Review: Poolease X1 Pool Robot

The market is stuffed to the gills with pool-scrubbing robots that cost thousands of dollars, and consumers are well justified in worrying whether that level of expense will ultimately be worthwhile. But there’s also a subset of pool robots that go the other way—much simpler devices that cost well under $500, sometimes much less.

Photograph: Christopher Null

It’s here where we find the Poolease X1, a pint-sized robot that can be yours for barely over 100 bucks. Can it possibly be any good?

Mini and on the Move

I’ve tested robots along these lines in the past. All work under the same general principle. Stripped down to the basics, the tiny Poolease X1—just 9 pounds in weight and not much larger than a lunch box—has no spinning brushes or treads to propel it. Rather, the clearly Dyson-inspired robot is entirely powered by water jets, which send it on a largely random zigzag path around the pool while pulling debris up through the bottom of the device.

Because of this simple propulsion system, the X1 can’t clean walls or the waterline or even steps, nor can it “scrub” the way a robot with motorized rollers can. It’s strictly limited to the floor of the pool. Needless to say there are no wireless or mobile app features at this price level, either.

There’s also no debris basket on the X1, per se. Rather, the entire device splits into two, and leaves and other debris are simply captured inside it, with a simple filter screen serving to keep debris from passing through the device and back out though the propulsion system’s exhaust port. To clean the device, you snap open four clips surrounding the chassis to separate the halves, then spray the whole thing down with a hose.

Photograph: Christopher Null

The unit arrives with some assembly required. The four caster-style wheels (in two sizes) must be snapped into place, along with two brushlike “scrapers” and two plastic plates that must be installed inside the device. None of this is difficult, but it feels awfully unnecessary for the consumer to have to complete the extra effort.

The X1’s charging port—a term I’ll use loosely—is located on the bottom of the robot, which means you need to flip it over to connect the power adapter, which risks scratching the device’s fetching purple paint job. This connection isn’t so much a port as it is two bare metal posts sitting in a narrow channel. It’s designed to be covered by a rubber stopper when in the water, though note that this stopper isn’t connected to the robot in any way and, I suspect, will be very easy to lose. (A spare cover is included in the box.) It’s also really tough to pry it out of place and to put it back.

The simple 1.8 amp charger will top up the 4300mAh battery in about three hours, giving it enough juice for a specified 90-minute running cycle.

Small Robot, Small Job

While mini robots like this are clearly intended for above-ground and tiny pools, Poolease specs the robot to cover 861 square feet—the equivalent of a massive 30 x 30-foot pool that would be almost twice the size of my own. Nevertheless, I didn’t expect the X1 to do a spectacular job at cleaning it, and sure enough, it didn’t.

After powering it on by holding down a button located on the bottom of the device (naturally), the unit lazily careens back and forth around the floor of the pool, usually reversing only when it reaches a wall. There’s no intelligence to speak of under the hood here, which means any collected debris is largely a random race against time. The goal is to suck up all the leaves before the battery dies; in my testing, that was a bit longer than Poolease’s spec, approaching two hours of operation.

Results were not particularly impressive. With both organic and synthetic debris, the Poolease X1 was only typically able to collect 70 to 80 percent of leaves and other matter on the floor of my pool, leaving material scattered randomly all around. That’s better than I expected, but worse than it sounds. If your gardener left 20 percent of your lawn unmowed, you’d notice.

With minimal clearance between the bottom of the robot and the floor, I also noticed several times that the robot was prone to getting stuck, namely on the circular floor drain, which has less than an inch of rise over the floor surface. Apparently it’s the perfect size for the X1 to beach itself, so its wheels are just shy of touching the ground. The robot was successful in freeing itself eventually, but it spent several minutes doing so.

Photograph: Christopher Null

The X1 must be retrieved with a pole and hook (the hook is included) when it’s finished running. I described the simple cleanout process above. Here, debris regularly got stuck in a couple of narrow crannies inside the chassis, requiring me to either pick it out by hand or use the jet mode on my hose to blast it out (soaking me in the process). It’s also worth noting that the unit didn’t pick up any noticeable amount of dirt or silt; I suspect the suction system just isn’t strong enough to do much good on that front.

A Value Conundrum

It’s clear that, despite specifications to the contrary, the Poolease X1 is not remotely powerful enough for my pool, and I suspect it may be too little for all but very small tank-style pools. Of course, the mere $110 price tag makes this a low-risk investment, which might be fine if you just want to keep it on hand for emergencies.

On the other hand, as they say, you get what you pay for. Imagine tasking your 5-year-old to clean up his room. I mean, they try, right?