CNET’s key takeaways
- It’s great value for $799, available at Amazon, Best Buy or directly through Maytronics‘ website.
- It has excellent suction power and remote scheduling at a reasonable price.
- Requires almost no effort or attention during the week.
- The cord never tangles.
A backyard pool is supposed to be your summer sanctuary — not a second job. But if you’re stuck vacuuming up leaves, bugs and mystery debris with a manual cleaner, it can feel more like a punishment than a perk.
I learned that the hard way during my first summer as a homeowner. Armed with an old-school vacuum and some naive optimism, I dove headfirst into pool maintenance. Twice a week, every week, I spent about an hour scrubbing and suctioning my way to a sparkling pool. That’s 60 hours total — time I could have spent floating, barbecuing or doing literally anything else.
This year, I’m set up with a wiz of a pool cleaner machine that vacuums my entire pool in under two hours with almost no effort needed on my part. In all, I tested 12 robot pool vacuums before I landed on the Dolphin Nautilus CC Plus Wi-Fi. It hits all the marks for cleaning and scheduling via its app, and it doesn’t cost an outrageous sum.
At 35 pounds, the robot is easy enough to pull out of the pool when it needs to be emptied and rinsed, roughly once a month. Its cord allows you to haul it in without a struggle. Speaking of the cord, the anti-tangle device with attached buoys kept it from looping around itself, although sometimes it gets caught up in my solar robot skimmer.
Pool filters are not cheap and can be difficult to clean, depending on the type. Having a robot cleaner that works daily will save your filter lots of work and prevent you from having to replace it as often. It’ll also take some stress off your built-in pool pump and filtration system, sending less debris through the pipes to be filtered out.
Cleaner water also means you’ll spend less on chemicals due to a reduction in algae growth and better water chemistry balance.
For a full breakdown, see my list of the best robot pool cleaners for 2025, tested for every type of pool.
The specs
- Type: Corded
- Suction power: 4,500 gallons per hour
- Cleans: Floor, walls
- Weight: 34.6 pounds
- Cost: $799
- Automatic daily cleaning: Yes
- App control: Yes
CNET’s buying advice
I have tested more than 12 pool-cleaning robots, and the Dolphin is my top recommendation. It does everything you need it to, including deep cleaning of the walls and floor on a schedule of your choosing. It’s easy to use and maintain and costs half the price of competitors.
If you factor in how much time a robot pool cleaner saves or what you’d have to pay for professional vacuuming, this is as close to a no-brainer as purchases get for pool owners.
Source: CNET.
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