Episode 103: Cleaners 101 - Suction Side, Pressure Side, and Robotic Cleaners with John and Brian of Pentair
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In this episode, we sat down with John Rotundo and Brian King from Pentair to discuss suction side, pressure side, and robotic pool cleaners. We had a great discussion about each option and how they are designed to work. We also discussed some of the key things that you need to know when dealing with each style. This information can make a world of a difference when communicating with a homeowner, as knowing the terminology can show your professionalism. As discussed in the episode, different parts of the country may favor one pool vacuum or another, but it is good to have an understanding of each one so that when you run into one in the field you will know about it. We hope you enjoy the episode!
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Show Notes
01:06 | John Rotundo of Pentair Introduction
03:09 | Brian King of Pentair Introduction
07:37 | Try Me Buy Me Program by Pentair
08:51 | The history of pool cleaners
12:52 | Suction side cleaners
17:27 | Tips for installing Pentair Rebel
24:52 | Pressure side cleaners
28:20 | Pentair pressure side cleaners offered
34:33 | Robotic cleaners
39:05 | Pentair Robotic models
43:02 | Warranty on cleaners
Episode 103 Transcript
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Opening Intro:
Hey, Pool Chasers. Have you ever walked into a backyard and saw a cleaner in the pool that you did not recognize? I've been there a few times myself. Let me tell you, the first time I saw pressure side cleaner, I had no idea what I was looking at. We don't have very many of those out here in the Phoenix market. So we want to welcome you to Episode 103, if you haven't guessed it by now. This episode is all about cleaners. During the episode, we discuss suction side, pressure side and robotic cleaners. We go over how each of them is designed to work and some of the key things you need to know for each style. So we hope you enjoy cleaners one on one with John Rotundo and Brian King of Pentair.
Intro:
Welcome to your go to podcast for the pool and spa industry. My name is Tyler Rasmussen and my name is Greg Villafana and this is the Pool Chasers Podcast.
Tyler Rasmussen:
All right. Thank you guys for doing us today. Can you please introduce yourself and what your role at Pentair is?
John Rotundo:
Yeah. Hi. I'm John Rotundo and the group product manager for Cleaners and Sanitizers. I've been working with Pentair for five and a half years. I've been in the industry about 10 years now. I used to work for Soliah before a joint Pentair and been in the same product lines. I used to manage that product line of cleaners. And so, yeah, and now I do it for Pentair plus the sanitiser life and Pentair. I began my career in 2002 with small appliances and I always been in the consumer side. So consumer products, it kind of makes sense since cleaners and sanitizers are all aftermarket type of product for me to be managing those categories for Pentair.
Tyler Rasmussen:
Right. And what brought you into the pool industry?
John Rotundo:
You know, it's funny. I used to live in Florida and then I moved to California. I always wanted to live in California and really was a more geographical move for me than a job. And then through networking, I got into the pool industry in California. And that's how I got into the pool industry. It's it's a really great industry to work for. It's a lot of fun.
Tyler Rasmussen:
So did you move to San Diego?
John Rotundo:
I do. I live in county San Diego. Been here since 2010.
John Rotundo:
North County is beautiful. Carlsbad, which is, you know, in the border up the north side of the county and it's coastal. So the weather here is incredible.
Tyler Rasmussen:
Yeah, we grew up in Victorville, California, not too far from there. We love San Diego.
Greg Villafana:
No, it's not it's not that nice, but San Diego beautiful. Yeah.
Tyler Rasmussen:
Yeah. We try to travel outside of Victorville as much as you can. Yeah. It's much better weather than than there. For sure. So I think. Thanks for sharing that with us. How about you, Brian?
Brian King:
Yeah, sure. My name is Brian King. I am a training projects manager currently. Some of my responsibilities under that role are to work with the engineering teams, both for new product development and sustaining. What I do there is to keep involved with the new products and projects that go on with the sustaining group to improve current products so I can keep the training team up to date as far as product improvements and new products that are coming out so we can have the training materials available when those products get launch.
Brian King:
Awesome. I also traveled from August through April to actually help teach our customers, servers and dealers and builders about our products.
Brian King:
We're in a different city pretty much every week during that time period. So it's good to see a lot of interesting people and a lot of different places. That's for sure. For being with the training team. There was three a.m. for a little over two years. I was a product manager and had different product lines throughout the years, from pumps to both ground systems to cleaners and sanitizers to heat pumps. Little bit of everything as I kind of went through the product management role. I actually started out in the pool in selling creepy crawlies, pool cleaners, door to door. It would take the weekday and set up appointments to show the product during the weekends because we want both husband and wife home. We showed it and had a great time doing that.
