Small fix that stopped my E10 from tangling its own cord

Started by robotvic · · 5 replies
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#1
Nothing exciting but felt like a win. My Dolphin E10 kept walking its float cable into a knot every third run or so, always on the same side of the pool. Figured it was the cleaner's fault until I actually watched it work and realized the caddy was sitting too close to a corner, so the cable had nowhere to feed out straight and kept getting dragged into the turns. Moved the caddy about four feet down the deck, away from the corner, and it's been three weeks with zero tangles. Feels dumb in hindsight but I'd never actually watched a full cycle before, just pulled it out tangled and swore at it. Worth standing there for fifteen minutes and watching yours run start to finish if you've got a similar issue, might not even be the robot.

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#2
I'd push back a little on "might not even be the robot" being the general lesson though, cable geometry matters but so does the cable itself, some of these things just come with a stiffer or shorter cord that's more prone to memory kinks regardless of caddy placement. Worth checking if yours is doing it on a fresh cable versus one that's been coiled up on the caddy all season, mine on the Scuba S1 doesn't have this issue at all mostly because there's no cord to fight, so I don't have great intuition for the E10 specifically.

That said, the corner thing checks out logically, if the cable can't feed out in a straight line it's going to get walked into whatever the robot's doing on that pass. Good catch actually watching the full cycle, I did that early on too and caught a totally unrelated issue with mine drifting toward the shallow end more than it should've, would never have known without standing there for once instead of just pulling it out and being annoyed.
#3
Priya's right that a coiled up stiff cord will fight you no matter where the caddy sits, but I'd bet placement is still the bigger variable nine times out of ten. Cord memory makes it want to kink, sure, but it still needs somewhere to go when it kinks, and a corner is exactly where it's got nowhere to go but tangle itself in the robot's path. Straighten out the feed and even a stiff cord's got room to work itself loose on the next pass instead of getting walked into a knot.

I don't run a corded one myself, my Seagull 1000's cordless so I don't have skin in this particular game, but the bigger lesson here is just watching the thing work instead of only seeing it at the end. Did the same thing with mine early on and realized it was skipping a whole section by the ladder every time, would've sworn the coverage was fine if I hadn't actually stood there. Worth it every time, standing there for once instead of just hauling it out and grumbling.
#4
Placement over cord stiffness in my experience, watched my Sigma do the same thing years ago on a different corded model I used to run before it. The cable would land against the step corner every third lap and just wind up there since it had nowhere flat to lay out. Moved the caddy to the long wall away from any steps or corners and it stopped completely, no change to the cord itself. Sigma's cordless mapping now so I don't fight this at all, but the fix was never really about the cable material, it was about giving it a straight runout so the robot's own turns don't drag it into a pinch point.
#5
yeah agree with Marcus on placement being the bigger deal, but the one thing nobody's mentioned is how much the caddy height matters too, not just where its sitting. mine was on a low caddy and the cable had this constant slack that just sagged onto the deck at that same pinch corner everyone's describing. propped the caddy up on a cinder block basically and now the cable feeds off it at more of a downward angle instead of dragging flat, way less catching. don't have an E10, just my clunky manual vac and a wishlist robot, but watching my buddy's E10 fight the same tangle thing at his place made me notice it. corner AND height probably both matter more than the cord itself.
#6
Tyler's onto something with the height thing, mine actually had a similar slack issue before I moved the caddy, cable was just pooling at the base and giving itself more rope to get tangled in, pun intended. Didn't think to prop it up though, just moved it away from the corner and called it done, but thinking back the sag was probably half the problem even after relocating it. Might try the cinder block trick myself just to see if it stops the very occasional catch it still does on the far wall.

Priya's point about cable memory is fair too, mine's original cord from whenever I bought it so it's had years to develop a coil habit, but three weeks tangle free after just moving the caddy makes me think geometry was doing most of the work in my case. YMMV depending on how old and stiff your cord actually is I guess.