AIPER Scuba S1 Cordless Robotic Cleaner, Smart Navigation for Inground Pools up to 1,600 Sq.ft, Wall and Waterline Cleaning Vacuum

So an update to my original completely negative review (below): Aiper Support contacted us shortly after the first review was posted, and immediately acknowledged that based on the video, the robot was defective. That impressed me. They offered (and we accepted) to send us a replacement unit (one level up from the original). When that unit arrived, we found it was better, but still had some of the same issues. Support was again responsive, they had seen some of this, and believed that a firmware update would resolve the problem. We waited a bit for the firmware to be released, and upon install, the robot did perform better and did get and so far has kept the pool clean. Had support not been so very helpful, we would have moved on. Now for the "final review": Understand we came from the old-style dolphins, heavy and expensive. This new unit is absolutely lighter and not having the cords is a big plus. It keeps the floor clean, and attacks the walls exactly as we would hope. I do wish the battery were replaceable, but that doesn't seem to be an option on any of these newer units. Battery life (thus far) is great, a second battery hasn't been missed. The negatives are relevant only to my experience with the old Dolphin. This filter basket is much smaller. We don't have a lot of big leaves, but that could be a problem, I don't know. We did have an algae problem when we started, and to be fair, the listing does say that you should use the sand filter suction for algae, not the robot. The problem is that I had depended on the Dolphin for years to do exactly that work at the beginning of the season. With a MUCH larger filter surface area, 3-4 cleanings of the filter got rid of the worst algae kill we'd ever had. I'd estimate this year it would have been 1-2 cleanings with the old unit. So doing what Aiper said wasn't recommended, I was disappointed that they were right. Only the fine filter would capture the algae, and I was literally cleaning it several times an hour in my stubborn hope that something would change. This was NOT the robot, nor the manufacturer's fault, and I won't try that again. But some people have to prove everything to themselves. Guilty. I would suggest that although the fine filter is effective, a pleated one could increase the filter surface dramatically, and make a big difference in the time between cleaning requirements. It was actually somewhat enjoyable at this point to see that the robot "swimming" now made it clear that it was just ready to have the filter cleaned, unlike the previous penchant. So, although my original one-star review was accurate for what we first received, I have upgraded it based on a combination of the final product, and what would call stellar support. I don't know if a firmware upgrade might have fixed the original, but we are quite pleased with what we have now. So thanks to Aiper support! Original Review: Fun to watch, but doesn't clean anything I really wanted this to work. A short background, I've got 40 years in technology, 30 of that owning a pretty successful tech company. I've also used the corded Dolphins for many years. I'm no expert on these things, but I'm not a novice or an idiot. I wanted to get away from the cords, but the Dolphin price made me look at other options. According to the listed specs, this unit fit the bill, and most of the reviews were pretty good. Not all, but most. I read the manual, the robot didn't. I tried it in the default floor/wall mode, it barely touched the floor. I put it in floor mode. It apparently has an aversion to the floor. I thought it was full of entrapped air, so I turned it in every direction I could just underwater (I did get some air out a few times, but it didn't help) and the thing still won't stay on the bottom! As soon as it starts moving forward, the front lifts, the exhaust water port points down (scattering any dirt from the floor), and the thing takes off! It swims all over the pool, but won't stay down. Tried it a few times, doing the same thing, and hoping for different results. I got the same results. Don't judge me. I've posted a video (the review system will only let me upload one). If I wanted an expensive toy submarine (without a remote control), this would do it. It's kind of fun to watch actually, like an underwater ballet. I thought about putting a few pounds of weights in the basket, but figured it would be smarter to return it and try to find one that works. So back to the search, this one wasn't it.

