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South Africa is the proud home of the invention of the Kreepy Krauly – the first automatic pool cleaner – and we all know and love (or maybe not actually love) them.
They are great, and some people do develop strong relationships with their Kreepys, but they use electricity, and they can be quite invasive, taking up a lot of space in a small pool. So, when we found out about this US-designed solar-powered pool robot, we thought it was worth a look.
Pool cleaning – unplugged
The Solar Breeze is a hands-free, cordless, pipe-free dream of a machine. Seriously, you turn it on and drop it into the pool. Oh – and you do need to fill its automatic pool chemical dispensers occasionally. That’s it.
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Once you’ve done that, it will soak up energy from the sun to propel itself around the pool using its little paddle wheels, and will suck up any debris on the surface of the pool – including tiny dust particles.
Superficial is not shallow
Unlike the Kreepy, the Solar Breeze only picks up debris from the surface, not the sides or bottom of the pool, but everything that ends up on the bottom of the pool started on the surface, so that sort of makes sense. And, while it’s not a genius robot, it’s smart enough to know to turn around when it hits the edge of the pool – in fact, it sort of learns to travel parallel to the walls. Until it hits another wall, at which stage it resolves its existential crisis by rotating its little wheels through 90 degrees. Quite smart, really, for something that does nothing all day except float and suntan.
Not exactly a powerhouse
The surface area is small, so it’s not going to collect enough solar power to do any more than run itself, but then it doesn’t claim to. And it has a small battery pack sufficient to ensure that it doesn’t get stuck in the shade until the sun rises the next day.
Worth a try?
We at Estate Living have not seen or used the product, and it doesn’t look as if it’s available in South Africa, but it seems like a really good product. If you are tempted and order one, please contact us and let us know if it lives up to the marketing hype.
