Pollguynj, I already have the system set up for a pressure cleaner and am waffling between The Pool Cleaner 4 wheel and a Polaris 360. I have come to the same conclusion as you regarding the robotic cleaners, at least for now. I do not want a cleaner pool at the expense of tangled cords laying over the deck and a transformer I have to move around all the time. Also, on this forum and others, it is hard to figure out which cleaner is really worth the money. That being said, I want to set myself up for a future robotic cleaner. I already have a 1" conduit feed to a wall that is 14'8" from the pool edge. I could easily feed either low voltage or high voltage to that point. From there I want to put in a low voltage feed to a recessed box in the deck that is close to the pool edge. that way, in the future, I could connect a robotic cleaner and not trip over the cord. Code requirements prevent having 120V closer than 10' from the pool, so a trap door and a recessed box with 120V inside wont help me much. To help understand what I am trying to do, take a look at my plan: The line designated 3/H2.1 is about where the robot electric feed is. P.A. is 3' wide a planting area and the double line next to it is a brick wall about 40" high. The deck in this area, including the coping is 11'8", which is why a box 10' away doesn't help much.

I wanted to add that my pool is rectangle. Also, my husband likes the idea of the robotic since it will be the easiest to use. We have power supply right at the end of the decking. We do have the plumbing for a booster pump as well.

When you have a booster pump, what you describe as a robot is really called a pool sweep. Generally, they have a long, white hose attached between them and the quick connect on the long side of the pool at about middle. A robot generally has a power cord and integrated motors and tracks or drive wheels. Which pool sweep you have helps as they aren't all the same. Some are gear driven, some have drive belts, and some have drive chains internally. The water from the booster drives a turbine to provide the energy to move its wheels. Some of the water is diverted for other functions such as a thruster jet, venturis that create a current underneath that shoots into a bag and picks up debris, and for backing up. These commonalities are are all designed differently. The first order of business is to ID the sweep. If you can't get us model, it would be like asking my car is broken, not saying whats wrong (you sort of did), and not telling anyone the make and model. Lets start there. Next, if you built the pool or not (like it was there when you bought the house), how is it you don't know how to program it? This may not be as much your fault you might think or it might be. IMHO, a pool is something the homeowner should be familiar with and have a trusted service pro when they don't. We will try to help you here with the sweep but it sounds like you haven't found, for the long term, a trusted service company yet. That will come but will be another topic. Scott

I don't have area rugs with fringe so the Roomba handles them pretty well, I pick up the smaller ones by the door that I use to keep the dogs from tracking in from the yard. Low pile is fine - I don't let it run on one rug that I have that has long loops, I'm sure it would stall. I understand if you have black rugs or rugs with dark edges the Roomba won't go over them because it thinks it's a drop (like a step). It uses a sensor to watch for stairs and such and will stop when it gets to them. To elaborate on the Scooba a bit more for those who are curious, yes, it does a wash more than the Braava which only pushes around a damp cloth. You set it up to clean a "small room" or a "large room". It has a water reservoir to which you add cleaner. The cleaner is not sold in my area so I buy off Amazon. BestBuy is supposed to carry it but not my local store. iRobot also has it on their web site. It doesn't take much cleaner - I only add a small amount to the water. The I set up my lighthouses/virtual walls to keep it in the area I want scrubbed (and obviously not on the area rugs). It runs around a bit to get a feel for the space and then it starts - it lays down a thin film of water as it goes, it vacuums and puts down the water, goes back and forth and in circles, using the brushes I suppose, then it goes back and vacuums up all the left over water. So the floor is pretty dry by the time it shuts off. It's a bit entertaining at the end as it shakes itself off, kind of like a dog. You then dump out the water from the dirty side of the tank, rinse it out and pull out any hair. You can then add more water to the clean tank and top off the cleaner, and recharge it. I found it does need another small area rinsed out or you will get an error code, but easily done. The dirty water is noticeably dirty so it is doing something to clean the floor. As I mentioned, the manufacturer warns against other cleaners. and other users have posted that the unit will fail if caustic cleaners are used, as it will damage the unit. I have sprayed windex on the floor ahead of it with no issues. It's not a perfect solution as you will still need to damp mop your baseboards and tight areas occasionally, but I do like it for my bathroom and I have on occasion used it on my engineered wood, but I follow it with an old towel and wipe up excess water so the wood does not absorb it. If you, or your family members have long hair, I would definitely recommend doing a quick vacuuming or Swiffer run first to pick that up before running the Scooba, as it will pick up hair and then you will be very unhappy pulling it out of the reservoir and brushes. It is also not very quiet so don't think you can run it while you take a nap.