Award 2024. He looks at the forefront of wireless robotic pool cleaning technology. And at $2,199, its price reflects that position as well. However, after testing the AquaSense Pro daily (sometimes multiple times a day) over the past week, I have some thoughts.

Good

Let’s start with the visual aspect, because this pool robot is a looker. Its metallic blue hull is smooth, free of defects and features Japanese IMR coating technology. The trim and treads are a contrasting matte black, with off-white rotating brushes. It looks and feels well put together, solid and exudes a premium product. No charging port to remember to secure before putting it in the pool, this robot slides into an included charging station.

As a bottom cleaner, it does a perfect job every time. Its filter basket (actually two nesting baskets) offers a large capacity as well as ultra-fine filtration (150 μm); the robot picked up the leaves at the bottom of the pool, but also the fine dirt that other robot vacuum cleaners can disperse instead of capturing.

The 10,400 mAh battery provides up to 9.5 hours of use, but that’s for cleaning surfaces. This falls to a claimed 5 hours for bottom cleaning. In mixed use (bottom plus sides/waterline) in our pool (24 x 14 feet), it lasted about 3.5-4 hours on a charge and took about that long to recharge. In other words, battery performance is a strong point.

After completing a cleaning cycle, the AquaSense Pro would return to the surface near a wall for easy retrieval – a hook is included but I never needed it.

I don’t mess with pool chemistry if I can help it, but a dispenser is available to insert into a dedicated port on the front of the robot to automatically deploy a water clarifying agent (the kit is sold separately).

The bad

For a robot so loaded with processing power and sensors, the AquaSense Pro seems awfully obtuse.

It features a 1.8GHz Quad-Core processor, 20 different smart sensors (including two ultrasonic AI sensors), smart navigation, AI pool mapping and avoidance system of obstacles. Competition should be wiped out.

At the bottom of the pool it went very well. However, when I included surface cleaning in the mix, the robot inevitably got stuck around our pool steps. He had a lot of free space, he just wandered into the step area and couldn’t get out, ramming a step repeatedly. Sometimes he would send a message that he was trapped, other times he would just sit there, treading water until I finally gave in and pushed him out into open water. After which he would just as likely return to the stairs and repeat the process. All he has to do is backtrack and it would be clear, but he’s apparently not smart enough for that. The mapping clearly applies to the bottom of the pool only.

Another time (when he was in strictly ground and wall mode) I saw him make an attempt at waterline clearing where he continued to climb the waterline until he turned around in water. The robot righted itself, but never recovered. I watched it helplessly drift around the pool for another hour until it finally ran out of battery. No SOS via the app and no attempt to resume cleaning.

I was hoping a firmware update showing up in the app would help. Unfortunately, no noticeable improvement was seen after installing the firmware.

Aside from being trapped, cleaning the surfaces seemed lackluster. As far as I could tell, there seemed to be little, if any, aspiration. The robot reminded me of a basking shark. As he sailed or drifted through an area, anything in the path of his large catch would disappear. But nothing seemed to have been actively vacuumed, and ultimately cleaning the surfaces didn’t seem particularly effective. Cleaning the waterline was another weak point. The AquaSense Pro did not surface frequently during this cycle and when it did, the front rollers spun very slowly, sometimes stopping completely. It does not appear to have carried out an effective “scrubbing” of the waterline.

Then there’s the app. Wi-Fi connectivity decreases when the robot is below the surface, so you can’t really count on real-time connectivity. Sometimes – but not always – when it encountered problems on the surface, the AquaSense Pro would send an SOS. But the app in general seems buggy. The screens overlap and after several hours of cleaning, the app still seems to insist that zero square feet of pool has been cleaned.

AquaSense Pro Key Specifications:

• 9-motor NonaDrive system
• 2×2 roller brushes
• Two suction ports (5,500 GPH)
• Double filter 250 μm+150 μm, filter basket capacity 3.7 L
• Supports cleaning of floors, walls, water line and water surface with optional water clarification
• Quad-core Cortex-A7
• 20 smart sensors, including two gyroscopes and two ultrasonic AI sensors
• 10,400 mAh Lithium Ion, charging station
• Built-in button controls, also connected to Wi-Fi with a mobile app (plus Wi-Fi firmware updates)
• Operating depth from 1.64 feet to 9.84 feet
• can be used in above ground and in-ground pools of all shapes and materials, up to 3,229 square feet
• Weighs 24.3 pounds
• MSRP $2,199

AquaSense Pro Recommendation

I have yet to try a pool robot that beats the AquaSense Pro in looks. Its iF Design Award suggests I’m not the only one who thinks it’s better than everything else. For basic fund cleaning functionality, it works great and has excellent battery life.

If only its AI and general intelligence matched its luxurious looks! Unfortunately, its inability to navigate around common obstacles like stairs or recover from minor mishaps on its own, poor action in cleaning surfaces and scrubbing water pipes, and buggy application make it very difficult to justify of this high price. I suspect many of these issues can be fixed via firmware updates and I hope Beatbot does so.

In the meantime, I wouldn’t spend that much money on this pool robot. If you still want to take the plunge in the hope that the company will eventually work out the bugs, the website sometimes offers discount codes (at the time of writing they were offering $400 off), there is a 100% guarantee 30 day refund and a 2 year warranty.

Disclosure: Beatbot provided an AquaSense Pro for review purposes, but did not contribute to this review.