Maytronics Dolphin Nautilus CC Supreme review: This pool cleaner kept the cord | usagoldmines.com

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I don’t often test corded pool robots. In fact, I rarely recommend them for a range of reasons, largely because most people don’t like dealing with cables. Still, corded robots can offer some unique advantages, and with the new Nautilus CC Supreme, Maytronics makes a solid case for the format. In many ways, it succeeds.

Corded pool cleaners aren’t the best pick for everyone, but if you’re wavering between a battery-powered model and a plug-in version, this underwater scrubber is worth a look.

Maytronics Dolphin Nautilus CC Supreme: Specifications

The Maytronics Dolphin Nautilus CC Supreme, decked out in a blue and black color scheme, is rather compact, though it’s not lightweight at 25 pounds. The blue power cord, which is 50 feet long, connects to a small control box that plugs into wall power away from the pool. The control box has only a single power button on it (I’ll cover its operation more in a moment).

Foundry / Christopher Null

What’s immediately noticeable about the Nautilus’ design is its quirky handle, which floats freely above the robot once it’s in the water. Maytronics provides vague instructions about this handle being “locked diagonally” by the user. In practice, this means angling the handle within the clips that attach it to the robot. Adjusting this angle controls the speed at which waterline cleaning takes place.

Under the robot you’ll find six surprisingly robust spinning roller brushes, in addition to two treads on the sides of the device. Those brushes sweep debris into two intake ports and then into two separate debris filters.

The filters are designed as rectangular cages consisting of three pieces — a frame and two screens — and each must be fully disassembled to clean out. Inside the box you’ll also find an ultra-fine filter kit that can be used instead of the preinstalled mesh filters if you have extremely fine-grained dirt or sand in your pool.

Maytronics Dolphin Nautilus CC Supreme: Installation and setup

Since the Nautilus has no battery and no need to be charged, there’s little to do by way of setup aside from removing all the protective tape and plastic and plugging it in. Though it’s buried in the quick start guide, the unit also supports a mobile app. Make sure you download the one called MyDolphinPlus, which is exclusively designed for Maytronics’ corded robots.

The robot supports both Bluetooth and 2.4GHz Wi-Fi. You can control the device through Bluetooth alone, but you’ll need the latter for firmware updates. One bonus of a corded robot is that, because the control box houses the radio instead of the robot, it’s able to stay in contact with the network even when it’s underwater–at least in theory.

One setup caveat: On day one, I flipped the robot onto its back to remove tape from the underside of the robot, and when I turned it back over, I discovered the chassis had gotten scuffed from the paint sealing my pool deck. If aesthetics are important to you, take care to put padding down when inverting the device on a hard surface, as it scratches easily.

Maytronics Dolphin Nautilus CC Supreme: Performance

At its simplest, the Nautilus can be dropped into the pool and launched with a press of the button on the control box, which will initiate a standard cleaning cycle. You’ll need the MyDolphinPlus app to do virtually everything else, especially if you want to change the cleaning mode.

Numerous modes are available, including floor only, walls and waterline only, regular (floor, walls, and waterline), and “ultra clean” (which does the same zones “extra carefully”). All four of these modes can be configured to run for 1.5, 2.5, or 3.5 hours.

Foundry / Christopher Null

A scheduling system lets you set the robot to run automatically every one, two, or three days at the time of your choosing, or you can select specific days of the week in advanced mode. Note that the app will indicate it is running a two hour cycle, but this seems to be a bug, and in reality it will run using the mode and the length of time you have set on the cleaning mode page.

A separate delay system can also be used to initiate a one, two, or three hour delay before a manual cycle run begins. I had no trouble with any of these modes — aside from general issues getting the app to load in a timely manner or to connect with the robot whether it was running or not. I also had to force-quit and restart it multiple times during about 10 days of testing.

Lastly, the app offers a manual control mode, which lets you use your phone as a remote control to guide the robot around the pool. Because the app is so generally unresponsive, this manual control mode was not overly useful. I found it almost impossible to accurately guide the Nautilus without overshooting my mark. The MyDolphinPlus app doesn’t notify you when a cleaning cycle is complete, so you’ll have to check the app manually or visually inspect whether the robot is still on the move.

In my tests with organic debris and synthetic leaves, I found the Nautilus to be a capable cleaner. After about an hour of operation, on average, it had scooped up 90 percent of the test material. After the longest run (three and a half hours), it regularly collected 95 percent of the test material or more, usually leaving behind a small patch of debris in a single corner near the steps (always a trouble spot for robots to reach).

It’s here where the corded design proves its worth. In cases like this, with debris left behind, I could just run the robot again right away. After another 3.5 hours, I would regularly find that it had finally collected the remaining leaves. (I’ll also add that I didn’t notice any difference in cleaning quality between the regular mode and ultra clean modes.)

Foundry / Christopher Null

Cords do make it easier to get a robot out of the pool, as you can just pull on the cord to haul in the robot until it reaches the edge, after which you can grab it at the surface. That’s helpful, but I found the Nautilus quite difficult to retrieve due to the handle design.

The handle is positioned above the robot, so when you pull it from the water, the robot creates a kind of suction effect that requires more physical exertion. It’s also tougher to drain the water directly into the pool because of this, resulting in a wetter deck than usual.

Cleanup is the absolute worst part of the Nautilus experience. Pop open two hatches, remove two separate filters, disassemble them, and then clean off everything with a hose — six pieces in total. The amount of extra effort required to do all this can easily double the cleanup time required (compared to a single-basket design), and when it’s all said and done, you still have to put everything back together, which takes even longer. Dealing with cleanup in this fashion is an absolute chore that obviates half the point of having a robot in the first place.

The Nautilus does not ship with a cord management system (a caddy is available separately for about $120), so when it’s not in use, it’s up to you to figure out how to keep 50 feet of cable out of the way. The cable also adds a substantial amount of weight to the package. Between the cable and the control box, it’s about 41 pounds, making for a hefty and rather unwieldy bunch of gear if you want to stow the entire package somewhere.

Maytronics Dolphin Nautilus CC Supreme: Conclusion

The Maytronics Dolphin Nautilus CC Supreme lists for $1,449 and typically sells for close to that. I haven’t yet seen it for less than $1,380, which makes it a very pricey option for what is a fairly no-frills cleaner. The corded design still isn’t for me, but that’s in part due to my aversion to cluttering up the pool deck, and I totally understand if the luxury of being able to run multiple cleaning cycles a day is a more important consideration in your backyard.

Pro tip: If the price is too steep, check around for refurbished models, which can be had for under $700.