9550 Sport Robotic Pool Cleaner, Automatic Vacuum

I purchased the 9550 Sport about 3 months ago. It is extremely easy to use. When it arrives you have to put together the wheeled carrier assembly it comes with. The assembly is simple. A quick skim of the getting started sheet enables immediate use. I have found that the robot performs best when you select either wall scrub only or floors only. If you pick both, it seems to waste time moving between the two. Also, the robot comes with a general purpose removable/reusable filter. The filter is super easy to remove, rinse out, and put back in for the next use. Here is where the condition comes in. The general purpose filter will NOT pick up ultra fine silt, dirt, or sand. It was not designed to do so. It WILL do an awesome job scrubbing and collecting everything else. When using the general purpose filter, any ultra fine silt/dirt will get collected but then get pushed thru the filter and shoot out the back with the exhaust water. In doing so, it will settle back down to the floor of your pool. HOWEVER, if you turn your pool filter system on high while the robot is operating, any fine silt/dirt that is stirred up will get removed from the pool by your pool filter system. With this combination it does an amazing job!!! I have recently bought the ultra fine silk replacement filter to try out. I suspect I will not need to turn on the pool filter system any more while the robot is in use. Since the general purpose filter in the robot and my pool filter system together are doing so well, I have not tried it yet. This replacement filter is very, very fine material. I suspect it will reduce the water flow through the robot considerably, causing the robot to be less effective overall. I have read other customer reviews that the ultra fine filter can tear more easily, since the water pressure on it is so great and it is very constrictive.

We ordered the Polaris 9550 pool cleaner after having an Aquabot T2 (which is also a good piece of equipment). We went with this model because of the remote control and good reviews from another web site. So far I really like this machine. Yes, it is largely plastic, but with a salt water pool, that's what I need. This is the easiest pool robot we have used in the 11 years of having a large, inground, fiber glass pool. Our pool is 40x16x8, and the Polaris cleans the entire pool in about 1.5 hours. Our pool has some rounded bump out areas that are hard for any robot to get to, but the 9550 does pretty good. It cleans the tiles up to the water line, does the stairs, and the seats in the corners. Occasionally, I use the remote to get missed spots. These pool cleaners are never going to be 100% perfect, so don't expect the robot to do the job you would if you hand vacuumed. However, the Polaris 9550 does an excellent job. Here are some tips: 1. Take care of the cord. If it tangles, unwind it every time. Even the Aquabot cord would occasionally get twisted. It's not a big deal. Just stay on top of it. Wrap it appropriately and put it on the cart after using. 2. The cart is lightweight and plastic. Treat it like a piece of your favorite china. Store it out of the elements and keep it clean. I really like the ease of use with the cart. And it's included in the price. 3. I ordered the sand and silt filter, but the filter that comes with the robot does a really good job. 4. Be patient with the remote. It takes a bit to get used to. 5. The power lift system is a great feature. When you are done cleaning the pool, you push a button and the Polaris 9550 rises to the surface. Let the water drain into your pool before pulling the cleaner out of the water. Makes it less heavy. 6. When I put the cleaner into the water, I remove excess air by turning the device upside down for a few seconds until the air bubbles completely escape. This ensures the robot sinks to the bottom of the pool. 7. Always clean your filter after every use. Simply hose them down to remove debris, Overall, I would buy this again. Super easy to use, a lot of good features, and does a good job.

I bought this cleaner after much research in August of 2019. I like that it is electric, not requiring the pump to run, which greatly facilitates closing the pool. I used it for maybe two months before the pool was closed. In began opening my pool the following April. After a few weeks of flawless functioning, I suddenly had an Error Code #10. I troubleshooted this with the manual and online resources. Finally I called tech support. I spent a lot of time on hold and finally reached a tech, who agreed I had done all of the tests he would have recommended. He offered two local Leslie's Pool supplies stores as service centers. I took it to them. It took 6 weeks to be serviced (Leslie's blamed Zodiac for parts delays). They called me today, stating they had tested the unit in their pool after replacing the motor, and that the unit worked perfectly. I picked the unit up, brought it home, hooked it up and pressed the start button. I did not get the error code. Everything looked fine. Only, the unit would not move more than a cm or two. It would not clean the pool. I video'd the behavior and will try to upload the video here. I contacted Leslie's and they told me to contact Zodiac again. I am hoping they do the right thing and replace the unit. In the mean time, I am nearing the end of my one year warranty and have manually cleaned my pool for weeks during a particularly heavy pollen season. When vacuuming pollen into the pump, one must replace the cartridges nearly every day. The pool cleaner would have avoided this. For now, I give the cleaner good marks for when it works (although the remote is not very useful). I give an overall 1 star for poor longevity and will change this if Zodiac fixes my issue expeditiously. Otherwise, I would say not to waste your money.