Greg Villafana:
Well, thank you, Brian. I think that as one of our favorite stories that we heard from you. A while back about being a door to door cleaner salesman, think that that was just really, really cool. And we talked about how it was even better because you had actually, you know, take one of the cleaners and put it in somebodies pool. And once they actually saw it working, you had a better closing rate. Those people kind of on the edge of wanting to buy a cleaner or not.
Brian King:
Yeah. You typically had 80 plus percent closed rate just because when you put that cleaner into the pool and it cut a path across that pool. And they didn't think the pool was dirty. They were amazed at how well it cleaned and I couldn't help but buy it right.
Greg Villafana:
I'm sure most of the pools back then were plaster pools. Yes. Like white plaster pools. So you might think that it was super dirty, but once I think started moving, it was probably shiny. And after that.
Brian King:
Yeah, you could see right where the cleaner where it would make a definite path across the pool.
Greg Villafana:
Do you hear about people often in this day and age doing that because we think that that would be a really good idea in going to a bid for pool service or even for a repair, but bringing maybe a robotic cleaner with you or something and just plugging it in and thrown it in the pool just because I say robotic cleaner, because I was probably a little bit easier to just plug in and, you know, throw it in and do what you were doing and somebody might. Well, okay, tell me more about this. And maybe that could be a potential sale. And that's, you know, fairly easy. You could take it out and just use that as a tool in every other backyard you go into.
Brian King:
Yeah, that's a great question. And we do have deals that actually do that. They will give a robotic Claytor to a customer who say they're cleaner, might be broke and it's in the shop to be fixed.
Brian King:
So they'll give him a loaner cleaner, a robotic cleaner, take home and plug it in and send it to the pool. And a lot of times they come back and say, you know what? Still worry about six of my cleaners. I think I want to go these robotic leaders.
Greg Villafana:
That's awesome. So you can keep it.
John Rotundo:
And there does have a demo program for our robotic cleaners. And we do offer that service to, you know, to our service and our dealers where we provide those demo units robotic to serve that purpose like Brian. That is very effective, not only from a robot to robot cell, but also from a cell, from a suction to pressure cleaner upselling to a robot.
John Rotundo:
Once they see that functionality and how clean and how effective the robot is from a demo, from a weekend, the homeowner takes the checkbook and says, hey, how much how much this thing is. And I just want to write a check.
Greg Villafana:
Yeah. And what's the best way for professionals to get more information about those? Maybe reach out to their local rep?
Brian King:
Absolutely. To try to buy me type programs so each rep in different territories. Very familiar with that program. It gives a clear at a very, very reduced price. So if they're unsure about the cleaner, they just want to try it. They can get rid of a discounted price. Give it a try without, you know, spend too much. Yeah, that's cool.
Tyler Rasmussen:
Thank you for share that information. And obviously, if you haven't picked it up yet, we're talking about cleaners today. So can you tell us just a little bit about the history of pool cleaners and how they've kind of transitioned through the years?
Brian King:
In the very beginning, when pool cleaners, you were first introduced to a pool industry, you really had the Artisan pool sweep. There was this little bag. Jet driven cleaners that roamed around the pool picking up debris as it floated around the pool. It was very, very inefficient, but it was the only thing out there. So people took it because it helped maintain the pool where they didn't have to sit and clean it every single day. Then creepy crawly came around after the pool sweep. It really took off. Customers really liked that cleaner. You also had pressure cleaners that took off really well because you worked great picking up large debris. It was great for picking up a large leaves and acorns and whatever, whatever else you might find in the swimming pool. But they were great for a larger debris. The robotic cleaners, when they came into the industry, they weren't very well accepted because, one, the cost was very prohibitive and to the warranty and the quality of the product just wasn't where it needed to be. Power supplies were failing quite often the motors to drive. The cleaners were fatally in a very short time period. And they've come a long way where the motors are much more heavy duty as a last, a lot longer. They are very inexpensive to operate on a daily basis. So they have come a long way and they are the fastest growing segment of the cleaner segment in the industry.
Greg Villafana:
I wonder how pools were designed to keep clean. Prior to that, were they depending on homeowners? And I'm sure there wasn't too many service companies. But to just kind of vacuum up a pool, you know, with their own equipment, or was there something else in place to keep these pools claim before the actual cleaners that were put into the pool, if it was really their own equipment?