First of all- I really really like this vacuum. It made life so much easier. Simple and quick to charge then drop in pool and done. I purchased this last year and this year half way through this summer, it malfunctioned. I didn’t realize they automatically had a two year warranty. I dreaded the process at first but let me tell you- they were awesome. I emailed, did a trouble shoot. Then they sent me a prepaid shipping label. After I sent it back for repair, I had it back in about a week or so and it is working good as new. I found the customer service very patient, polite and efficient. It was impressive. When this one ever needs to be replaced, I will definitely look at this company to purchase my next one.

I purchased the Scuba S1 on April 6, 2024. On January 9, 2026 (21 months after purchase) the device died. (Fortunately, I was within the warranty period). I contacted Aiper and coordinated the return of the defective unit. Aiper sent me a “refurbished” unit, which was a little rough on the outside shell compared to what I sent in, but the rubber belts, and flaps, etc. all seemed new, and the unit worked. The exchange process took 18 days. It is now October 6, 2026 and the refurbished unit is now malfunctioning, either by failing to initiate charge and when it finally does start charging it never reaches a full state of charge. I have again contacted customer service, however, I expect to be told the unit is now out of warranty and it will cost “$X” to send me another refurbished unit. The summary of my experience (and reading other owner reviews), is this product is built to last about 2 years. If you are “fortunate” enough to have your unit malfunction before the 2 year warranty expiration, you will be burdened with the exchange process in order to gain another 1 year +/- of product use. So, is the product price worth 2 years of service life? Happy shopping!

Updated review after two more days of cleaning: I ran the unit in auto mode one day and floor only mode the next day. Despite my pool containing angled surfaces connecting horizontal floors to vertical walls which tends to confuse Navigation 2.0, the end result is a reasonably clean pool. The unit still had problems in corners where the surface angles change even after I brushed debris out into open areas. The unit managed to maneuver some of the debris back again. Some small debris remained even in open flat areas, so the navigation system is not perfect despite its best effort to be. I added a photo of the deep end square floor with its four adjacent angled surfaces showing residual debris after 3 days of cleaning. When in floor only mode, the unit sometimes treated an angled surface as a floor, continuing forward motion until it reached a vertical wall. At other times as a wall, backing up when it started to angle up. Overall, if you are looking for an inexpensive model that does a sufficient job, this could be the unit for you. Original title: Smart Navigation 2.0? I would hate to see 1.0. Original review: I have an inground vinyl-lined pool with a relatively flat and box-like shallow end (3-4 ft.) that drops off with steep angles into a deep end (8 ft). I was spoiled by a much more sophisticated (i.e., expensive) competitor unit that I inherited with the house upon purchase until it broke last pool season. When it was done cleaning, the pool was spotless, even at corners and bends. I purchased this unit as a cost-saving option (less than half the cost of a model comparable to my original broken one) and because it shed the cumbersome umbilical that my previous unit used for power. I have used it once so far and watched it closely while I ran it in two different modes. I started in auto mode which begins in wall-only mode until the battery charge drops. It does indeed climb walls skillfully even breaking the water line. However, it was confused by the steep angles, and angle changes of my deep end, which also interfered with its desire to change directions using 90 degree turns. It also slid back to the very bottom when reversing to the downward direction I think because it turns off the suction (power saving) at certain times. It did hit different wall spots, but not as intended by the advertised path navigation. I do not know if it would eventually hit all the walls by random chance, but most of my dirt was on the floor, so I switched to floor-only mode to see how it would do there. In floor-only mode, the unit cleaned flat areas well, but had difficult with joints between floor and wall. It also remained confused about my deep end, spending more time changing direction than actually moving in a straight line. The lightness of the unit prevented it from transitioning well from flat shallow end to the downward angle to the deep end, sailing off into the wind blue yonder until eventually sinking back down to the bottom. That said, when I returned the next morning after allowing it to drain its battery, the floor was mostly clean except for the corners and areas where the unit would have to breech two different angled surfaces. I easily lifted the unit out with the provided hook attachment, opened the cleaning door and removed the catch basket. It was quite easy to hose out as advertised. In summary, for the price, a descent unit, but do not expect cleaning perfection. I will still have to use a manual method for the crevices that the unit failed to reach.

