Maytronics Dolphin Skimmi

This is the first reasonably priced pool surface skimmer that you don't have to pull out of the pool to recharge, the latter burden preventing me from buying one until now. Dolphin's (or Maytronic's) pool skimmer is set and forget except for having to empty the leaf collection basket when it is full. The unit skims off leaves and other floating debris very efficiently. Once debris is captured it does not leak out even when the unit reverses (unlike some other cheaper brands. It follows a random path around the pool but given a couple of days it cleans the whole surface, including any debris stuck to the side of the pool at the waterline. The best thing is that it manages its own power. The whole top surface of the skimmer is a solar panel used to keep the internal battery charged. Upon the sun rising in the morning, the skimmer starts its work. You can vary its behaviour by programming it but the smart option is to program it to work for 20mins and then rest for an hour to recharge unless their is sufficient sunshine to keep on working on sunpower alone. When that sunpower becomes insufficient, it rests for an hour and automatically finds for itself any unshaded part of the pool to rest in to maximise charging rate. We have used it now for 2 months and it works very well. It captures a lot of debris before it sinks to the bottom. Come winter with less sunshine, its efficiency may drop but I think it would still be very useful, just "resting" more of the time. At $850, it is not cheap but appears to be made with quality. If you care about a clean water surface, it is an asset. It is turned on and off via a Bluetooth connection and can be manually steered that way but this appears to be unnecessary - its random path appears to cover a regularly shaped pool (square, rectangle or kidney) quite well. Its only weakness I think is the claimed ability to avoid a cable to a bottom cleaner is valid only if the cable is not moving (ie, the robot is off) - our experience is that it cannot always avoid becoming trapped in a moving cable.