Dolphin Sigma Robotic Pool Cleaner with Wi-Fi, Gyroscope, and Massive Top-Load Cartridge Ultra-Fine and Standard Filters, Ideal for Pools up to 50 Feet

My pool was built 3 years ago and it came with a Pentair robot (not sure if this is a rebranded Dolphin, but I think it might be), and it has done ok, but finally just quit working entirely. The warranty was expired by 5 months, so I had to get a new one. I have had an old Roomba house vacuum, and if you've had one you know they just wander around aimlessly and they miss a lot of the floors. Then I got a newer robot home vacuum that maps out the house, and the difference was enormous. The new one does an excellent job, while the old one was just ok. That is the same difference between the pool robot that came with my pool versus the Dolphin Sigma. This thing is not just wandering around, it knows where it's been and it knows where it still needs to go. Not only that, but it scrubs the tile line, which the cheaper ones do not, and that is really important. I love that the app can schedule which days you want to clean and what time, and it notifies you when it finishes cleaning. I use the fine filters, and they always pick up a lot. When this thing finishes running, my pool looks great. I never need to sweep with this thing. It does it for me. It's not cheap, but it's the best. All the reviews I read pointed toward this one being the clear winner, the only exception is if you have a lot of leaves, the Premier might be better because it has a large bag to hold leaves. But I have no trees in my yard, so I get pine needles from the neighbors trees and whatever the wind blows in. But I didn't need the extra leaf storage, so I went with the Sigma. Also I don't think the Premier has wifi or an app. Anyway, if you are on the fence but you want the best pool vac on the market today, go for it. You won't be disappointed.

I bought the Dolphin Sigma in 2023 and it feels like it has been in the shop as much as the pool. It initially started out okay with quick and easy setup. Cleaning was adequate if not exceptional. Unfortunately, started to have issues with loss of power to the machine. You can forget about talking to anyone to assist and any response you get will be over emails. It had to be sent in for repairs and Maytronics requires the buyer to pay for shipping, which is north of $100. Also, this process will take at least two weeks. Reportedly was the cable. It worked for a few months and then exact same issue. It went pack to the shop for repairs. This time reportedly was the power supply box. It again worked for a few months and again stopped working. This time it thinks it is out of the pool despite it is not. I have emailed/submitted report to Maytronics but as of this writing still no response. I'm done with this machine. The expensive, lack of support and only adequate cleaning is not worth the hassle. Save yourself the headaches.

This isn't a cheap product by any means, so my expectations were pretty high. I previously had an AquaBot Elite for the last 3 years, which worked pretty well until one of the motors decided to stop working...conveniently just as the warranty expired. Don't get me wrong, the AB Elite was overall a good product...but this Sigma seems far superior. While I'm only 1 week into my ownership of the Sigma, it's noticeably better than my AB Elite in: 1. Suction power - My AB Elite would tend to skip around the pool floor when it stopped and started (or turned) because its suction wasn't powerful enough compared to its drive motor. The Sigma never loses contact with the pool floor. And, I see it sucking more debris into itself that's not directly in its path...something I didn't notice much with the AB Elite. 2. Getting stuck - I haven't seen the Sigma get stuck once yet. It put itself into a strange position on my pool steps where I was sure it would "turtle" on its back and I'd have to reset it. Nope! It corrected itself very quickly. My AB Elite would often struggle and get stuck at inside and outside corners of my pool wall and floor. It would take up to 10 minutes to correct itself, just sitting there spinning. Because the Sigma has 4 independent spinning brushes that allow it to turn in a full circle, it easily maneuvers and climbs walls at any angle. 3. Brushing the waterline - The Sigma is very impressive here as compared to my AB Elite. When it climbs and cleans the waterline, it typically goes 3-4 feet in one direction (and sometimes back again). It's very thorough. My AB Elite seemed to get lazy here and in some cycles, I noticed it didn't clean the waterline much at all. I'll be interested to see if the Sigma continues this same output over time. 4. Remote control - I didn't have remote with my AB Elite...because I didn't purchase that function. With the Sigma, the Remote App works pretty well. Like others have said, you do have to stand close to the power supply box because the Bluetooth isn't very strong. It also takes a little getting used to as there is a bit of lag between your input and response from the machine. But, overall, it's a cool feature for a quick spot clean. 5. Filters - I first ran the Sigma with the pre-installed "normal" mesh filters because I had some leaves and larger debris. Within the first 2.5 hr cycle, my pool was spotless. I then decided to run a second cycle immediately after with the Ultra Fine (corrugated) filters to see what else the Sigma would pick up. It was very impressive how much fine particles were trapped. I can see how normal maintenance with these filters can save you on chemicals. I really don't have any criticism of the Dolphin Sigma at this time. It seems like a great product and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a robotic pool cleaner. I did a ton of research before buying and am always skeptical of these cleaners because there are so many variations out there, and every manufacturer has many options.