Brian King:
You know, what they got from the pool builder along those 40 foot hose, 50, put a hose in there, pole and a little back, and then they had to stand out there and move that thing around to pick up all the debris, which was a chore. People really didn't like to do using up their Saturday or cleaning the pool of cleaners when they were introduced. They took off pretty rapidly.
John Rotundo:
You have to also put in perspective that back then their smaller size pool and in backyards, very unique shape, similar shapes. I mean, there today, the customization of pools and the different types of pools are vastly different, right? A lot of different numbers of pools, types of pools. Back then, it was more similar. And as Brian said, it was very manual cleaning process. Right. It took somebody to really use a vac head with a hose to really vacuum the floor and the walls and brush it to then put all that debris into into the filter. Pool cleaners came from that need of automate that process. That manual process. And it started as South Africa. So all the designs and all the technology and all that cleaners actually came from South Africa. But it was a very manual process and a very different application, which is smaller pools back then than what is today.
Tyler Rasmussen:
We appreciate you guys going through that a little bit. As you mention, cleaners kind of changed when you go to different markets. So we wanted to touch on the three cleaners you've been mentioning and start with suction side cleaners. So can you kind of explain how their work in what kind of offerings Pentair has for those?
John Rotundo:
Yeah, absolutely. First function site cleaners I mentioned before, there are hydraulic mechanisms. So what that means is they use the suction force from the pump, from out from the pump and the pad to provide that vacuum power to then clean and pick up debris in the surfaces of the pool. The way that they're connected is either you connect those cleaners through a hose, there's like ten or twelve lengths of hose depending on the company. And then you put those links together, you connect it to the cleaner head, and then you connect to the other end into a dedicated suction line in the pool that it's already plumbed. So with the builder that pump that that way, or you can connect that end of that hose into the skimmer, how it works is once the pump turns on the cleaner, it's working automatically. There's different cleaners that use different mechanisms.
John Rotundo:
Some use like a diaphragm. Some use a hammer mechanism, which is which means that when water passes through that system. Which is. Which is. The engine, it closes and opens and that closing and opening creates movement to the cleaner. Actually move backwards and that's held a cleaner travels. Those cleaners are mostly the what we call them, the disk cleaners, which is that creepy crawly that quit the cruiser. And then you have other types of suction cleaners which have wheels. So we have a cleaner, which is our best selling cleaner. It's called the rebel.
John Rotundo:
And those have years inside. And it also has a little turbine. And that turbine, it's what creates the movement to those gears, to those wheels and then allows that cleaner to move forward. Back has some cams that are based on time, that allows the algorithm to that cleaner to go left, right, front and back. And that algorithm or logic really ensures that with enough time that clean air will go to every single spot in your pool. Now, rebel or creepy crawly, it's the same concept, which is a hydraulic concept where it uses a pump suction force to really pick up the debris and move the cleaner. We also have a cleaner called Dorado in the Great White, which it has bristles underneath and they use as they use as brush.
John Rotundo:
So that cleaner sitting on top of those bristles. And it's actually brushing and scrubbing the surface while it's moving. And while it's picking up debris. So it's more of a, you know, added feature, if you will, of cleaning, because now you're you're scrubbing the floor. You're scrubbing the walls with this bristle type of application. All of our cleaners, all of our ground suction cleaners are, well, climbers. They all climb walls. So what that means is that cleaner will go up the tile line and then scrub the timeline and then come back down. So they're very versatile. They're very accessible from a price point. And they're very popular in the Sunbelt. Right. In the Sunbelt states and all that. You in Southern California, you know, the north, the southwest Florida, it's it's huge. And those interesting enough there, there's certain cleaners in our portfolio that sell more in certain Sunbelt states. And it's just an application is just some customers prefer the bristles and how that works with pools and their consumers. And some others prefer a wheel cleaner because it goes a little faster than the bristle cleaner. So the rebels will travel a little faster than the Durato and for an example, the Southwest like that better. But they're all very effective, not only cleaning your pool, picking up the debris, but it really they go all around the pool and when the pump stops, that cleaner stops. Most pool owners leave the cleaner inside of a pool and they just have that cleaner turn on every single day what the pool and the pump turn on.
Greg Villafana:
Yeah, and I'll ask because we use the rebel probably more than anything. And can you give some maybe good tips, good practices when installing, we'll say, a rebel for this instance?
Greg Villafana:
Because we know there's a couple of times we've had people install the rebels and maybe forgot to put on a liter hose or didn't sink it with all the water inside the hose. But even give us just some tips on installing Pentair rebel correctly.