Alright, so I've only tried a couple of pool robots. I prefer these fully autonomous units rather than suction side type units which have no intelligence to them. In addition to this unit, I've tried the Dolphin Nautilus. Both the Dolphin and this Polaris F9550 cleaned my pool equally well. In the case of either robot, my pool is spotless in about 2 hours. I have a 20,000 gallon pool and it's rectangular. Neither robot cleaned the stairs at all. I have short steep stairs, and I'm sure that has something to do with it. I just brush the stairs off with my pool brush and and ensure I keep the jets on the stairs turned on and its not an issue. I've had this unit for 4 months now and I waited to review because I wanted to ensure it continued to perform well. It's easy to clean as well, just pop the filter out and hose it off. The remote is handy if you want to grab a spot the machine missed, or if something falls in before you take the robot out. The remote is mostly a gimmick, but it works well, especially for removing the robot from the pool. I use the remote to steer the robot to the side of the pool I want to remove it from, then I hit the easy lift button to remove it from the pool. The caddy is great. I live in FL and I need to remove the robot from the pool and bring it inside daily, due to lightning. Cons - The filter does feel fragile, but it hasn't broken on me yet. I imagine you'll need to replace this yearly, but I haven't gotten there yet. Update August 2022 - Robot still works great. Expect to replace the filter each season. It will gum up and ruin the performance of the machine eventually especially if your water is hard. I run the robot about once per week. In a tropical climate so the season is about 8 months.

Feel free to check other reviews for specific info - I'm not here to regurgitate, just here to give a quick overview. I've used an old Polaris 380 previously, but it finally aged out and it was a bother handling the booster pump it required. Now the time has come that it's my turn to age out, and I'm tired of being the pool boy! So little robot it is. It's a solid, quality unit. Is it perfect? No. I had hoped the intervening years would really up the game over the 380, but honestly I'd say it's par. It will leave some leaves (see what I did there?) and miss a few corners, in spite of using the aggressive mode and doubling the cleaning time. So if I want a pristine pool I still have to drag out the hose, the pole, the in-line strainer, block the furthest skimmer, and toy with a finicky diverter valve. But...it's only a spot cleaning and not the torture of slowly dragging every inch of a 38000 gallon pool. So that's a win. It comes with a little bitty remote that you can use to point to the 9550, and direct it to move around the pool to hit a missed spot, or surface at a particular area. I've never gotten it to work, even after re-initializing it to the mother ship. Maybe I'm missing something. I have to fiddle with it some more. EDIT AFTER FIDDLE: Okay, I thought the remote would work after it finished its cleaning cycle and the unit powered down. I was wrong. The remote will work fine as long as there’s power to the caddy unit. So point your little remote to direct it to a spot during the cleaning cycle, or interrupt it and yell SURFACE! SURFACE! It will behave as expected. I have to say I am super impressed with the waste basket. It has a really fine mesh that captures everything it sucks up, and boy is it a pleasure to clean. Rinse it with a hose and it's pristine. It takes seconds. Light years ahead of the old 380 bag. Kudos to Polaris on that one. TL;DR It's a lot of money, it's relatively easy to use (barring coiling up 70' of thick power cord - but that's not the unit's fault), it does yeoman work, but it isn't perfection. I'd rather watch it while holding a cold one, than vacuuming myself.

Despite being very expensive, we are happy with the purchase. We live in the desert southwest, so did have to buy an additional ultra fine sand/silt filter canister to get our pool sparkling. This is our 2nd Polaris unit. Our first (we inherited from former owners) eventually needed new parts and a new power/cord which are - ouch! - expensive. We are taking cues from other reviewers - try to only run it in the morning/shade; try to remove it immediately after it finishes and rinse with fresh water, and also keep it stowed out of the sun. Hoping that this will allow the unit to last a long time with parts not eaten from the sun/chemicals. Only complaint is that there are some areas where the vacuum just doesn't go, but a remote is provided to manually send it to those spots. Have a sun hat and a drink in hand, though, because you'll be standing at the side of the pool for a long time. It's a painstaking process because, 1) The vacuum is not the quickest mover and 2) The remote/vacuum communication can be ultra-sensitive or not sensitive enough so it becomes an inexact science to get the unit where you want. Despite the remote situation, the combination of the regular filter canister and the ultra-fine sand/silt filter canister have solved most of our problems. We are pleased with the unit and the bottom of our pool is now super clean.

