Living in Florida means that hurricane season is part of life. With our latest run-in with Hurricane Helene, we got lucky and dodged the brunt of the storm, but still got hammered by thunderstorms.
During one such storm, a flash of lightning struck, followed by a deafening boom. I jumped up from my laptop, wondering what had just happened. A quick inspection revealed that lightning had struck a longleaf pine tree in the public preserve behind my home: the entire top was completely blown off.
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The top of the tree exploded into fragments that flew across my backyard, smashing into the patio screen and, most notably, all over the pool. The water was littered with debris and large chunks of wood — some weighing up to 10 pounds. One piece I jokingly called the “Gandalf staff.”
View at Amazon, a fully autonomous robotic pool cleaner I had been using since March.
With a powerful 9-motor system delivering 5,500 GPH of suction and a 10,400 mAh battery, it offers up to 9.5 hours of cleaning and a host of customizable modes so you can adjust for current conditions. Here’s a breakdown of the Beatbot Aquasense Pro’s top features:
Cleaning Coverage: This 5-in-1 cleaner covers the water surface, pool floor, walls, and waterline, making it one of the most comprehensive robotic pool cleaners available.
Battery Capacity: Powered by a 10,400 mAh lithium-ion battery, it offers up to 9.5 hours of surface cleaning or 5 hours for deep cleaning. The battery fully recharges in 3.5 hours.
Navigation and Sensors: Equipped with 20 smart sensors, including dual ultrasonic sensors and a quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU, the Aquasense Pro uses SonicSense™ AI Pool Mapping for efficient navigation, ensuring 100% coverage of any pool shape, including rectangular, kidney, and freeform designs.
Suction Power: The NonaDrive™ 9-Motor System generates an impressive 5,500 gallons per hour (GPH) of suction, capable of handling both large debris and fine particles.
Debris Capacity: The 3.7-liter debris basket is easily accessible from the top and handles heavy loads of leaves, twigs, and other debris.
Motors and Brushes: It features dual-group roller brushes (front and rear) with differential speeds, enhancing its cleaning ability for various pool surfaces like concrete, vinyl, fiberglass, and ceramic.
Connectivity: It features Wi-Fi connectivity (2.4GHz) for app integration, allowing users to track progress, check battery life, and receive over-the-air (OTA) updates.
Cleaning modes for every pool
Customizing the Beatbot Aquasense Pro is user-friendly thanks to its physical buttons on top, which let you select cleaning modes without needing the app. You can choose Quick Mode for a fast, single-floor cleaning pass, Standard Mode for a more thorough clean of the floor, walls, and waterline, or Pro Mode, which adds surface cleaning on top of everything.
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For energy efficiency, Eco Mode cleans the pool floor every two days with minimal battery drain. These buttons make it simple to start any cleaning mode with just a press, allowing you to skip the app once it’s set up.
However, the app still offers a handful of useful features, such as checking its cleaning progress and battery life and scheduling future cleanings. It also lets you update the robot’s firmware over the air (OTA) to ensure the latest improvements and features are always active, such as the new Multi-Zone mode (beta) that allows for cleaning shallow areas like steps. However, for everyday use, the physical buttons on the device are all you really need to get the job done efficiently.
Putting the Aquasense Pro to the test
You’d never know a tree had exploded into this pool the day before.
Jason Perlow/ZDNET
Having the robot handle such an overwhelming task was a massive relief. I didn’t have to call a pool cleaning service, and best of all; I didn’t have to do the work myself.
ZDNET’s buying advice
For $2,199 (or $1,759 at the time of writing), the Beatbot Aquasense Pro (now at $959) without surface cleaning, a solid choice for those who don’t need the full 5-in-1 system.