Floor, walls, waterline and surface: what pool robots clean
"Cleans the whole pool" can mean four different things. Here's what each zone means and which robots the makers say cover it.
Floor only
The cheapest robots vacuum the floor and nothing else. That's often enough in a flat above-ground pool. Floor-only robots we cover: Aiper Scuba SE, Dolphin E10, Aiper Seagull SE.
Floor and walls
Wall-climbing robots drive up the walls, scrubbing algae and dirt that settles there. Floor-and-wall robots without waterline cleaning: Aiper Scuba S1, Dolphin Nautilus CC Plus (Wi-Fi), Dolphin Cayman.
Waterline
The waterline is the band at water level where sunscreen, oil and scum collect. A robot cleans it by climbing to the top of the wall and moving along it. Robots that clean the waterline but don't skim: Beatbot Sora 10, Aiper Scuba N1, Beatbot Sora 30, Beatbot AquaSense 2, Aiper Scuba V3, Polaris 9550 Sport, Polaris FREEDOM, Dolphin LIBERTY 400, Dolphin Quantum, Dolphin Premier.
Surface skimming
Skimming robots float at the surface and collect leaves, pollen and insects before they sink. It's the most useful extra in pools under trees. Robots that skim: Beatbot Sora 70, Aiper Scuba X1 Pro Max, Beatbot AquaSense 2 Ultra.
Filter by what you need in the pool robot finder, or see the best robots for walls and waterline.