Apologies for not getting back on here sooner, but I tried. I spent quite a while writing up a huge reply, mostly the solution I have working for a few weeks now, with links, pics and all the goodies, but it would fail to post every time. But now my Pro moves along happily, cleaning the bottom of the pool, filling the basket totally full, no bunny hopping, all the way to parking along the wall at battery drain.
There’s a few factors going on here, and it all boils down to buoyancy.
1) Silt screen: FYI, they did increase the silt screens mesh density from their previous version, the Aiper Seagull 1500, which I owned and worked flawlessly. The Seagull had a 250μm mesh, and the Pro has a 180μm mesh. You can buy additional Pro replacement baskets and the 250μm mesh separately and attempt to replace the mesh in one of the baskets so you can swap them out… but you don’t have to for the bunny hop issue. I did order an extra few baskets. I was going to start hacking them up to test the viability of the “basket gets something, anything in it, and now it floats in the front” theory. But I didn’t need to. I am thinking of ordering the 250μm for those heavier cleaning days. But if you don’t let your pool go during the summer, this really (in theory) only be done once at the beginning of the year at pool open, so maybe just clean the heavy bit the old fashion way (that’s what I did this year).
2) Center of Mass: eh, ok, sure. Maybe because of the previously stated reason that basket gets anything in it and now suction lowers and that somehow has shifted mass? Or the implication that the additional weight in the basket (which most of us have reported it doing this even with an empty basket, including my personal experience? Or maybe both? One thing is for sure, the front end begins to float (also referenced as “becomes BUOYANT”). And I don’t think any of this has anything to do with the problem.
3) Buoyancy: Ok, here’s the winner. When I got my Seagull, the package included 2 foam pads to be inserted if you had problems with it being able to climb the wall. Those were to be added into the front of the unit to help it increase it’s buoyancy in case it wouldn’t climb the wall as intended. Well, guess what wasn’t in the Pro package. So I started wondering, why not? I mean, salt water pools (which I have) and non salt water pools have different buoyancy attributes, so why wouldn’t I want to be able to adjust for that? So I yanked it apart and what did I find … pre installed foam float across the front of the unit, inside the area where the handle is. You can actually see if if you look carefully up through the unit above the front wheels. So I took that out, and now it moves along happily, cleaning the bottom of the pool, filling the basket totally full, no bunny hopping, all the way to parking along the wall at battery drain.
The trick is finding the right amount of foam to put back in to get it to climb your specific walls and not roll over onto it’s back. Things to consider: water density (salt, no salt) and wall taper (vertical walls or inclined above ground walls (like the rectangle Intex or Bestway style)). Trick: get a pool noodle and just hack it up and try different sizes. I’m sure anyone with a pool as a few laying around. You can also play with placement. My unit would climb the wall, then slowly float back onto it’s back. Once you look inside and realize where this float is placed, that will make total sense. Move it lower on the front of the device perhaps. There’s not a lot of option for that, so do what ya can if you need to move it.
I also took off that teal plastic piece under the handle as well, just so I was sure no air was trapped inside (it’s not glued in, it’s just 4 screws where the foam pad float is inside). I was finding that no matter how much I twisted, shoot, flipped the unit, I still would get air bubbles from the front. So I just wanted to eliminate that. Plus now I don’t have to do that whole air removal dance now.
The claim by Robert that this was designed to clean a nearly perfectly clean pool is just … well.. horse doo doo. I surely didn’t spend this much money on a cleaner to clean an almost perfectly clean pool. I don’t let my pool get to the state where it’s gross, and I do use a syphon vac to clean the bottom if there’s a lot of leaves in the bottom (that will clog the Aiper in a quick hurry, but now mine won’t bunny hop if it does), but assuming it was intended to clean “near perfect pools” is ludicrous. And while I’m doing some friendly jabbing at Robert, just wanted to point out that the Aiper doesn’t use propulsion to climb the wall, it simply uses it’s wheels. It does use it’s thrusters to push it against the wall so it doesn’t loose contact with the wall, but to overcome someone adding weight to the device to keep it from bunny hopping so that it can climb the walls (in it’s current design), would be to add more buoyancy, in which case, your just tit-for-tat and back to the original problem. It works similar to those wall climbing toy cars you can buy for the kiddos.
One last bit of observation …. have a look at Aiper’s logo. Not the name, but the logo. Notice the A doesn’t have the horizontal line in it? Now flip that A. Yeah, we all got bit by the snakes that they are for ignoring this issue (well, ignoring anything actually). I kept forgetting the companies name, and how it was spelt, until I used this “memory association trick” to help me remember it.
