Skimbot Solar-Powered Surface Skimmer Review

[@annereynolds4341]

I've had my Skimbot for about 3 years and love it. THE best appliance I've bought. I have bushland very near the pool and the Skimbot cleans up most of the leaves and debris before they sink. I paid just over $800 when they first arrived on the market. However, I think today the battery has died :(

[@SPL]

It's a super nice product. 👍

[@frankbeams4333]

How well does this work. Do you recommend this one?

[@SPL]

The Betta or Ariel are better

[@joelchoquette5674]

I think these units are a great idea but their pricing puts them out of the reach of a lot of pool owners. The track record of previous attempts at solar powered surface skimmers hasn't been too good either. They seem to come and go. If this fell to the sub $500 price I might bite. I know the extra technology adds to the price, but it's just a price that's hard to justify for me.

[@SPL]

I agree with that. That has been the one issue with these Solar-Powered Surface Skimmers - the high price tags.

[@basha0810]

Ill bite at $250.

[@johnspence8141]

You can get a skim boat (but you have to control it) for about $150...what drives this one up is the solar power and the automation

[@danp4175]

I owned a Skimdevil. I loved it, despite the $750 price. However, after two years (of 7-day/week use) it was battered and finally gave up. This unit looks very similar to the Skimdevil and the app looks identical. How would you compare the two?

[@SPL]

The main difference is the paddle in front. The SkimDevil can pick up ping pong balls. This one is limited because of the paddle in front. It is very similar and the app is the same.. Maybe you can send yours in for a new battery?

[@Paul-bb4tu]

Love my Skimbot but now it won't charge despite being in full sun for several days. Is there a remedy besides buying a new one?

[@SPL]

I am not sure the company is still making them. Unfortunately.

[@StephenCrompton-u9t]

Can the skimbot be used in 40 degree or colder temperatures

[@DethpickleDave]

I was guessing $150-200 range. $650 is way too high for what it does. Lose the bluetooth and gimmickery and leave the basic functionality. Just something that tools around while the sun is shining is good enough. Probably doesn't even need sensors or smarts. Something that charges forward with occasional retreats and turns (like the poolvernugen) would be just fine and way cheaper.

[@SPL]

That would be a great price range for these units. The lowest priced one is the SolaSkimmer by Remington solar. It doesn't have these bells and whistles but is still $399.00. My guess is that the basic components may be what cost so much when these are manufactured.

[@DethpickleDave]

I was thinking something more like the Dunnrite Hydro-Net, which is about $100-120. And IT is overpriced. Don't need the remote control. Just a cheap solar panel and some solid state timing logic for pseudorandom travel. Still these things are neat. I'm not knocking them. I'll admit to wasting tons of money on things like this. Just not that much in one hit. Overpriced for the fun gizmos they are. $650 is a Mac mini. Or, keeping in the pool, you can get the lower end fully robotic cleaners for that kinda money.

[@basha0810]

I totally agree!

[@DaveRunkel]

@@SPL I owned the SolaSkimmer and it worked very well for about a year, and then a couple months after the 12 month warranty expired, it began to malfunction. I contacted the manufacturer and there's nothing they can do for me since it is past the 12 months, and they've now discontinued the product.

[@SoCalWatcher]

I'm looking to obtain one of the different types of pool skimmers that has stopped working!

[@whitemok]

Great video. Im buying one

[@mikeden1580]

I’m guessing that these solar skimmers would not be ideal if you have a water feature running at the same time. Your thoughts?

[@SPL]

My son actually created a 3D printed "Skimbot Shield" for the top to cover the button. The manufacture bought 10 of them. Just to protect it from the water features and spa spillways that tend o turn off the unit. 👍

[@MrCraigCurtin]

@@SPL They have actually updated the design now so you can disable the button in firmware for this very reason

[@basha0810]

$650 bucks????? Wow. I was set to buy this since I'm so tired of physically skimming my pool over the years but ... wow. That's A LOT of money 😕.

[@SPL]

That is a premium price tag, the only real drawback and a big one for many. Thanks for taking the time to post a comment. 👍

[@jmhydn58]

@@SPL I am interested more in the fine particles that sit on top surface daily after a wind, etc, more dust dirt, leaves surface spotty.....does it clean them up as well as the leaves?

