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.

Very satisfied with this cleaner. I initially bought the Dolphin Premier based on reviews on Amazon and elsewhere. It did an amazing job cleaning the pool floor. But it did not climb walls and clean the waterline in my pool. I feel this is very pool dependent. Every pool is different. Since it did such an amazing job with the floor, I debated just keeping it and doing the walls manually like before. Particularly since the unit is quite big and heavy and a pain to repack and ship back. But then, I had not paid a premium for a robot that only cleans the floor. Finally decided to return the Premier and get the Sigma, which is more expensive but has some technology which I thought might help it climb the walls better. Glad I made the switch. The Sigma does just as well cleaning the pool floor. But it is also able to get to the waterline in my pool and clean it. At least half the time it tries. That’s fine as long as it eventually gets to the entire waterline. Whether it succeeds in an attempt to get to the waterline, I think depends on the angle it approaches the wall, how heavy it is at the time and other variables. In addition to being able to climb walls, I found the Sigma better than the Premier in some other ways. I much prefer the top access for the filters on the Sigma compared to the bottom access with the Premier. Both units leak some dirt back into the pool when you take them out of the water, but seems to be much less with the Sigma. The ultra fine filters on the Sigma are much bigger with the Sigma. While the leaf bag idea on the Premier seemed good, in practice I found it a hassle. Because of the way it is “crammed” into the unit, it really has no space to expand fully (although it does pick up a fair amount of leaves). It is also a bit of a pain to clean and reinstall. The large filters on the Sigma pick up a comparable amount of leaves, and are much easier to take out, clean and put back in. The Sigma has a smartphone app which notifies you when a cleaning cycle is done. You could start another cycle remotely if you wanted. It also allows you to manually drive the robot. I have not tried it but seems to be sluggish based on other reviews. I personally don’t feel the need to use this feature. So why 4.5 stars? I think it is a bit too expensive. It also does not seem to have any smart mapping capabilities. Seems to just randomly move around the pool. Eventually gets all or most of the pool in a cleaning cycle, so I suppose it doesn’t matter. By comparison my home robot vacuum which is much cheaper than the pool robot can map and remember every detail of every room of a two story house, and is very methodical in the way it goes about cleaning. One would think mapping a pool would be simpler. Should have an option to update the firmware on the unit as improvements are made to the software. Again, my much cheaper vacuum robot has this capability. One last point - the return process for the Premier was very smooth. All in all, highly recommended. Now it just has to stand the test of time. I bought extended warranty, just in case.

The robot cleans my 30K cubic foot in-ground pool extremely thoroughly, except for the sun deck which I expected, and is easy to clean out. Here are some tips I learned along the way. 1. Buy this instead of the Dolphin CC Supreme if you have a light plaster pool. The Supreme was my first purchase and as others have described, the black plastic housing can leave black streaks on the plaster. Yes it can be scrubbed off, but it takes a lot of time and effort with a metal brush or sponge. The Sigma doesn't have this issue since it has a white plastic body. 2. The bad news; unlike this Supreme, the Signma would get stuck on the VGB main drain. The reason is that the Supreme has a center brush, whereas the Sigma only has the two front and back brushes which aren't able to push it off the drain. 3. Customer service was very responsive and pleasant by email and they first sent a list of solutions for the owner such as moving the float arms forward or drain modifications that can be purchased separately. However, these solutions either didn't work or were not available for our specific drain (MDX-R3). Some of the forums also suggest adding another float or putting teflon on the bottom but these seemed janky for a $1,500 robot. Maytronics then suggested I send the unit in to have a 3rd center brush installed! I was very happy about this as now I would have the same brush configuration as the Supreme but no streaks. I sent it to their repair center out of state and it was shipped back within a couple of weeks. The robot now works flawlessly with no issues getting stuck on the drain and no reduction in the cleaning efficiency. Although it took time and would have rather have had it work right out of the box I need to give kudos to the great Maytronics customer service team! 4. Some improvements could be made: The "massive" cartridges are actually not so large and can be filled quickly if there are a lot of leaves (usually after a storm). There is only one cleaning mode at 2.5 hours whereas the Supreme had several including a shorter 1.5 hour cycle. This seems like an unnecessary "nerf" to an expensive robot. The app is not stable and often needs to be closed and reopened before it will connect to the servers. There is no alert for a full cartridge that is available on some of their other models. Finally, ADD THE THIRD brush so other owners don't have the drain issue.