Brian King:
Sure. It's funny that you see something about the liter hose because the liter hose is a very special hose short hose.
Brian King:
But that hose has to be able to stand 90 degrees to allow the clear to go from the bottom of the pool to the sides of the pool. So it's got to be very flexible. And then that cleaner also turns different amounts, 360 to a 180. So on. And that's how it creates a more random pattern. But as it turns, it creates poor shell twisting on the hose. Those are all hard for the hose, those holes to break down so that your hose is special hose. It's specially belated and specially constructed to be soft. So to flex can get that nice. True that it also accepts that portion of twisting as well. It doesn't break down like a standard cleaner as well. So the Yoho's is a very important piece of equipment on the rebels. The other thing that I would add is really three things that you have to watch for when you look at a clear look at hose length and line. Here, too much tangled in a twist. And you don't have enough. It doesn't reach all areas of the pool. We want to make sure that hose lines in the swimming pool so that the cleaner has free movement. The other thing you need to look at is water flow.
Brian King:
These cleaners are only ounces in the water and water flow. You look at a gallon of water. You've got roughly eight point three, three pounds. Right. That's going to push the cleaner around. So you've got to be careful how you have the water flow. Be interacted in the swimming pool because you can that keep the cleaner in an area or push it out of an area causing dirty spots. The other thing is you want to look for is the clear sea. There's a hole on the rebel tiger and you can use that hole up on the tire and count how many revolutions you get in a minute. Can we look for a landing to 30 revolutions per minute, depending on how high you go, if you go to 30? You get better walk on. But when you start to get over 13 revolutions per minute now, you get the cleaner coming up to the water line, actually wanting to clean out, sucking air. And if you have less than a landing now, the cleaner, sluggish doesn't pick up to three as well. Does it make it all? Here is the pool as well. So you really want to keep it in that eleven to thirty wheel revolutions per minute?
Greg Villafana:
Thank you. How does somebody go about figuring out how many hoses they need to add to a pool when adding a cleaner?
Brian King:
So four hoses on the suction side. Most cleaners you want from the point that you plug it into the suction side of the hydraulic system to the furthest point in the pool. Plus one section, that's all you need. So if you're using a dedicated vacuum line that's usually somewhere in the middle of the pool, you want to stretch. That goes out to the furthest corner of the pool and then add one more section that allows that cleaner than to get to the bottom and clean all the areas of the pork. Usually your scammer's, for one, is or the other. So you're going to reach it from the Qingguo to the furthest corner in the pool. Then add one extra section that's going to give you a proper plume's length for a suction side. Clear?
John Rotundo:
Yeah. One thing I wanted to add is all these points about speed and the length of the hose and then the leader hose and the flexibility and all that are very integral parts of setting up your cleaner. The suction cleaners are all about the right distribution between weight and buoyancy. We also have in the package a little floater that you attach to the leer hose. But it's also important to have when installing the cleaner because it creates the right distribution between weight and buoyancy. So the minute that you throw that equation or that distribution off, then you better start having problems. That's why it's it's so important when you install your cleaner to really follow the manual we have in the manual everything that you need to install your cleaner the right way. Everything that we've just been talking about, all those points. Brian. It's making of how to install it and the best way to do it. And it's all in the manual. So make sure that if you do have cleaners and you do provide cleaners to your to your customers, make sure that you follow those manual instructions to really install those cleaners.
Tyler Rasmussen:
Yeah, I think those are both the leader hose and the float. A lot of times are missing on cleaners and those are vital parts, too. We notice, you know, in the field as being in Arizona are very heavily suctions eye market. I mean, if you take on a new account, a lot of times you'll see they don't have leaner hoses or they don't have the proper things in place. So you've got to make sure that those are all there. Right.
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Greg Villafana:
Yeah, so everybody's good. We'll just kind of switch this over to pressure side. Clearers which we didn't see many of these out here in Arizona, but we know that they are much more popular in other markets. So can we kind of have the same discussion going over, you know, what pressure side cleaners are? And you know what products Pentair offers?
Brian King:
Sure. Yeah. You guys don't see much of the pressure side because you don't have a lot of large degree. So you're lucky in that aspect. Now, Texas, on the other hand, they use the pressure side cleaners quite a bit. The Northeast uses this pressure side cleaners quite a bit. The Midwest also used the pressure, created quite a bit. They've got larger debris loads. Right. A lot of leaks. And that's really what a pressure side cleaner is great for. So you've got two different types of pressure side cleaners. You've got one that uses a booster pump. You have one that uses the water flow from the return line to power. So where you have a what we call suction side cleaners or pad cleaners. Those work on the suction side can be hydraulic system pressure. Side cleaner has it names suggest works on the pressure side of the hydraulic system.