I fully expected to return this after 30 days. Now it has been in daily use for a full year. My pool is fresh water with no chemicals. Filtered with plants and bacteria in the biofilter pond and stream. The liner is EPDM rubber which can be very slick if not cleaned daily. I was cleaning about 90 minutes a day with a portable pool vacuum that is very efficient. but I've cleaned pools all of my work life (50 years) and that was just more than I want to do so I looked into these robot cleaners thinking that at least it might cut down on the scrubbing and save me a little time. Long story short, I now only use the portable vac about every 4 months. The water stays crystal clear and the liner gets 98% scrubbed every day. there are a few issues I've had with this Dolphin Sigma. Twice it has picked up a small rock and one of the treads came off. Once that meant I needed to take the machine apart to repair it the other time I just put the tread back on. the biggest problem I have is the software. The manual drive on the smartphone ap is ridiculously unresponsive. There are 4 functions forward, reverse, left and right. Sounds okay but with the delay in reaction and not knowing how far it will move or turn it is a constant guessing game and quite frustrating. By the way you can only make one action at a time i.e. you can't turn a little while moving in forward or reverse. Also it is obvious that it is not following any course, the movement around the pool is 100% random it runs long enough to randomly go over the entire surface so it does a pretty good cleaning job. Finally, climbing walls: when the foam climbing wheels are clean, the pool is virtually algae free and the filters are freshly cleaned it climbs and cleans amazingly well. The filter clean fast and use a minimum of water (wash in the opposite direction of the filter flow. For some reason they show rinsing off in the same direction in all of the advertising but that doesn't clear the filter.) I hope that they will improve the software. Updates would be nice and if improved I will definitely buy another when this one wears out.

I made the initial purchase of the Dolphin Premier through Terra Direct. The transaction was very smooth and shipping was quick. After running the Premier through its paces for almost a month, I wasn’t quite satisfied with the performance. It seldomly climbed the walls which is an important feature on my checklist. My pool is a 20k Pebble Tec with balanced chemistry. The pool was given a thorough brushing and it still will seldomly climb the walls. It also seemed sluggish moving around the pool. Filters were cleaned after each use (used the nano and standard fine filter). Didn’t have much use for the leaf filter although it has a very impressive capacity. After I gave the Premier what I thought was a fair chance, I reached out to Terra Direct for suggestions. They quickly responded and suggested the Dolphin Sigma which is considered an upgrade for the difference of around $100 USD at the time of writing. They confirmed there will be no restocking fee and the warranty is longer for the Sigma. After returning the Premier and receiving the Sigma, I immediately noticed a huge difference in power and cleaning capability with the extra commercial-grade motor. It also climbed the walls and did so very frequently and with much power. The app functions well and I mostly use it to manage the cleaning schedule or to start additional cleanings if needed. I tested the remote-controlled manual feature and it worked as expected (there’s latency, but it’s usable). I purposely didn’t brush a section of my pool wall to test the cleaning capability and I was satisfied to see how well the Sigma scrubbed the buildup. I was also impressed at how much dirt was captured in the nano filters. Accessing the filters is much easier vs the Premier since it’s top loaded on the Sigma. One thing to point out is if you’re using the nano filters, clean them after every use. If your pool is clean, you can get away with two passes max. Dirty nano filters will cause a significant pressure/suction drop and the Sigma will not climb or partially climb the walls. All you need is a garden hose with a spray nozzle and the dirt will be washed right off. It only takes about 5 minutes. Lifting the Sigma out of the water can be on the heavier side if you attempt to lift it directly out of the water but if you lift it to the top of the water, grab it by its handle, take advantage of the buoyancy and gradually let it drain before fully pulling it out of the water, it will make things easier. Lastly, it will not clean tanning ledges, although I’ve seen it climb stairs. You will still need to brush off the ledges and stairs but in the grand scheme of things, that labor is minor compared to the time and money you will spend on hired pool help. In summary, the Sigma has passed my critical expectations and I’m completely satisfied in this investment which will pay itself off in less than a year. But most importantly, the time saved and to be saved in the future is priceless. I hope this review gives you the confidence to purchase the Sigma and saves you time and possibly money with trial and error/restocking fees.

