Solar Breeze – Automatic Pool Cleaner NX2 Cleaning Robot

Less than a week in using this guy. But I'm impressed. (Which is not easy.) This is literally the Roomba for any pool. It's amazing. We have many Oak trees and one River Birch surrounding our pool. The river birch is actually in our front yard, but somehow it just continually drops leaves that end up in the pool all year round. As a result we've constantly had to manually scoop out a crap-ton of leaves floating on the surface with that long awkward pole net every weekend. Well not any more! Within 2 days of owning this product I can honestly say we will never spend another weekend straining to get all the leaves out of the pool before actually enjoying it. It stops leaves from getting into the skimmers as well as from sinking to the bottom for the Polaris to clean up. I suspect that it alone will reduce the stress on my entire pool system. The last time I went to empty the easy-to-reach basket underneath, there were like 3 leaves in it. It is solar powered so it just runs on its own all of the time. NO FUSS. JUST WORKS. A very good purchase with much value for the cost. I don't know about longevity, but if it ever breaks I'll replace it immediately. 2020 UPDATE: After just over a year of continuous value our NX2 is showing signs of age, as the gears on the main motor seem to be slipping suddenly. I was prepared to immediately by another one but found the "RX for NX" service and repair site that offers a complete refurbishing, plus shipping boxes and labels. All included, around $200.00 US. Don't be put off by the eBay-only looking checkout. There is a guest checkout flow that accepts credit and debit cards. This is now a must-have pool maintenance product for us. We have completely stopped using the Polaris to remove bottom debris, and as such save money by not turning on our booster pump at all. It has saved us so much time and money in just over 13 months, and greatly improves the pool experience overall. Plus, it's Green! I wish every product lived up (and exceeded) its promise like this little guy. - Steve

This thing worked GREAT...for 4 months. Then the front propeller and front wheels stopped turning. Now it just moves the debris around the pool, pushing it out of its way--without sucking it inside. I will try to contact the seller and see if they can help, then might update this review. Too bad, because it was truly wonderful while it worked. UPDATE: We paid $25 to send the robot to the manufacturer, and they handled the shipping arrangements and made the entire experience easy. It took 2 weeks to get the robot back, and it was like new. They also gave us updates on the repair, ship date, and ETA. We are very impressed. Upgrading from 2 to 4 stars. This machine is AMAZING at cleaning off the pool surface. We get a lot of windy days in the winter and it used to take up to an hour after coming home from work to clear off the pool by hand. But now it is just a 2 minute job to empty the robot's debris tray and that's it! Well worth the money. Fantastic product, and company. If the robot continues to perform, we will upgrade to 5 stars. UPDATE #2: Just 13 months since the first time we had to send it in for repairs, it has stopped working again--17 months from initial purchase. Since it is now out of warranty, it will cost $125 for repair according to the manufacturer. For the price of this product, we had hoped to at least get two years out of it, but it has completely shut down twice in under 2 years. Changing our rating from 4 stars to 1. UPDATE #3: This company is AMAZING! So, they shipped us a BRAND NEW unit that is operating perfectly--FREE of charge. All they asked was that we pay to ship back the first unit. AND, they have a newer model coming out soon that they will let us buy at a discount when available. We are SO pleased. The only thing that outshines this company's customer service is how fantastically their machine cleans our pool. Changing rating to 5 stars.

Update: I love the Solar function and it cleans well however my pool has a lot of rock overhangs so this bot constantly got stuck. Company at first was great and worked with me in 2018 and 2019. Sent me an attachment to stop the rock jams but even Gorilla glue and the pieces constantly came off and I was constantly fishing them out of my pool. It also STILL got stuck under or on the rocks. We live in Las Vegas where we have a lot of Palm trees. Thin twine-like pieces wrapped around the inside of front paddle wheel. Eventually the cheap plastic cogs strip and front motor dies. Company sent me another but again the cogs stripped and front paddle wheel stopped turning along w front wheels which basically renders it useless. Company again sent me a 3rd bot! I felt badlynfor being such a difficult test case but I was patient and thought maybe "we can figure this out together"! Since I was home this past year I was diligent every 2 weeks to open up bot (which is no easy task with a special type of star screw and 20 screws to loosen and take out) to carefully clean the tons of twine around paddle wheel. I got so good at this I could do it pretty fast! However, a huge wind storm came, a hard stick got stuck in paddlewheel. I rushed to get it out as soon as I heard a funny noise but alas it stripped the cogs once again and now paddle wheel won't turn. This time the company is hard to get ahold of via telephone and email saying it's due to Covid and won't ever answer their phone or call me back. I feel like if I possibly have a perfectly simple pool with very few trees and debris the bot might work great but for me it just did not work for no lack of trying! Even in one email she suggested the newer Betta solar pool bot which I purchased to try. Not only was it cheaper than the NX2 but so far it is working great! Basket for debri is huge and it doesn't get stuck because it has 2 propulsion jets in the back and it's powerful! Look for my review of this product. I usually don't write long reviews but thought if this helps some of you to make your decision then I've helped. I can't tell you how many people have bought this bot because of me! I'm still trying to return this 3rd bot back to the company to be fixed but the company won't even respond now. Beware as their current customer service is nil.

