I found this inexpensive robotic pool cleaner’s performance disappointing

Smorobot is a new brand to us, but the manufacturer has seven different robotic pool cleaners already under its belt, including this one, the Smorobot Tank C1. As the name implies, this robot is intended to be a workhorse in the pool, promising a 150-minute runtime and maximum coverage of 2,500 square feet.

The robot measures roughly 12 x 17 x 15 (HxWxL) inches in size and weighs 18 pounds. It’s powered by a 7800mAh battery, which is on the small side for a robot of this size; but in my testing, it was invariably able to exceed its specified running time of 150 minutes, usually by about half an hour.

The robot’s unusual form factor makes for an eye-catching design: An angled front panel with a wide handle dominates the device. In the rear, debris is collected in a quite large filter basket that is accessed via a hatch. Two wide treads power the device, while two spinning brushes in front of the robot sweep leaves and dirt toward the suction unit as it moves along. My test unit was white with blue trim; a white and gray model is also available.

Specifications

A simple power switch on top of the device lets you choose from its two cleaning modes: floor-only (F), or floors and walls (S). The unit is powered through a two-prong charging port that must be covered by a waterproof screwcap when it’s in the water. A simple A/C adapter is included in the box, along with a retrieval hook, required for removing the robot from the pool.

That front panel is distinguished by a long line of status LEDs that run the entire length of the face of the device. The lights in the center indicate the battery status, slowly going dark as the battery drains to nothing, then re-illuminating in reverse one it’s plugged in. Lights on the side offer an indication of what the robot is doing: red lights indicate something is stuck, white lights suggest it’s moving or turning one way or the other.

There’s not a lot of point to these indicators, however, as they are difficult to see when the robot is in the water. If the robot is stuck on something, there’s a much more obvious way to tell than trying to peer into the water to catch sight of some red LEDs.

Performance

Christopher Null/Foundry

I tested the Tank C1 in my pool on multiple days and found that while it worked well enough overall, it wasn’t in my top tier of pool robots. After dropping the robot into the water, it slowly sinks to the bottom and then, well, it just sits there for a couple of minutes. Smorobot says this is by design, but throughout my testing, I was surprised by how much of its running time was occupied by idling, seemingly trying to gear itself up for its next big move.

It’s perhaps because of this considerable lag time that the Tank C1 didn’t do the best job at cleaning in my test runs, gathering up about 90 percent of the material in my synthetic leaves test, and clearly missing a few areas in my standard testing with organic leaves. A 90 percent collection rate isn’t awful, but for this price, I had hoped for better results.

More notably, the Tank C1 also struggled with walls—corners in particular—during my evaluation. While it was often able to climb walls to scrub the waterline, I also witnessed it failing to make it up the wall on multiple occasions, stopping midway before returning back to the floor, where it would sit for a while before either trying again or turning and moving elsewhere.

Christopher Null/Foundry

There wasn’t much rhyme or reason for this, as subsequent climbing attempts would be just as likely to succeed as they were to fail. Corners were also a big problem for the Tank C1, including one outside corner in my pool that saw the device stuck on the ridge for a solid 10 minutes. It’s also notable that the device is not designed to clean steps, which, like most pool owners, I have plenty of.

When finished, the Smorobot Tank C1 is designed to park near a wall for retrieval with the included hook. I would characterize this performance as not exactly adjacent to the wall but, at least close enough to reach it with the hook on a pole.

Cleanup is reasonably straightforward once you figure out how to get the hatch over the filter basket open. (You must press down on a certain spot marked on top of the chassis to allow the adjacent latch to release.) Opening the hinged cover of the filter basket underneath is even more difficult, and I found that the cover was on so tight that I had to resort to using a screwdriver to pry it open. Things didn’t get much better on repeated tests, and ultimately, I feared I would break something by doing this if I was using the robot on a regular basis.

Smorobot

Looking inside the filter basket, I could tell the unit was much more effective at capturing grit and sand than it was with leaves; as with many top-tier robots, the basket was laden with debris that I wasn’t even aware was in the pool before I dropped it into the water. The hinged lid is a little awkward to open; otherwise, it cleans up easily with a hose.

Should you buy a Smorobot Tank C1 robotic pool cleaner?

Note that pool cleaner doesn’t come with a mobile app. Smorobot has one, but it currently works only with its Valor line of bots. The manufacturer says the Tank C1 version of the app is still in development, and since the Tank has Bluetooth capabilities, app support might not be far off.

Further reading: This review is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best robotic pool cleaners.

The Smorobot Tank C1’s $600 asking price (Amazon was offering a $200-off coupon at this writing) places it at the lower price band of midrange pool robots, which seems about right for a robot with virtually no frills. It works well enough, it just never approaches greatness.

In my book, even a robot without frills needs to deliver better performance than this to merit a strong recommendation.