Hey, it’s Ryan from ActuallyUsed. Today we’re putting two flagship cordless pool cleaners head-to-head: the Aiper Scuba X1 Pro Max and the Beatbot AquaSense 2 Pro.
The Aiper comes in at over fifteen hundred bucks. And the Beatbot? Just over two thousand dollars. At these prices, you’d expect them to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to vacuuming and cleaning your pool without you ever having to lift a finger – but that’s not the reality of actually using these robots. I spent a couple weeks using both in our test pool, and let’s just say… I was disappointed. From suction power to daily recharging, let me show you why these robots were a disappointment and which robots I’d recommend instead.
Suction Power
Let’s start with the most important thing—suction. Both companies throw out impressive specs. Aiper advertises about 6,600 GPH of flow, Beatbot claims around 6,500 GPH. Big numbers.
But I don’t take these numbers at face value. If you’ve seen any of my other videos, you know we like to test the robots suction power at the entire. So I broke out the manometer and measured each robot’s suction directly at the intake. The results of my testing were pretty telling.
The Aiper Scuba X1 Pro Max managed around 1.3 PSI when I hooked it up to our testing rig. The Beatbot did a little better at roughly 1.5 PSI. Both are significantly lower than the numbers I’ve gotten on nearly every corded robot.
For context, a corded unit like the Dolphin Premier pulled over 2.2 PSI under the same conditions—about 30 to 40 percent stronger suction.
What does that mean? The corded Dolphin has a stronger pull at the intake, allowing it to vacuum better. But why? The corded design. When compared to the cordless robot, the corded robot gets constant power – allowing it to run its motors at full power for the entire cycle.
When you’re spending this kind of money, you shouldn’t be manually scooping leaves after the robot “cleaned.” But that’s exactly what I found myself doing with a lot of the cordless robots I have tested.
In my testing, cordless typically means one thing: weaker suction. Less suction means less debris gets removed. For the same price or less, a corded cleaner delivers nearly double the vacuum power. That’s a massive difference that I thought I should share.
Battery Life and Daily Recharging
One of the big selling points is that they’re cordless. No power cable sounds nice—until you actually live with these things.
Unlike a Roomba that drives itself to a charging dock, neither of these pool bots can charge themselves. The Aiper runs for about one full cycle (roughly 3 hours) per charge. The Beatbot lasts around 3 hours. After that, the just sit in your pool until you manually fish them out and recharge.
And you have to do this every single day if you want daily cleanings. Trust me, that gets old fast.
In one week with the Beatbot, I had to pull it out and put it on the charging stand 14 times. By contrast, the corded Dolphin Premier I tested could be left in the pool all week and automatically run on a schedule. I only touched it once to clean the filter at week’s end.
The Beatbot floats to the surface when its battery hits 15 percent as a signal to retrieve it, but the window is short. A couple times I missed that brief surfacing and the Beatbot sank right back to the bottom, dead. I then had to drag out the pool hook to snag a heavy, waterlogged robot from the deep end. Not exactly the effortless experience you’d hope for at this price.
The Aiper is heavy too—it’s loaded with a big lithium battery—and hauling it up out of the pool every day was no joy either.
Meanwhile, a corded bot like the Dolphin Sigma or Premier just stays in and does its job every day without needing your intervention. Automation should mean “set it and forget it.” You just simply leave them in the pool 24/7 and let them turn on and run a full cycle every day – without ever having to worry about recharging. Something neither of these robots can do. With these cordless models, it felt like I’d paid a premium to add another daily chore.
Filtration
Suction gets the spotlight, but filtration is just as important. A strong vacuum isn’t much good if the debris passes through the filter and clouds up your water.
The Aiper Scuba X1 Pro Max comes with filter cartridges that Aiper markets as “ultra-fine.” But if you’re familiar with NanoFilters, it isn’t quite the same. It’s not a pleated, high-surface-area filter like you see in Dolphin’s NanoFilter system. But rather more of a cotton-like material. It worked well, but it wasn’t as efficient as the NanoFilters from Dolphin in my testing.
The Dolphin Premier’s NanoFilters—have dense pleats that trap silt and algae at a microscopic level.
Beatbot touts a dual-layer filter basket, but in my tests it didn’t catch much more fine dirt than standard mesh. The fine layer’s openings are still too large, so things like very fine sand and silt went right back into the pool.
After running both robots, I could see dust settled on the pool floor that their filters failed to trap—stuff the Dolphin’s pleated NanoFilter would have captured.
Both the Aiper and Beatbot were pretty disappointing in what filtration they offer. For being a top of the line model from each brand, I would have loved to see more options – but my guess is that they are limited due to the cordless power.
