I’ve seen the brand Aiper at Technology trade shows around the world over the last couple of years and it’s only now that I realise why their Pool Cleaning robots are such a big deal – simplicity. Twist and dial, drop it in and you’re cleaning.

When I think Pool Cleaners I think of the Kreepy Krauly style which attaches into the pool pump gear and means if you’re thinking of a swim while it’s out there you’ve got to swim under and around those hard plastic pipes that sit on the surface of the pool.

When I think of robots, I think of my Robot Vacuum that has to learn and map my home, or my Robot Lawn Mower which needs to be taught about the backyard or can see the difference between grass and concrete.

The Aiper Seagull Pro isn’t what I imagined as a Robot Pool Cleaner because it doesn’t have any pipes, nor does it need to be attached to anything or tethered when it’s out and about. Plus, as a Robot, it might be the smartest and simplest to use robot assistant out there.

Here’s how hard it was to use.

There’s just one dial on the Aiper Seagull Pro that controls what mode it’s in. That dial when you turn it has a ring light around it which will glow Green, Blue, Yellow or Red to indicate it’s battery status. One of the four mode positions for the dial is “off”. The others are “Walls”, “Floor”, or “Walls and Floor”, indicated by pretty easy to understand little icons.

That’s as much research as I needed to do. I twisted it to Walls and Floor, then dropped the Aiper Seagull Pro into the pool.

That’s it.

As it sinks down to the floor of the pool, I wondered for a bit was it working, did I do the right thing, was I going to need to get changed into my swimmers to retrieve this thing?

Well, No, because there’s two other things that come with the Aiper Seagull Pro. The charging cable, and the provided hook. Attach to your pool skimmer handle and grab it from the bottom of the pool with ease. More on that in a moment.

A few moments later, and this little fella is out and about, patrolling up and down the floor in a reasonably uniform pattern.

What the Aiper Seagull Pro does is sections. The floor first then the walls. And it does both in a back and forth pattern.

Once it’s done it’s job or the battery is nearing critical levels, your Aiper Seagull Pro will pull up stumps and park itself near the wall of your pool, making retrieval with the provided hook a whole lot easier.

We used the Aiper Seagull Pro in a pretty average sized Aussie pool, and in Floor Mode the robot did a full two hours cleaning with no complaint.

Run time on the battery is reported at 150 minutes, and the battery will fully recharge from flat in around 3 hours.

The great thing here is you can use your pool without any issue while your robot is out and about – there’s not a single hose or pipe or cable connected to it, and I can’t stress how groundbreaking that is.

Despite being a really small unit, the filter-box inside it is a decent size, not dissimilar to a pipe-connected pool cleaner we compared it to, plus its so easy to clean, charge and use.

What’s most remarkable about this whole thing – talk about burying the lede – is the price. The Aiper Seagull pro is just $1,099 (currently $899 on a pre-order sale). That’s a quarter of what you might pay for a powerful pool cleaner.

Now, I didn’t test this on a filthy disgusting pool. I tested it on a pool that is well maintained, and I think that’s exactly where this excels, daily use, regular use and with it’s suction power and brushes it’s going to keep things looking spectacular.

Impressive stuff.

Web: Aiper