We had 2 dolphin 4 pool robots over the last 9 years. They did a great job. This one is better. The cartridges are so much easier to clean and replace. This morning our pool was full of leaves and dead stems and branches. I was skeptical that the cartridge system could handle it. It did with no problem, just had to empty it after two hours the first two cycles. It was pretty weighted down as it was the first cleaning after a 5 month Arizona winter. We have a 45,000 gallon pool (24x52) and the robot cleaned the entire pool in 8 hours. Tomorrow I'll swap in the super fine filter boxes for an deeper clean. 3 year warranty plus a 3 year extended warranty. This robot will be on the job for a long time. No more pulling on the wire. The app works great and I can manually steer the robot to a shallow edge and lift it right out! Great suction. Smart coverage, nimble navigation, deep clean!

I have another brand automatic cleaner which works off my pool pump. It does a decent job but I have some issues with it in that it was missing areas and not picking up fine debris. The Dolphin was recommended by someone who said it did a great job. I have a 16X36 foot pool and it is typically clear to the bottom after the initial startup but I was having a problem with what I believe was dead algae on the pool bottom and my original cleaner would seem to pick it up but a short time later, the dirt would reappear. I decided to go with the Dolphin based on the recommendation that I had received. Well it did pick up what I believed to be dead algae and was easy to clean but I found that after running it for a complete cycle it still missed a section which was in the center of the low end of the pool. I ran a 2nd cycle but it still missed some of that area. My biggest concern and the reason for only giving an overall rating of 2 stars, is that it regularly gets hung up on top of the main drain, which is turned off so it is not due to the suction of the drain. As a result, I cannot trust the Dolphin to do a thorough job of cleaning the entire pool since it seems to want to spend most of its time sitting in one spot. Seems like poor design to me since I would imagine that most pools have a main drain and would run into the same problem.

I'm conflicted writing this review. On one hand, this robot cleaned my pool far better than the pool service ever did. On the other, it only lasted 4 weeks. I spent a lot of time researching the best cleaner to buy. I wanted a more expensive cordless unit, but ended up with the Sigma because 1) corded robots have stroger motors, allowing them to filter through finer filters and to more effectively climb walls, 2) it was strongly recommended by reviewers on Amazon and YouTube, and 3) it comes with a 3-year warranty. Pros: 1) This robot (we named it Petri) cleans the pool very thoroughly, including up the walls. Using the fine filter definitely got the pool cleaner, but using the ultra fine filter cleaned my pool of fine sands, dirt, and quite a bit of pollen. My pool is visibly clearner. 2) Ease of use. Drop the robot in the pool, turn it on, and let it go. It's not a smart robot, so to scrub the entire pool takes several tries. But it filters water fast enough to make the water celan on virtually every use. When it's done, simply pull it back out of the pool to store. Each time I used it, it returned to a wall before stopping, so I never had to fish it from the middle of the pool. Had it been in the middle, though, the app lets you steer the unit to a place where it's easier to pull from the pool. Con. I used this robot a total of eight times. When I went to clean the pool the ninth time, it simply refused to power on. Whenever I finshed cleaning, I'd pull Petri from the pool, wrap the floating cord on the stand, unplug it from the wall, then cover it. I had it stored next to the house, under an eave, and under a tree. I can find no reason it quit. It just...didn't work. I struggled with the rating. On the one hand, it cleaned my pool better than I've seen it in eight years with a pool service. On the other had, it's inexcusable for a $1600 item to fail so early. It failed on the last day I was eligible for a refund. I sent it back for a refund. I'm trying to decide whether to repurchase because it cleaned so well. Maybe it was just an outlier in quality. But maybe it wasn't. For now, three stars is the best I can do.