App Control
No high-end gadget is complete without a smartphone app these days. Both robots boast app control and smart features. But here’s the ugly truth: in practice, the apps are mostly useless for these cordless cleaners. Why? Both robots drop the signal as soon as they’re submerged in the water.
The Aiper’s app looks slick and lets you supposedly schedule cleanings or choose modes—but it only works when the robot is out of the water. Yes, really. The moment you submerge the Aiper, it loses connection and the app becomes useless.
I found this out the hard way. I put the cleaner in, decided I wanted to change the mode, opened the app, and… nothing. You can’t connect or adjust anything unless you pull the robot out.
Aiper has this optional “HydroComm” wireless module coming that’s supposed to enable in-water connectivity, but it wasn’t released during my initial tests a few months ago. Basically, Aiper wants you to pay more for a feature that should’ve been standard. That’s a hard pill to swallow.
The Beatbot uses Wi-Fi or Bluetooth that also drops as soon as the robot dives below the surface. Beatbot advertises real-time mapping, stats, and manual steering via the app, but those only work when the unit is at the waterline or doing surface skimming. The second it’s fully submerged, the connection cuts out.
Both apps sound great on paper but fall apart in real usage. You end up with features you rarely use or can’t use when you actually want to.
Meanwhile, the corded Dolphin models either skip the app or do them right. The Dolphin Premier doesn’t bother with an app at all—it just has a weekly smart timer that always works. The Dolphin Sigma does have an app and it stays connected while underwater, thanks to a built-in Wi-Fi module. I could start, stop, and steer the Sigma from my phone even when I wasn’t home. Which after using the Beatbot and Aiper, is something I loved while testing the Sigma.
Navigation and Coverage
Both robots are advertised as all-in-one cleaners—floor, walls, and waterline. On this front, I’ll give credit where it’s due: both can cover your whole pool given enough time.
The Beatbot uses cameras and sensors to map the pool and plan its route. It did manage to climb up and brush along my waterline tile. It didn’t get stuck on the main drain, and it found its way around well enough.
The Aiper also has smart navigation tech—a built-in camera and ultrasonic sensors—that sounds high-tech. In reality, its cleaning pattern looked pretty basic. It went back and forth and climbed the walls.
Both robots did eventually hit most areas of the pool. I’d call coverage acceptable for both. They both scrubbed the waterline when they climbed. So on pure coverage, it’s about a tie.
But here’s the thing: all the AI and camera wizardry didn’t translate to a noticeably cleaner pool than what you’d get with other pool cleaners.
The Bottom Line
After actually using both of these hyped cordless cleaners, my conclusion is clear: neither is the top pick for most pool owners. They’re trying to solve a problem that doesn’t really exist.
Cordless sounds convenient until you realize it comes with major trade-offs. The technology just isn’t there yet to give a battery-powered robot the same muscle and ease-of-use as a quality corded unit. You can’t have it automatically clean every day without recharging it, which is a dealbreaker for me.
Both the Aiper Scuba X1 Pro Max and the Beatbot AquaSense 2 Pro underperform where it truly counts: suction, filtration, and hassle-free operation. They might look futuristic and free you from a power cord, but in exchange you get weaker cleaning, smaller filters, and the new hassle of daily charging and handling.
Meanwhile, corded robots like the Dolphin Premier, Dolphin Sigma, or Dolphin Quantum outperform these fancy cordless models in every category that matters. The corded bots deliver stronger vacuum power—in my tests roughly 30 to 40 percent more suction. They offer superior filtration with options like pleated NanoFilters and large leaf bags. They run on automated schedules without needing you to lug them around. And because they’re continuously powered, they scrub and vacuum at full strength from start to finish.
In daily use, a corded cleaner is just less hassle. No charging stands cluttering your deck. No worrying if you remembered to charge the pool vacuum. No wrestling a waterlogged machine out of the deep end every day.
I appreciate the ambition behind cordless pool cleaners. The Aiper and Beatbot are pushing the envelope, and maybe in a few years we’ll have a cordless robot that truly rivals the corded ones. But today isn’t that day. They feel more like early-generation products than mature replacements for corded robots. They promise a lot with AI this and ultra-whatever that, but when it comes to actually keeping your pool clean with minimal effort, corded robots are still king.
So if you’re considering one of these, my honest take is to save your money. For a fraction of the Beatbot’s price—or around the same cost as the Aiper—you can get a Dolphin Premier, Sigma, or Quantum that will do a better job and make your life easier.
I only recommend products that deliver, and I can’t justify telling you to spend thousands on a cordless cleaner that struggles with its core purpose. Until cordless technology catches up, a high-quality corded robot is the smarter choice.
In the battle of Aiper vs Beatbot, the real winner is a third option: a corded cleaner that actually gets the job done.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll catch you on the next one.
