AIPER Seagull 1000 Robotic Pool Cleaner – Domo Arigato Mr Roboto

As summer winds to an end in the Las Vegas valley the temperatures are still in triple digits and our pools are warm and absolutely necessary. The fine folks at AIPER offered us a Seagull 1000 Robotic Pool Cleaner at the right time. I spent the last two weeks setting it up properly for my very unusually shaped inground pool, and observing how it works, if it works, and what works. Let’s open the Box.

What’s in the Box?

The AIPER Seagull 1000 is shipped in a large box covered with AIPER Seagull 1000 graphics. Inside the box, you will find the rechargeable Seagull 1000 Robotic Pool Cleaner, the Charging Cable, two swing plates, a floating handle and rope, the ubiquitous instruction manual, and a brush.

The unit requires some simple assembly such as snapping one of the swing plates into place, snapping the brush onto the base of the Seagull 1000, and finally tying the floating handle to the unit through the attachment post next to the charging port. This is all clearly described and illustrated in the instructions. The charging port comes with an attached rubber seal, that is tied to the unit and is used to keep water out of the charging port while the Seagull 1000 is operating in your in-ground pool.

The unit takes between 5 and 6 hours to get to a full charge, and runs for approximately 90 minutes (of cleaning time). AIPER uses water jets and 50-watt dual-drive motors to propel the robotic pool cleaner around your pool.

Depending on the shape of the pool, the jets need to be aligned properly to completely remove the debris and dirt laying on the pool floor. The AIPER Seagull 1000 moves quickly around the pool, and the jet alignment takes a bit of playing around to get dialed in. Let’s look deeper.

Dial it In for a Clean Pool

The AIPER Seagull 1000 Robotic Pool Cleaner requires a bit of patience and a few days to dial in the cleaning cycle for each individual pool depending upon the shape of one’s pool. There are basic setting described in the instruction manual for rectangular, or round pools.

Let’s begin with the basic charging system. First, connect the charger to any electrical outlet, then align the plug properly to attach to the Seagull 1000. The charge time of 5-6 hours is accurate, with the shortest charge time I observed over two weeks being 4 and a half hours, and the longest around 6 hours.

The run/clean time is equally accurate, with the majority of my cleaning cycles lasting 90 minutes to 2 hours. The 2 hour cycles seem to be unusual, but consider 90 minuets to be a close approximation to the actual operation time.

I never saw it take less time than 90 minutes over the many times I have cleaned my pool with this unit. My pool is 38 ft by 18 ft and is in the shape of an eagle’s head and shoulders. The “shoulders” are an 18 ft bowl that is 8.5 ft deep, and the drop off at 20 ft goes from 8 and a half feet to 3 feet at the eagle’s head. The eagle’s “beak” is where the pool steps walk in and out. Note: the AIPER Seagull 1000 robotic Pool Cleaner does not do steps, or vertical walls.

It does work very well with sloping walls and I’ve seen it push itself with the jets as far as halfway up the deep end, and close to the top at the shallow end of the pool. Let’s talk about charging, controls, and dialing in the jets.

Blue Lagoon

There are two LED indicator lights that matter when using the AIPER Seagull 1000. One is on the charging block, and the other is on the top of the device, where the charging port attaches. The charging block LED indicates charging with a red LED, and full charge with a green LED. The main switch has a blue LED. The main switch turns on with a twist to the left, and off with a twist to the right. When you first turn it on the LED is solid blue. This is when you carefully lower it into the water using the floating handle and rope.

The floating handle and rope serves a dual purpose, as it’s there to retrieve the Seagull 1000 at the end of the cleaning cycle. There is also a convenient grab handle once you get the robot out of the water with the rope. Once the AIPER Seagull 1000 is in the water it takes about 15 seconds for the pool robot to start it’s cleaning cycle and the blue LED to start flashing. The LED flashes slowly while it’s working, quickly when the battery is getting low, and 3 times when the cleaning cycle is complete. That’s when you retrieve the Seagull from your pool, turn the unit off, let the water drain, and remove the detritus in the catch basin.

I’ve been attaching the charging cable immediately while I was going through my testing phase because of the relatively long charge time. I have found it’s quite a bit easier to clean the catch basin with a hose, as pool dirt tends to be sticky and very fine. The Seagull 1000 pool robot opens by pulling the sides away from the base and easily snaps back in place once you’ve cleaned it. Don’t forget to replace the screen before replacing the body on the base or all the AIPER robot will do is move the dirt around your pool and run it all through the jets.

The robot does have 4 wheels but those are just to aid it in it’s movement around the pool, and don’t have any actual drive motors attached. This unit moved quickly and efficiently using the powerful water jets. These jets twist in two directions and have clearly marked angles notations from 0 degrees to 40 degrees. These jets control the pattern of movement to clean the pool. They took me 5 days to get dialed in, once again, because of the long charging time between cleaning cycles and my very odd shaped pool. Now for the 64 thousand dollar question:

How well does it work?

For the last decade I’ve been using different brand pool cleaning robots which attach to my skimmer and add dirt to my filter, as well as shortening the overall life of my expensive filters and much more expensive pool pump motors. I have been waiting for a unit like the AIPER Seagull 1000 Robotic Pool Cleaner since 2020, when I replaced all of my filter, and pump equipment, and bought a new skimmer attached robotic pool cleaner during the Covid shutdown. I don’t use a pool service so I do all of my own pool maintenance, cleaning, and 4 times a year I take the filter apart to clean or replace the filter units. I usually just leave the unit attached unless someone is in the pool for several reasons.

The major reason is that the Skimmer attached robotic cleaner takes most of a day to clean the pool completely. That’s at least 6 hours a day that it’s putting more stress on my pool pump, pump motor, and adding dirt and debris to the filter and baskets. Once I got the AIPER Seagull 1000 properly dialed in, that 90 minute clean time did as good, or a better job cleaning my pool than the old school unit. There’s no hose stretched all around my pool when I used the Seagull 1000 robotic pool cleaner versus the old unit. I do let the hose attached unit clean the pool while my family is swimming. I would not do that with the Seagull 1000 because of the speed and the very random paths that it is makes I feel there is a potential to actually harm someone if they didn’t pay attention to the Seagull moving around. Here’s my final thoughts.

Final Thoughts

The AIPER Seagull 1000 Robotic Pool Cleaner is a very useful, very efficient pool cleaner for in ground pool. There are no cables, no hoses, and the entire process takes about 90 minutes once dialed in for your pool shape. My complaints are not deal breakers. The cleaning time is perfect once one considers the speed in which the entire pool is cleaned. I wish the charging time was closer to 3 hours because I live halfway up a mountain in Las Vegas, and the wind is always blowing dust and debris into the pool, even with a fence and a cloth barricade surrounding the entire pool. I have cleaned the pool in the morning then I’ve had to wait 6 hours to clean it again instead of having constant really slow cleaning going on all day long. If the charging time was 3-4 hours I could clean the pool 3 times a day when necessary. Since the unit is large with powerful motors and a relatively large battery, it is a bit hefty when removing it from the pool. My only real annoyance is the acclaimed “rests at the side of the pool once the cycle is done.” I had that happen 3 times out of 3 dozen cleaning cycles. The most likely place that I find the AIPER Seagull 1000 is stuck to my pool’s floor skimmer, 9 out of 10 times. Since that is 9 ft away from the edge of my pool, directly in the center of the deep end, I’ve had to use my pool brush to snag the floating handle, then pull to the side of the pool for retrieval. Otherwise, It’s a lovely unit that is very enjoyable to watch it do it’s job. I give it 9 out of 10, and hope to see more from AIPER in my future.