Instapark Betta Automatic Robotic Pool Cleaner Solar Powered Pool Skimmer - White

I only know of a few autonomous solar bots like this on the market, and when I did my research on them at the beginning of summer, all of them were out of stock. Reading a few posts at troublefreepool that had users with experience said the Betta worked well, and the customer service was great. So I decided on the Betta, and to be honest, it is pretty amazing.I literally do not have to do anything to it but take it out of the pool, clean the basket, and put it back in the pool. Well, and take it out when we swim, and here is what I mean by treat it with care! You will want a nice shaded area off the concrete/stone to let the bot take its break. Like an idiot, I assumed since the instructions said to place on pool deck to charge that he could take the heat. So when we'd swim, I would just put him up on the pool deck, in the sun, so he could charge. After about 6 weeks he started to act funny, then his rear indicator lights went out, then he would run for a minute, then shut off, then start, shut off, etc.So I called up the service number, and spoke with a woman there. She was very helpful. She said that my leaving the bot on the concrete while we swam was most likely a possible cause of damage due to swelling of the components. I mean, now that I think about it, it makes sense. All the battery and sensitive components are in a waterproof box, and heating that up can't be good. At any rate, 3 days later, I had a replacement bot and a shipping label to return the malfunctioning robot. Instapark stood by their warranty, even though it could have been my own fault. The new instructions came with a separate printed warning to only charge the bot in the pool.Now, my new bot has been going for almost 5 weeks without a hitch. I leave it in the pool except when I clean it or take it out so we can swim, except now I put it on a table under our canopy shade or inside if I'm running the fountain (don't want to clog it up with dried salt water).I never have to plug it in. Really, think about that. This bot doesn't cost you electricity. If you have a full day of sun, it will have enough charge to run ALL NIGHT. Seriously. ALL NIGHT it is busy getting bugs and leaves and crap out of my pool. If its overcast, it might not make it all night, but guess what? You don't have to fuss with it. It will automatically start back up when its battery is charged enough to work. Now that we have shade sails, it still finds enough sun to do its work.I have so little in my skimmer sock, I only have to clean it once a week tops. The bot picks up pollen, bugs, leaves, hair, etc. When I clean the bot, I just open the top, take out the basket, rinse it with a hose, give the sides and rotors a good rinse with fresh water and check that hair hasn't wrapped around the rotors. It takes less than 5 min. Press his button, set him in the pool, and don't think about having to skim my pool for another week.The only idiosyncracy I have found with it is when it rains. It is waterproof, so its fine to leave it in the rain in the pool (I take it out if the wind is going to be strong, but a regular shower is fine). When it rains though, sometimes it gets a puddle of water in front of its sensors (what it uses to keep from slamming into the pool walls), and I think it gets confused. I think the guidance is laser based, and maybe the puddles in the recessed sensor area are scattering too much light. Anyhow, the bot just does circles, even though all his lights are normal. This will stop once it dries off, or you can get a soft cloth and dry those nooks out, and it will go back to normal operation.Finally, to my picture linked. The bot does a good clip across the pool, but if it gets too near the skimmer, sometimes it can't escape the velocity of the skim. It doesn't hurt it to be like that, but it isn't doing its job. To solve this, I tried a couple of things, and a very simple idea dawned on me to use one of the dumbbell shaped floats we have, and tied it off to the skimmer plate with a piece of nylon rope. I added some fishing weights to keep the ends down and keep it from lifting out in the breeze. The shape keeps the entry to the skimmer open and provides a little 6" bumper that seems to be just enough distance to keep the bot from succumbing to the skimmer suction.Anyway, sorry for the wall of text. BUY this if you hate manually skimming and love having a clear and clean pool all day and night.

BUY THIS PRODUCT! I can't say enough good things about the robot or the company. First, it works exactly as it should and is so simple to operate. I have never used the remote, though the instructions seemed pretty easy to follow. I just put it in the pool and turn it on (push 1 button). It runs itself without my intervention more than once every few days unless it's leaf drop season which may require a little more frequent basket empty. The basket empty is ridiculously simple; turn it off, open latch, lift basket out and then invert to empty, tap, return basket to it's place, close latch, push button to turn back on...15 seconds tops. This thing works so well both my pool guy and my geriatric parents love it, can operate without instructions or assistance and missed it when it was out of commission. That brings me to my next reason to love the Betta: the company actually stands behind it's product!We used the robot pretty much around the clock from the day we received it...rolling around the pool all day and night for 6 months. Sometime in the Fall I noticed it wasn't operating normally and upon inspection one of the propellers wasn't spinning freely and to my laymen's eyes it appeared somecorrosion build up had affected the propeller attachment. We have a salt water pool and while nothing in the materials referred to this as a contraindication I surmised the salt and the metal/solar electric had caused a reaction of some type building up calcifications. I did my best to clear the issue but never found adequate improvement for the propeller to function normally again. So our entire household (and our pool guy) mourned the loss of the Betta as it was put aside. I briefly contemplated buying another because I liked it so much, but as the same thing was likely to happen again, I decided and annual $500 investment wasn't my best option. Fast-forward to April when I realized through cleaning out manuals that the Betta had a 1 year warranty (and I was 1-2 weeks shy of the year purchase date) so I decide to contact the company to see if they would respond. To my shock and complete admiration, they didn't hesitate, just sent me paid shipping information and instructions to return it as well as an estimate of time and instructions on tracking it's return! I could not believe how great their service was and that would have been enough as I expected the robot might be beyond help. In just a few weeks I had received confirmation the robot was received, fixed and being return and I now have it BACK IN PERFECT WORKING ORDER and cleaning just as before without being charged a dime or given ANY pushback as to responsibility. UNBELIEVEABLE!I have since noted there is a Betta 2.0 that refers to salt pools so I imagine they may have discovered there was some unanticipated salt pool interaction with the Betta original and they've corrected the design in the updated model. If I lose this one I will most certainly be buying a Betta 2.0. So if you have a Chlorine pool don't bat an eyelash, but if you have Salt just get the 2.0!You will not regret this purchase.