Brian King:
So where you have a booster pulse, that booster pump boosts the flow of the water through a dedicated line to the pressure cleaner. That pressurized water goes through a turbine which drives the wheels front wheels. So sometimes they've got like in the case of a competitor, three wheels. The two wheels are driven in. The third wheel is geared to drive as well. But they're all tied to that turbine. Can that water pressure is driving that turbine. Then it has the cheery jets inside of a tube. And on top of that tube, on top of the cleaner, it's a cleaner bag. So those jets. Just pour the water in from the middle of the equator up in to get to up into the bag. So it helps direct the debris up into the bag. And then you can take the bag off the cleaner and empty it out to get rid of all the debris. Now, the pressure side, please don't work all that well in picking up to find or to break. So what they do is they've added a sweep to the tails on the backside of the cleaner that actually whips back and forth as the cleaner moves around the pool. That helps to, one, clean out any dead areas like corners that the cleaner can't get into or find debris.
Brian King:
It helps to steer it up to where the skimmer or main trade can pick it up and take it out of the pool and get it back to the filter system.
Greg Villafana:
Very good. And what pressure side cleaner does Pentair offer?
Brian King:
So we've got the Blue Racer cleaner, which is a very unique cleaner in that the backup valve is built into the cleaner.
Brian King:
When I talk about a backup valve, one of the things that is unique with the pressure, so cleaners is constantly going forward and in order to help randomize the pattern and if the cleaner gets stuck anywhere, they've got a backup valve in line in the hose that comes on every so often to help pull the cleaner to a different area of the pool. This will help get it unstuck from places that it might be stuck. But it also hopes to randomise the cleaner to make sure that it gets to all areas of the poor.
John Rotundo:
Consumers and pool owners that have pressure cleaners swear by bills they live by, they're very loyal to that technology.
John Rotundo:
And it's because they probably have a lot of trees around the pool. And then there's a lot of leads. Go inside of the pool. And the pressure cleaners are the best cleaners in the market today to pick up leaves not only from the power of doing so, but the capacity that, you know, that the bags under the pressure clean are pretty, pretty big. So you can load up a lot of compact, a lot of leaves in there. That's why they're popular in certain areas of the US. That's why, you know, their shortcomings are in the sand and silt and those up a small debris. That is the main difference. Why there's a distinct difference between regions and type of cleaning technology is because of the debris. That's all it drives that behavior.
Tyler Rasmussen:
Good. Thank you. So we don't know what's different from the suction side cleaners. The pressure side cleaners on you installing them is is the hose and the process to measure it and cut it. Can you talk about that a little bit?
Brian King:
Sure. The suction say are really easy. You've got one standard hose. You might have a layer hose that gets attached to the cleaner, it smells like in the rebels case. But that hose just uses a friction fit to go together. So it goes here pretty easily. Again, you just need, from your suction point, connected to the suction side of the system to the furthest part in the pool, plus one those length, which is usually four feet. So this exercise is really easy to assemble a hose and install the hose and the pressure size is a little bit difficult. You've got usually about 30 feet of hose. You've got two different dishes in the hose. You've got us a stiffer section that gets placed back by the Wall City that goes to the dedicated line. And then a softer section that goes up towards the cleaner, the softer section helps bend a little bit more. So the cleaner has a little bit freer to move about the pool. But on the pressure side, you can not to actually measure the hose lengths to the furthest part in the pool. Plus roughly five to seven feet.
Brian King:
If it's longer than that, you need to take the extra length from between the writers section and the softer section.
Brian King:
You don't want to take it all from the softer section. Want to take it equally from the hard section in the soft section. So which you have to do is take the harder section. So section apart, but equally on both sides. Then reassemble. Then remeasure. So it's a little bit more difficult to set up the hose on the pressure side. But it really doesn't take all that long to do correctly.
Tyler Rasmussen:
Right. Yeah. Thank you for explaining it. It's definitely much different process. And I just want to make sure we don't forget this. With the pressure sudden cleaner, you have to have two pumps. The filter pump has to be on before the pressure pump, right?
Brian King:
Yeah. So two styles of pressure cleaners. You've got one with a booster pump, one without a booster pump.
