Aiper Scuba V3 Ultra

The Scuba V3 Ultra is Aiper's most expensive robot, and Aiper calls it 6-in-1: it cleans the floor, walls and waterline, skims the water's surface, works shallow ledges down to about 8 inches, which Aiper calls sun shelves, and carries a chlorine tablet holder. Aiper's US store listed it at $1,999.99 against $2,299.99 when this page was checked.

What it cleans, and where

Aiper rates it for concrete, fiberglass, vinyl and stone pools up to 3,875 square feet, about 66 feet long. The manual gives a working depth of 0.66 to 10 feet. That shallow minimum is what sets it apart: Aiper gives 1.6 feet for the V3, S3, X1 and S1.

The manual is firm on one limit. The V3 Ultra is for permanently installed pools only, not storable ones, meaning any pool built to be taken down and put back up.

Navigation is by two cameras and an ultrasonic sensor, and Aiper says the camera images are processed on the robot, with nothing uploaded. In shallow areas, cliff sensors stop it driving off an edge.

Runtime

The manual gives up to 240 minutes of floor cleaning. Aiper's store gives up to 480 minutes skimming the surface, and its product page says 8 hours of surface cleaning, so the long figures are for skimming, not scrubbing. The battery is 10,300 mAh, and a recharge takes about 4.5 hours on the dock.

The robot starts in All-in-One mode, which does the floor, the walls and the surface in sequence, scrubbing the waterline on the way up the walls. The button also selects Floor, Skimming and a custom mode, and the app adds more.

The chlorine tablet holder

The cartridge comes fitted. You add one 3-inch chlorine tablet, which is not included, and set how fast it dissolves. The manual's own water limits still apply, and they cap chlorine at 4 ppm. A tablet riding around in the robot is one more thing to check your test results against, not a reason to test less.

Setting it up

• Place the dock at least 11.5 feet from the pool, out of direct sun, and never on an extension cord.
• Turn the pool pump off before a run. The manual says to, so the robot cannot get held on the main drain, and not to run it alongside a filter, another cleaner or a skimmer.
• Let it sit for 3 minutes the first time you switch it on. It runs an air-pressure test.
• Keep it out of freezing weather. The manual says it is not protected against freezing.

When it finishes, it rises to the surface near where it went in. If it does not, the retrieval hook goes on a pool pole.

Cleaning and maintenance

• Empty the filter box after every cycle. The manual says to take the robot out and clean it right away.
• Replace the MicroMesh filter about every 30 uses. Aiper calls it a consumable.
• Clean the propeller, the surface float and impeller, the surface hatch, the cameras and the sensors when they need it. The manual has a section on each.
• Store it charged. Clean and dry it, power it off, and recharge it every six months over the winter.

When it is not cleaning properly

The manual's troubleshooting table, in short:

• Tilts in the water, or cleans poorly: the filter box is full or the filter is clogged. Empty it, and rinse the filter hard.
• Flashing red light: the propeller may be jammed. Check it for debris before calling Aiper.
• Stuck in one place, or going in circles: dirty sensors, the main drain holding it, or a complicated pool layout. Clean the sensors, keep the drain shut, or start it from a different spot.
• Hangs at the waterline: a bump at the waterline the sensor missed. It sinks back down on its own within a minute.
• Sits at the wrong angle on the surface, or the surface hatch will not open: clear the surface impeller or the hatch, and turn each by hand to check it moves.
• Will not charge: it is not seated on the dock, the charger is faulty, or the battery is too hot or too cold. Charge it between 38°F and 113°F.

Where Aiper's own documents disagree

• Warranty. The manual says 36 months and the store badge three years. The store's FAQ says 2 years, and Aiper's warranty table does not list the V3 Ultra.
• The debris inlet. Aiper's product page says 1 inch; the store says 1.1 inches.
• The manual itself. Its troubleshooting table calls low battery a solid red light, where its light table says solid yellow. It tells you to switch to an Eco mode it never describes.

Buying it

Aiper's warranty covers robots bought from Aiper or an authorized seller, and its published list of US sellers includes Amazon.com. Keep the order number: Aiper's warranty form will not take a claim without proof of purchase. For a Caddy owner, the manual's dock steps are replaced by the Caddy's own installation guide.