I have upped my review to 5 stars after several months of use. My pool is a lot cleaner, there is a lot less material on the surface, in the skimmer, and on the floor with the Solar Breeze working. After a nice sunny day it will run all night on its stored charge picking up material that would otherwise sink to the bottom overnight. Even on partly cloudy days it gets enough charge to run most of the night into the earlyl morning. It's easy to clean, is not bothered by rough water caused by swimmers, and it just continues on doing its thing. 1. It doesn't play well with automatic pool cleaner hoses. It tends to climb up on them and get stuck. After removing a couple of floats from the hose and repositioning others there is no problem. 2. It seems to work well at keeping the surface clean of debris that does not make it to the regular skimmer. Therefore the debris does not sink to the pool bottom. Since my pool cleaner does not reach the shallow end as much as the deep end due to the bottom slope, I used to always have lots of leaves on the shallow end bottom. The Solar-Breeze NX2 seems to be correcting that. It will take some more time in operation to be sure, but the initial results seem promising. After some very helpful discussions with Denis at Solar Breeze, I removed 4 floats from my pool sweep hose. Now the Solar Breeze NX2 does not get stuck and can actually drive over those parts of the hose that are just barely floating. The response from the company was immediate and very helpful, and we had in depth discussions of possibilities. 3. I was impressed that the Solar-Breeze NX2 continues to run through most of the night on its stored charge. It often runs past 3 AM when sunset is at 6PM! That's 9 hours of operation with no sun, and it is an important advantage. 4. It runs even on cloudy days (though not as long into the night)!

Updated 8/16/2020: After a year of working nearly non-stop, our NX-2 started to have some issues and was making some grinding noises. I observed that the wheels weren't turning steadily, as if gears were skipping. I contacted customer service for Solar Breeze and they responded quickly. Their helpfulness exceeded expectations. As my robot was still under warranty, the replacement gear platforms and replacement motor were covered. And they arrived quickly. They provided links for DIY videos which I could absorb and follow along with. They also have the option of shipping it back to them to allow them to complete the repairs. I'd have to pay for the shipping, though. And I'd be without the unit for some time. I opted to do it myself with their parts. A few months later I was having similar problems. This time, in addition to sending replacements for the gear platforms, they had me send photos of y pool so they could see where the robot gets hung-up. This is because they have some custom fixes. So along with the gear platforms, they provided a Rock Stop which was to keep my robot from getting stuck under the area of the pool where the leaf skimmer would be. A simple design, and easy to affix to the robot. Again, their customer service is attentive to detail and follows with what they say. I cannot emphasize enough how important this is in propagating good word-of-mouth and return business. With many companies, it seems like an afterthought. With Solar Breeze, they put their customer service forward. I am very thankful for this. One thing I can recommend, after having this unit for a couple summers: give it a rest from time to time. Don;t run the robot 24/7. Run it before going in the pool. Or perhaps for the afternoon. But let it sleep at night. This will ease the wear-and-tear and provide for an even longer life. And now...my earlier review: We have a pool that collects pine needles and various leaves from our garden. It also tends to get a thin film of dust that floats on the surface. That dust is too fine to be caught by an ordinary leaf skimmer. So we took the plunge and bought this cool robotic skimmer. It does a decent job so far. The trap is easy to remove and clean. It doesn't seem too bothered by our mini waterfall feature from our spa spillover. However... It doesn't play well with our kreepy krawler. We had to take that out of the pool because the NX2 seems to make a beeline for it at every opportunity. Like it has a mind of it's own. What happens is the front end of the NX2 gets hung up on the vacuum tube and kind of follows along the length of it. Sometimes it frees itself. Other times, not. Even though the NX2 has a forward and reverse mode, that's not enough sometimes. So we'll find the NX2 "stuck in the weeds" so to speak. It also seems to get hung up on the leaf canister we have inline with the kreepy krawler. Switching the unit off and then on to "clear" it's memory doesn't help matters. We've seen how the NX2 cleans the surface of the pool and removes most debris. What it misses are any leaves or needles that are at the sides and edges of the pool. Some of them end up in it's path by chance. But most end up staying at the side of the pool. Another quirk is it's tendency to put itself into reverse just as it's arriving at an interesting group of leaves right in it's path which it would've scooped up. I guess it wants to save those for later. It must be a "job security" thing. Overall we are happy with this purchase. We've had it for but a week. It's kind of a novelty still. But we are figuring out how to best use it. It certainly doesn't need to be in the pool 24/7. And it seems to clear the pool surface pretty well over a period of a couple hours. So we'd suggest using it a couple hours before you're going to take a swim. We definitely prefer it over dragging a leaf skimmer over the surface. It's a lot more fun and efficient in that respect. Now we have to see how best to clean the bottom of the pool. We think the krawler's days are numbered now in favor of a different kind of robot. Perhaps the dolphin?

