Shop-vac rig vs finally buying a robot, talk me into or out of it

Started by Bill Hartman · · 2 replies
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#1
Been running my shop-vac contraption on this 27 footer for going on 15 seasons now and it still gets the job done, but I'm getting a little tired of hauling the thing out and rigging the hose every time. Been eyeballing a Dolphin E10 for a couple years now, keep talking myself out of it since the shop-vac setup is paid for and free to run.

Anybody actually switch from a homemade rig or a cheap suction cleaner to something like that and notice a real difference, or is it just less hassle for more money. Not looking for the fanciest thing out there, just something that handles the fine silt my rig sometimes misses in the corners. Water's colder than my wife's feet most mornings I'm out there messing with it, so simpler would be nice.

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#2
I'll push back a little on the "free to run" part, Bill, because your time hauling and rigging that hose every session has a cost too, you just aren't writing it down anywhere. I've got the Dolphin Escape, not the E10, but same idea, and the corner and stairs silt it picks up is what finally sold me since my old suction rig always left a fine haze along the shallow end no matter what I did. Simpler is the whole point, mine sits on the wall, I drop it in, twenty minutes later I'm inside with coffee instead of standing in that cold water fussing with a hose.
#3
15 seasons out of a shop-vac rig is wild ngl, mine wasn't even that but a cheap suction cleaner and it never once got the fine silt in my deep end corners, just pushed it around. still using a manual vac and dreading it every time the water gets cold here too, keep telling myself the robot money will show up eventually.