If Apple designed a pool vacuum, this would be it. This is so well designed and engineered and met exactly what I was looking for. I had the old Polaris 360 that finally died and I replaced it 5 years ago with a Polaris robot vacuum. I hated it! It wouldn’t cover the entire pool uniformly, it was hard to take out of the water, it got tangled in the cord every use, etc. So I went back to the water driven Polaris 280 (total junk) but it wasn’t really built for a pool my size and it really never kept up. I recently had to have my liner replaced, and asked them to carry of the 280 with the removed liner. I wanted a robot vacuum that didn’t have an app because my roombas are constantly “fussing” about something. Get sick of the daily notifications, thus, I threw out all pool robots that used an app. This was the highest end model that I could find that didn’t use an app. It works great! Covers the entire pool. Traps leaves and fine particles. It’s easy to take out of the water and empty the filter. I couldn’t be happier, even though I’ve only used it 4 times so far. It has an easy to understand control panel, easy to put together with no tools, and a cart to store and pool the robot. Robots are not meant to stay in the pool like water driven vacuums, so be prepared to remove this after each use. Plus, I want to get as much life out of it as I can considering the expense. If you don’t want to fool with apps, then this is definitely the robot for you. After 6 months: The plastic module that holds the “brain” of the vacuum has completely come apart and cannot be reattached. Therefore, the cart is unusable. I have to bring the vacuum and electric cord out SEPARATELY from the cart and “brain”, and make a second trip to get those vital pieces. In addition, the “+” button on the timer no longer works so I’m stuck with one setting. I purposely chose this model to avoid too much tech, and it still performs well below expectations. I regret my purchase and wish I had gone with Dolphin.

Does a good job cleaning, not great, but good. I have a fiberglass pool that's irregularly shaped. There are a couple of spots it just doesn't get well. Not a real fan of the remote. I've had to re-pair it more than I think I should, and I still don't get it working first try. Seems to be a magic sequence I just haven't figured out yet, no matter how many times I read the manual and watch the video. When using the remote, there's definitely lag from the remote to the cleaner so you have to turn the remote sooner than you think you should. Cool concept, but needs refined. It's not just a point and go remote. Setup was easy. Cleaning it out is easy as well. Does a good job climbing the walls, but isn't able to clean the safety ledge (not sure any cleaners can). Had some shingle sand from my roof from a storm. It really didn't want to pick that up, but it's also not something you normally find in a pool. My biggest problem is the program. It's advertised as a 7 day program. What I assumed is 7 days a week, but the reality is after 7 cycles you have to set a new program. It does not keep going. I'm a set it and forget it guy, but now I have to remember to program the pool cleaner every week. Definitely not a fan, but I will just have to get used to it. I've used their support a few times. Very friendly. First time they sent me a new control unit. I actually think now there wasn't a problem because I now know how the program works. Second time it took a while but they called (used the feature to save my place in the queue and call me back). Unfortunately we got disconnected, but also unfortunately, they didn't call back. Called in and setup a callback later. The guy that called back knew exactly what was going on and explained how the program settings work. Not the news I wanted, but very helpful. Overall, this is a good cleaner. I expect more at this price point, but compared to what else is out there, it's good if you know what you're getting into.

Easy to get running. Features are easy to understand. Does a really good job on our 18 x 36 concrete pool. Clean up of the filter basket is very easy. The one feature that jumps out is the LIFT feature. This guides the robot to the wall of your choice and then it climbs the wall allowing you to easily grab the handle. It purges the water (which reduces the weight of the robot) and once removed, it automatically shuts off. How cool is that? I am very impressed by this equipment.

Works great at keeping the pool clean! If you have a pool, you want one of these!

Received a completely different pool cleaner. The box was clearly too light and the contents didn't match the photos.. Won't be buying a warehouse 'deal' again.

Very easy to assemble and use! Suction power is amazing, even picked up the smallest debris to the paint chips. Painting next year. Our old vacuum broke down. Pool was filthy! Waiting for this new cleaner to arrive! I honestly didn't know how this robot would clean up the dirt! It did! Sparkling pool after one use! Even the pool water color changed! So easy to use! I highly recommend it! The remote is easy to use, point and walk after you press the start button. Easy!!!

Mon troisième été que j'utilise ce robot... toujours parfait