I'm in my second pool season now withe Solar Breeze and my evaluation of it hasn't changed since I first put it into the pool--It's a fantastic product and works exactly as indicated in the description. Our pool is surrounded by trees so we get a lot of surface debris especially at the beginning and end of the season. I was initially worried that the situation would be too much for the Solar Breeze but that is not the case. Even on very windy days it keeps up with everything. And it's impressive how much the debris the skimmer can hold. Yes, you do have to empty it frequently if you have a situation where you have a lot of trees and it's a windy day but the Solar Breeze can hold about the same as the skimmer basket in the pool. On all but the worst days that means I only have to empty it once a day. The solar aspect works surprisingly well too. The only time it doesn't run is overnight, otherwise it's always chugging along. Noteworthy too is that when I took it out of being in storage over the winter, when I first turned it on it went right to work. I was expecting it would need some recharge time but no. I used to keep my pool running longer than I wanted just to make sure the surface debris went into the skimmers but now I only run my pump minimally as the Solar Breeze keeps the surface clean without fail. Caveats: 1. You may need to keep your pool water level higher than you did before to prevent the Solar Breeze from getting stuck between the coping and water depending on your pool. 2. It will get tied-up/caught in the pool cleaner hose (e.g., Polaris) if the cleaner is in pool at same time and it's not running, i.e., when the hose is just laying there stationary.

I have had my Solar Breeze NX2 for 7 months now and it saved me a world of cleaning. I am surrounded by Oak trees and we just went through the peak pollen season. For those who know, it is a mess! From the larger pollen pods to the fine grain, the NX2 just skimmed away all day and night. I did learn however not to wait more than a day to empty the tray. It needed emptied twice a day during the 2 weeks of green cloud. On a regular basis I can go a few days without cleaning the screen. It does work best if you keep that screen clean though. I have recently added a pool skimmer but it alone doesn't quite get the far end of the pool, especially when the winds are blowing away from it. With the NX2 cruising all over the pool there is no problem whatsoever. I have had to have a service performed on it at about the 3 month mark. The wheels on the front stopped working. Customer Service quickly responded to my email and I sent the unit in for repair. It did take a couple weeks to get it back, but when it arrived it was all cleaned up and ready to go. Also, I recently had all the rubber wheels chewed off by my Lab. Ugh... I was reluctant to contact customer service because I knew it was my fault but I reached out anyways to see what I could do. I received an immediate response the next morning and the extremely courteous representative took care of me stat. Outstanding Customer Service! I love my NX2. It is in the pool 24/7, rain or shine. Cheers

I bought Solar Breeze NX2 Robotic Solar Powered Pool Cleaner in July 2017, and for 3 months it worked relatively well. It did help reduce the amount of leaves and dead bugs I would have had to skim out of my pool manually. However the unit did not cover the entire pool very well; my pool is a rectangular shape 15 ft. x 30 ft. and the unit seems to spend most of the time around the perimeter instead of covering the entire area. After 3 months of about 10 hours per day usage, the unit stopped working. The rear wheel stopped spinning, and the unit just stayed in one place spinning the front wheel. I requested a replacement unit from the seller, BackyardPoolSuperstore, but my request was totally ignored. Instead, only 50% of the cost was refunded. I do see a lot of good reviews this unit, but I also see other reviews with the same problem I have (unit stops working after a few months). So while the good reviews indicate a decent product, the issue a few other customers and I have indicates quality issue with this product. Therefore, I wouldn't recommend it.