The Best Robotic Cleaners For Inground Fiberglass Pools

Every pool owner should have an excellent working knowledge of pool maintenance. It’s essential to stay on top of it from the time you open your pool in the spring through closing it for the winter. Robotic pool cleaners can be a great help when it comes to keeping dirt and debris out of your pool, saving you time. However, choosing from robotic pool cleaners can be overwhelming as hundreds of automatic pool cleaners are on the market, each with different benefits. Inground pools require a different type of robotic cleaner than above-ground pools, and some robotic pool cleaners will have features you may not need. So make sure you’re searching for the best automatic pool cleaner for your needs and specific pool type. This post will outline a few robotic pool cleaners for inground fiberglass pools.

Hayward TigerShark

The Hayward TigerShark can scour a 20 x 40-foot pool floor, walls, coves, and water line in just three hours. It’s available in three models: the standard TigerShark, the TigerShark Plus Robotic Cleaner with Remote Control, and the TigerShark QC with Quick Clean (featuring a patented 90-minute quick clean alternative.) It has an easy-to-clean cartridge filter system and a 24-volt motor designed to use less energy, saving you pool maintenance costs over time.

Average Price: under $1500

Highlights:

Easy to clean cartridge
Lightweight
On-board pump for intense vacuum power
Pool Length: Up to 40 feet
1 to 3-year warranty, based on the specific model you choose
Cordless
Programmable

Dolphin CC Nautilus Plus

With more than 25 years of technological and innovative leadership, Dolphin’s Nautilus CC Plus is an award-winning design. It weighs just under 21 pounds and comes with a 2.5-year warranty. The Nautilus CC Plus has a swivel system for tangle-free operation, and a smart navigation system enables the robotic pool cleaner to vacuum the floor, walls, and water lines of inground pools in two hours. Equipped with rubber tracks that grip the surface and walls of the pool, the cleaner gets to the small corners and areas of the pool, such as the edges of tanning ledges.

Schedule the Nautilus CC Plus to clean your swimming pool each week using three settings- every day, every other day, or every 3rd day. A fine filter traps the algae, dirt, bacteria, and biofilm, and a high RPM system provides a deeper clean. If you want to run your cleaner when you are away, the Nautilus CC Plus w/ Wi-Fi allows you to control the robot from anywhere at any time with the MyDolphin Plus app for just a little higher cost.

Average Price: under $900

Highlights:

Easy to clean cartridge
Lightweight
Pool Length: Up to 33 feet
Swivel cables for tangle-free operation
2.5-year warranty
Programmable

Polaris F9450 Sport Robotic Pool Cleaner

The Polaris F9450 is a lightweight robotic cleaner that can clean your pool in under two hours. The “Aqua Trax” tires enable the Polaris to move freely over any surface–floors, steps, and walls. It has a navigation system that automatically controls the robot’s position, allowing cleaning coverage without hang-ups. The cleaner also uses the Vortex system, a pool vacuum system that filters out particles and quickly gathers large debris. With a 7-Day programmable timer, you can customize your settings and select the cleaning modes that work best for you.

Average Price: under $1,000

Highlights:

Easy to access filter canister
Lightweight and easy to remove from the pool–with the touch of a button, it surfaces and waits for you to grab it, then automatically evacuates water for effortless removal from the pool
Pool Length: Up to 55 feet
Time and energy efficient
2-year warranty
Programmable

Aquabot® X4™ Robotic Pool Cleaner

The Aquabot X4 Robotic Pool Cleaner was awarded “Best Value Cleaner of 2022” and is ideal for all pool shapes (above ground and inground) up to 60 feet. It features 4WD non-marring high-grip wheels for superior traction on all surfaces, including tile. And the ultrafine mesh filter baskets capture dirt, debris, and fine particulate down to 2 microns in size. The Anti-Tangle Swivel prevents the rover from getting hung up. And you can use programmed settings for 1, 1.5, or 2-hour cleaning cycles, and timer settings to run it automatically every 48, 72, or 96 hours.

Average Price: Under $800

Highlights:

Easy to access filter
Lightweight
Pool Length: Up to 60 feet
Energy efficient
Three-year warranty
Programmable

Do Robotic Pool Cleaners Really Work?

Yes! Pool cleaning is a challenging task most of us like to avoid. But an excellent robotic cleaner is a great solution that tackles dirt, debris, and water filtering in a simple three to five-hour process, making them incredible time savers. Robotic cleaners have a built-in filtration system so you can backwash less frequently. The manual process of brushing your pool is already a dull, time-consuming task, but with robotic pool cleaners, the process can be less labor-intensive

Which pool robot is best?

It helps to remember that most pool robots cover standard cleaning maintenance, so no matter what product you choose, your pool will be cleaner without as much effort on your part. Consider the following while searching for the robotic pool cleaner:

Pool size: Some pools will require a product with a greater capacity for pool cleaning (like ones for large, rectangle fiberglass pool shells).
Cordless or not: If you are considering one with a cable, check to see if the manufacturer claims that it is “tangle free.”
Run time: A pool robot cleans between two to six hours, so pick a product that suits your schedule. Or choose one that is programmable.
Basket or bag filter
Does it climb the walls?
Will it scrub the waterline?

Proper pool maintenance is essential to keep your pool in great shape for the future, and many excellent pool maintenance tools are available to help you keep up with it.

Regardless of what kind of robotic pool cleaner you buy for your inground fiberglass pool, the investment will pay off in saved pool maintenance time, giving you more time to do what you want to do-enjoy your pool.