Betta SE Plus – Solar-Powered Robotic Pool Skimmer with 24/7 Continuous Cleaning Power, Dual Charging Options, Twin Salt Chlorine Tolerant Motors, and Shallow Water Safeguard

Some up front info…I live in AZ and have a lot of mature trees in the yard including palms, 60′ pines, and 75′ eucalyptus trees. If you have experience with those you know how much litter they drop. In the spring we get a massive amount of leaves, needles, bark, and pollen in the yard. And when that stuff sits in the pool, yep, it turns green.As a result I would find myself skimming our 40×20 pool a few times a day trying to stay ahead of the algae. Enter the Betta! I purchased the Plus model which includes a plug-in charger as well as solar.Charging: From the moment I dropped this in the pool I have been thoroughly impressed. In AZ we get a lot of sun and this robot dutifully runs 24×7 – all day AND all night just from the solar charge. We did have a couple of cloudy days and sure enough it ran out of charge overnight on those days. So it definitely needs a lot of sun if you want uninterrupted performance. If you get clouds, make sure you get the Plus with the plug-in option.Performance: in a word, outstanding. When the robot is running I have only needed to skim out large clumps of needles or large debris a couple of times. The Betta handles everything else with ease. What I’ve noticed is the bot crisscrosses the pool, but frequently runs along the walls into the corners. This is perfect because that’s where debris ultimately accumulates. Cleanup is easy – just empty and spray out the filter basket – a 3 minute job.For me the results are perfect.Each morning the surface is glassy and its 99% clean all day long. Excellent little machine and worth the expense – especially if you get a lot of debris in the pool. I also purchased the 3 year extended warranty through Betta since this is going to get a lot of use. It’s been running for about 8 weeks and no issues to report.UPDATE – it’s now September and we’re just about done with monsoon season here. The Betta has had a busy summer and it performed flawlessly the entire season. We also returned from a 12 day trip where I left the Betta in the pool. I knew it would get overworked and when we returned the Betta was sitting and flashing red/green. This indicated the propellers were jammed. Sure enough they were jammed with debris. After removing the debris and cleaning it up it’s running perfectly again. So the self-protection auto shutoff worked great. Fantastic design, function, and performance on this machine!