I purchased this vacuum last year off of a recommendation from a friend. It was obviously more affordable than a lot of other options out there. It is simple to use, works very well and lasts for hours cleaning the pool. It does a great job. I had an issue where after one season it would no longer hold a charge. I contacted customer service and they were fantastic. I shipped it back at no cost to me. They replaced the motor, charging unit and power cable and express shipped it back to me all within about a week. Now it runs better than it did when I first got it.

I never knew that battery powered vacuums and skimmers existed until recently and man, where have these been my whole life? I own a 15ft x 33ft underground sport pool with a vinyl liner and this Scuba S1 is simply unbelievable in its performance. I only use the "bottom only mode" as I do not want the unit climbing the walls of my vinyl liner and in the bottom only mode it will run for 3hrs and 15 minutes and cleans 100% of the floor.... not a single miss anywhere. Ever. I used to have a side suction hose vacuum that was installed 24/7/365 and it was such a headache as it always got stuck on the steps and would just sit in one place for hours on my vinyl liner..... this is my very 1st pool and I am the pool guy and I only know what I know and am still learning, but I have been doing it all for over 6yrs now. Since buying the Scuba S1, I have completely removed the side suction vacuum and now just use the S1 as my one and only floor cleaning unit. I make sure to run it the same time that my main pool pump/filter is on so they can both "work together".... The stuff that is too fine and passes through the S1's filter (think pollen and dust) and then gets blown up out of the exhaust and into the water column is then picked up by my pool's main filter.... perfection! Full charge takes about 3hrs and the unit is fairly light to handle, although it is heavy when getting it out of the water until the water empties from it and then it is fine.... take it out slowly so it isn't so heavy. Cleaning the debris basket is super easy and I literally don't have a bad word to say about the machine.... It has made caring for my pool so much easier, especially when combined with an Aiper Surfer S2 solar skimmer.... Thanks Aiper!! UPDATE: I love my Scuba S1 so much that I bought a new 2025 Scuba S1 (with internet/app capability and the incredible ultra fine filter) so I now have 2 little robots to do the heavy lifting of keeping my pool clean.... I have a review on the new 2025 Scuba S1 model and I highly suggest you read that before purchasing!!

This is an excellent pool vacuum. I was satisfied with its performance, and even went so far as to recommend the Aiper Scuba to other pool owners. I received two good years of performance. At that point some plastic and rubber pieces and parts began degrading due to repeated exposure to pool water, sun and heat. It was when a rubber back flow flap fell off, that the pool vacuum no longer functioned. I refer to this phenomenon as designed obsolescence. I diligently searched for replacement parts to make the repairs myself. I scoured Aiper’s website, and spoke with their parts department. No joy. The eventual path forward was to purchase a new Aiper unit. I waited until Amazon Prime Day to purchase this Aiper Scuba, and it was still a $600 piece of equipment. Since replacement parts are not available, I choose not to purchase another Aiper product.

