With a pool in the south of Italy and kids who live in it all summer, keeping the water clean is my main concern. In July 2024 Wybot sent me their A1, one of the most budget-friendly cordless pool cleaners around, and it was a whole different planet compared to my old robot.
Unboxing
My package had clearly had a long journey, but it was well protected by hard cardboard. In the box: the cleaner, a flipper fin for direction, a hook to retrieve it from the pool, the user manual, a quick start guide and the charger. Don't lose the charger: it's proprietary, and without it you can't charge the robot. All you need to do is attach the fin and start charging. It goes from 0 to 100% in 2.5 hours and runs for 2 hours, more than enough for an average above-ground pool. When it's done, put the plastic cover back in exactly the right position so no water gets in.
How it cleans
The A1 doesn't climb walls, and it doesn't have brushes like the more expensive models. It moves forwards and backwards with water jets and relies on suction to pick up the debris, changing direction randomly when it hits an obstacle so it covers the whole floor. It has rubber wheels and plastic front wheels for navigation.
A couple of times it got stuck, but the manual shows the exact fin position for each type of pool. I set mine for a rectangular above-ground pool (our Intex Ultra XTR Frame) and it stopped getting stuck.
What really impressed me is the extra cotton-like filter layer inside the tray. I use flocculant together with a four-action chlorine tablet, and that fine residue used to go straight through my old Osprey and back into the pool, which only picked up the heaviest particles. The A1 keeps it inside. After use, you just rinse the tray with a hose.
Four cleaning modes
- 2 hours of continuous cleaning.
- 60 minutes a day for two days.
- 40 minutes a day for three days.
- 30 minutes a day for a week: the one I'll use on holiday, so the pool is clean when we get back.
My verdict
At the time it sat at €249. If you have a pool with a consistent depth and no steps, and you want a very affordable solution, the Wybot A1 is probably the best choice. It's not the fancy wall-climbing kind, which will probably be my next step, but for the money it does a really great job. I've started this journey into pool robots, and I'm actually enjoying it.