Pool and window robots: what makes one worth keeping

The Maytronics Dolphin S2000 runs on a cable from its power supply, so there is no battery to wear out. For the cordless Aiper Scuba X1, we found no official replacement battery on sale in Spain. According to their makers, the window robots’ batteries are replaced only through the service network: HOBOT’s backup battery by its retailers or authorised dealers, Ecovacs’ by Ecovacs or its service agents.

For the older Dolphin S200, parts (power supply, filter basket, brushes and the motor block) are still sold with Spanish delivery by a retailer that says it is an official Dolphin distributor (details). For the S2000 itself, the official Spanish parts list holds only filters, a track, climbing rings, a mains cord and caddy covers (details). HOBOT’s Spanish distributor still sells pads, the safety rope and the power adapter for the older HOBOT-298. We found nothing orderable for the Ecovacs WINBOT 920, and Aiper’s own product history starts in 2022.

None of the 4 publishes both a price and a replacement interval for every core consumable (filters and brushes for pool robots, cleaning pads for window robots), so we can’t compute a yearly cost for any of them. We will set pool and window thresholds once we have scored at least ten of each.

These are the most independent robots we scored. The HOBOT-2S needs no account or cloud at all: one-button start, an infrared remote, and an optional Bluetooth app. The Dolphin S2000 starts from its power supply and sets a weekly timer with a long press. The WINBOT W2S cleans from its own buttons without Wi-Fi, losing only app-only modes. The Scuba X1 has four cleaning modes on a button on top, but Aiper doesn’t say whether scheduling or setup work without an account.

All 4 stop at Spain’s 3-year legal guarantee, or below it in the brand’s own terms. We found no evidence of firmware updates in the last year for any of these brands’ models that are 2 or more years old.