—Review Update— The seller of this item contacted me upon reading my original 2 star review. Their customer service truly is worth 5 stars. Customer service listened to my problems, provided solutions, and ultimately sent me the Aiper S1 pro as a replacement for my malfunctioning purchase. The S1 Pro is a true powerhouse, and cleans my pool to my satisfaction. The only little problem I had was activating the accompanying app for this cleaner, but Aiper’s customer service was quick to help me out in this regard too. I am now a very happy customer, who can warmly recommend Aiper, as a company with outstanding customer service that stands behind their products 100%. I decided to buy this robotic pool vacuum, because my high efficiency Dolphin pool vacuum decided to stop working, and I unfortunately am not in a financial position to buy another Dolphin vacuum. I have been using high end robotic pool vacuums for many years and have always been very satisfied with the results. Since I don’t have the financial means anymore to buy a high-end robot, I have been researching the “middle class” robotic vacuums intensely. This Aiper robot received decent reviews all around, not only on Amazon, and was within my budget, so I decided to purchase it. So far the results are very disappointing. It has the hardest time picking up fine debris such as sand, or flocculants that sink to the pool floor after treatment. I received this item on February 21 and have used it every day since, on 2 days I even managed to use it twice, and my pool is still far from being clean. While watching the Aiper clean my pool, I noticed that fine sand/debris is blown out of the air hole of the Aiper again, as soon as it picked it up. It runs very slow, and often just “parks” for a couple of minutes in the same space, before it slowly continues to roll over the pool floor. I guess when it comes to pool robots the old adage “You get what you pay for,” rings true. Even so $500 certainly is a pretty high price tag, the Aiper just can’t keep up with the machines that go for $1,000 or more. It certainly doesn’t have the cleaning power of its more expensive competitors, and at least in my case it does a shoddy job of cleaning my 15,000 gallon inground pool. Even so it “parks” itself on the edge of the pool, when the battery goes empty, my Aiper always parks itself in the deep and of the pool, and it is a pain in the neck to get it out of there for recharging. Another negative is, that you are supposed to turn off your pool pump while the Aiper is cleaning, because it can negatively affect the cleaning performance, if you leave the pool pump on. I tried it both ways with the robot set on “floor only” cleaning and wasn’t able to discern a difference. The quality of cleaning was mediocre at best both ways. My pool is protected by a pool cage, so I don’t have to worry about leaves or other large debris in my pool. My main issue is sand/fine debris, and the Aiper is definitely no match for this kind of dirt in the pool. The Aiper obviously also doesn’t calculate its cleaning route before starting the process, like my previous robots did. It seems to travel randomly through the pool, being in the shallow end one minute and then pulling through to the deep end, where it then often stands helpless in a corner for a while, before it continues its unorganized travel through the pool, passing by big spots of debris, before inevitably ends up in the shallow part again, where it then takes another break from its job, before slowly moving on. If your budget allows for a higher end pool vacuum robot, definitely go with one of those. At this time I am financially not able to buy me a better quality pool cleaner, and due to an auto immune disease I am physically not able anymore to manually clean my pool. However, should my financial situation improve, the Aiper will definitely be replaced with one of its high-performance competitors. Unfortunately I cannot recommend the Aiper as a machine that performs a satisfactory job.

El robot ayuda y te puede hacer el 70% de mantenimiento en la alberca, nunca te va a hacer el 100%. También no hace trabajos continuos en la superficie y orillas de la alberca.

ممتاز

hola mi scuba s1 habia funcionado bien desde que l ocmpre pero ahora no carga mas, se pone rojo y despues se apaga creo la bateria esta muerta, hay repuesto para esto?

في البداية لم يعجبني الأداء لأن ما يقوم بشفطه ينفثه في الاتجاه الاخر والماء في حوض السباحة يصبح عكرا للغاية.. قمت بالتجربة مرارا ولكن كانت النتيجة محبطة حتى اكتشفت المشكلة!!!! الفلتر يحوي على شبك غير دقيق! الغبار والتراب الناعم لا يمكن احتواءه بهذا الفلتر ابدا، لهذا قمت بإضافة قطعة قماش قطنية رقيقة وفائقة الدقة بداخله.. قمت بالصاقه باللاصق الجل ذو الوجهين، وتثبيته من الأعلى بغطاء الفلتر نفسه ونجحت الحيلة ١٠٠% اذ قام الفلتر باحتواء جميع الأتربة بدقة فائقة.. أرجو من الشركة المصنعة ان تضع لنا خيارات اكثر للفلاتر وتضيف من ضمنها الفلاتر الدقيقة للغاية.

No tiene fuerza al aspirar, en la descripción del producto dice unas características que no trae, no absorbe todo lo que hay, pues al acercarse el agua que saca a un lado lo empuja y el robot no tiene la capacidad de succionarlo, así que solo parece que empuja las hojas, decepcionada, no lo recomiendo para nada,