[@bosscat4276]

@@jmhydn58 Get the Instapark Betta. I have been using it for over a week, and the performance is freaking fantastic. Not only is it cheaper, but it seems way better designed. The battery seems to be large and capable enough to be running through the night as well. The thing has been working non-stop for over a week, and my pool guy was only over for about 5 minutes today, because there was nearly nothing for him to do other than getting some of the stuff that is at the bottom of pool.

[@lakersfreak24]

The under water sensors stopped working after only two months. Is this a known issue?

[@SPL]

Not a known issue. I would contact them right away.

[@Damitsall]

I'm not sure how much these go for, but I would be interested. I have one of those skimmer motion, suction skimmers and it doesnt work that well unless you kick your pump on to medium or high setting.

[@SPL]

I don't sell any products directly but if you google Skimbot you will find it for sale for around $649.00

[@basha0810]

$650.

[@jacksonseale7191]

Skimbot or instaspark betta?

[@SPL]

I would say the Betta is more refined at this point. The new Solar Breeze Ariel is launching soon and it uses technology from the Skimbot and Solar Breeze and combines them.

[@GERONIMOagain]

@@SPL do you have a promo code for Ariel? What would you suggest while we wait for pre order to arrive in June?

[@MrCraigCurtin]

I have just received my unit (In Australia) and am quietly hopeful it is going to be a good buy. Some observations 1) The new version of the app has a feature to actively search out sunshine in the pool - during the recharge cycle - this does not actually appear to work at this point - based on real life observation of a period of 4 hours. 2) The unit can NOT be used if you have a robotic cleaner in the pool - this to me is a real problem - and one that was not documented anywhere until the day my unit arrived and the Australian distributor told me when i asked. So if you have any of the robotic cleaners with the DC cable that floats on the surface - and you prefer to leave the cleaner in the pool - then these two will not play well together 3) The unit really needs a bluetooth homing beacon or some such that you can put on the pool edge and it will leave itself there overnight ready for sun in the morning - our pool is shaded for 70% of the pool early in the morning and the unit makes no attempt to find the sun 4) It does pick up a lot of floating rubbish and saves it from falling to the floor 5) It does not integrate into any home automation systems - this would really be the ultimate goal - so it could report back to home-assistant, Homekit etc and tell you if it was full - the state of the battery etc - this would then be coupled with being able to launch it on command for a windy day when you know there will be extra debris in the pool - this would tie in with point 3 above - the bluetooth beacon could be an add on that also provided a bluetooth to WIFI gateway and that you purchased as a seperate item - we have the BlueRiiot floating pool sensor that does this

[@SPL]

Sun seeking sounds like a cool feature but as you said it doesn't;t seem to work well. As far as a robotic cleaner, I think they expect you to use that and then remove it after use. I run my robotic cleaner with these solar skimmers out of the pool. I like the homing beacon idea! Should be easy to make. Like you, it would be nice if it would return to the deep end each night where most of the sun is in the morning. Lots of great suggestions for the next version! 👍

[@MrCraigCurtin]

@@SPL Yeah - should not even be a next version - these are all just firmware changes that could be done. We have recently renovated our pool and went for everythign to be as low maintenance and automated as possible. As such we went for an enviroswim system in our pool which uses no chlorine or salt in the water - these are the major destroyers of pool automatic cleaners - as such we feel pretty safe leaving our pool cleaner in all the time and only taking him out to empty him once a week or so. The idea with the skimbot was to extend this so we would empty both of them once a week (unless it was really bad conditions) - we have an automated acid doser to keep our PH under control and then the only other mainteance is measuring the Copper in the pool once a month and backwashing once a week or so

[@gsunil1982]

I have just ordered one in Australia. I do have Dolphin Robotic pool cleaner M600 and i pretty much leave it inside the pool. Bit disappointed after reading your review that its not compatible if other machine is inside the pool!

[@BenBazzard]

@@gsunil1982 am thinking about one of these with an M600. Have you tried them at the same time and did it work?

[@gsunil1982]

@@BenBazzard yeah i tried Skimbot Solarbreeze with M600. Unfortunately Skimbot does get tangled with M600. I do need to adjust or rescue skimbot sometimes if i leave both in the pool for extended period of times. However i am satisfied with Solarbreeze ( may be a touch costly, i felt) , but it surely does its job!

[@tippersteffi1]

Sold out 😫

[@gsunil1982]

Waste of money. I bought one in Aug 2021 and regretting. Its a costly product to begin with and it would stop charging efficiently after one year and in few months, it would stop charging completely. When you reach seller, they replied saying they have stopped this product and they don't have spare parts. Total waste.