Photo: Chris Noel

Naturally, the AstroRinse also requires a power supply, so if you don’t have a standard electrical outlet near your hose spigot, you’ll need another extension cord solution here. The unit must be level to operate properly, and includes adjustable feet and a built-in spirit level to help you achieve this.

All told, you’ll need to carefully consider where you’re going to place the AstroRinse, making sure you have access to water, electricity and drainage — and that the location isn’t too far from a pool. Since the AquaSense X robot weighs 29 pounds by itself (and even more when fresh out of the water), you probably don’t want to haul the thing halfway across the yard to clean and charge it. Unfortunately, given the availability of the above three services in my backyard, this is what I had to do.

A familiar friend in the water

The BatBot AquaSense X robot is almost identical in appearance to the BatBot AquaSense 2 Ultra except for some changes in the design of the basket (which here is a single piece instead of two). It is much easier to set up than AstroRinse.

The physical configuration involves installing two sided brushes—these are only used by the skimmer function—but this is a fairly quick affair. After the brush is attached, the robot must be set on top of the AstroRinse cleaner to wirelessly pair the two devices together. (The Quick Start Guide explains specific button presses to complete this process; don’t miss it.) Finally, the system must then be connected to the BatBot mobile app. You will need Bluetooth and a 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz Wi-Fi connection to complete this task. One small hiccup I encountered: After completing all this work, both devices downloaded firmware updates, which immediately broke their pairing relationship. However, it was easy to reestablish by simply repeating the pairing process.

After a full charge, I put the cleaner through its paces in the pool both on the floor and on the surface, and as expected, I saw no real difference in performance against the AquaSense 2 Ultra. When testing floors with both organic and synthetic debris, the device picked up an average of 97 percent of the test material, performing exceptionally well on steps and platforms. At the surface, the unit was probably moderately scarious, collecting less than half of the floating debris and sinking most of the rest. This unit is too slow to collect much material on the surface, although its rotating side brushes help, to a lesser extent, to pull leaves into its maw.

On the pool floor, the maximum running time is about 4.¹/₂ hours, courtesy of a 13,400 mAh battery — the same as the Aqua Sense 2 Ultra’s.

ScreenshotBatBot App by Chris Noel

Like other AquaSense robots, the Beatbot app has operating modes available, letting you choose from dozens of possible floor, wall, waterline and surface cleaning combinations, each with up to two runs per zone and with varying times. An AI Quick Mode activates the onboard camera to allow the robot to actively search for debris instead of randomly encountering it. This is good for a quick clean when there isn’t much to pick up but more than you can easily get with a net.

Again, none of this is very different from how the AquaSense 2 Ultra behaves, and aside from the poor surface performance, it works brilliantly.

Charging and cleaning

On to the main event: cleaning. After each run, the AquaSense X positioned itself at the waterline awaiting retrieval, and I dutifully placed it across the pool deck where I set up the AstroRinse station. Although it may take a little trial and error to get the robot in the right place, once you do, the cleaning system starts automatically within seconds.

As the key system is activated, the top-mounted arm swings into place and connects to the mouthpiece that the robot uses to skim the surface. Then, a high-pressure stream of water (quite loudly) begins to shoot through the arm and into the filter basket, which is located just below the opening. The water spray runs continuously for three minutes before the arm swings back and the system shuts off. (An instant mode, which lasts up to one minute, can also be selected in the app.) Then, the arm retracts and the unit is complete. Debris is caught in a net-covered basket built into the base of the sanitation station. Any remaining water drains out through a mesh screen at the bottom of the unit.

Photo: Chris Noel