Brian King:
So one without a booster bomb to the Troy, a legend do. That'll work without a booster. There you have to make sure that you got a decent sized pump in order to get that pressure cleaner to work because it's relied on filtered pumps to send enough water down that return line to get it to work properly with the other style that has the booster pump.
Brian King:
You're pretty much guaranteed that you're going to have enough water flow going to clean air all the time. Unless, of course, you get on a break in the home somewhere. A bad connection or the finger screen or Wall Street is clogged with how you're going to have to park.
Brian King:
You're going to have the filter pump that's running because the pressure pumps are not pumps that can prime themselves. So if there's a slight air leak in the hydraulic system. The pipes are going to empty of water when the pump shuts off.
Brian King:
When the pope comes back on, it's got a reprise. All the water in that system again. Booster pump isn't capable of doing that. So you have to ensure that the filter pump comes on before and the boost from pump. Typically, if we could drop in automation, automation dictates that that Mr. Plant will come on five minutes after the filter to make sure that there's enough water flowing through the system to make sure that there is water available for the things to pump. Otherwise, it can burn itself out.
Greg Villafana:
Thank you. And let's talk about robotic vacuums now. Can you discuss with us just what a robotic vacuum is and what products Pentair offers on the robotic side?
John Rotundo:
Sure. Robots are really the most popular cleaners these days. Why? Number one, they plug and play. You know, we just talked about the pressure cleaners requiring another pump, a booster pump. The beauty of the robotic cleaners that they don't require any pump, meaning you plug in your outlet into one tent. You bring that cleaner to the top of the pool. And then you just let the cleaner submerge in the pool and use a power supply. You turn it on and it's really it does all the work after that. So it's very easy to install. It's very easy to operate. And it does not require the pump to clean. And now you can have your robot do the work while the pump. It's all. And of course, you can have both almost healthy working together. But, you know, the beauty of the robot is it saves money to the consumer. The robotic also have it's really takes five minutes from unpacking to start cleaning. It's a plug and play. There's really three components to this cleaner. You have the power supply and the power supply is the one that controls the pool. And you can create program to have different weekly schedules for it for the robot to clean. You have the communication cable, which is a cable that connects that cleaner head to the power supply to then the power supply connects to the wall. And you have the robot itself that clean your head. So those three components. Are it in terms of installing that cleaner and it's a really fast and easy way to bring it from from the bogs and start Glitnir pool? I mean, efficiency now with the technology being more accessible from price point? Those are that's why there's this category of robotic cleaner growing in the past 10 years exponentially. I mean, it's I think, you know, last year we saw around 15 percent year over year growth and it's been sustainable for the past five years. So it's a category that is really growing and it's because of the ease of use, the easy installation, the efficiency of cleaning. And people like that. And people are resonating with that.
Tyler Rasmussen:
Right. Do you see any options coming out that maybe are cordless? Anything like that? Because one thing we notice from a service standpoint is some of the homeowners here in like Arizona, in higher end markets, they don't really like seeing the hoses or also from a service standpoint. I mean, depending on a homeowner to drop in when he's robotic cleaners every day or whenever he needs it, it's kind of difficult to do. So are you seeing any different options maybe coming out that are a little bit more automatic using automation or anything?
John Rotundo:
Yes, the answer to that is absolutely yes. You know, there's really no good solution today in the market that is completely cordless and it works well. To me, an analogy is or a comparison to other industries is that, you know, the battery tools like, you know, the tool market, it took at least 10 years for those industries to really become completely corless battery power and have enough battery to really do a good job of what they they need to be doing. Same with with pool cleaners. It's coming. There's a race to who is the first one to come in the market with a good solution. But we are all working on that solution and we're all working and bringing that capability in the future for the robotic cleaner cord. To your point, the core in the robotic cleaner is the number one complaint from a consumer, because today you plug it in and then it drapes around the patio and then it goes over the know the pool. And it's not a beautiful solution. But we are working on getting around that, even though that there's no complete battery power robotics today that works well. We are working on court management. We are working on solutions that will address those people. Im pretty sure here in the next year or couple of years you will be seeing something from us that addresses all those pain points and those needs.
Greg Villafana:
Thank you. And what are the different robotic models that you all have?
John Rotundo:
So we have a total for clingers today from a robotic perspective in our portfolio. We have a prowler under the Prowler family. We have the Prowler nine 10, which is an aboveground cleaner and pretty much is for aboveground pools. And this is not a Wolke climber. It has a 40 foot cable for aboveground applications. It does have a top axis for that filter basket, which is great. And we have that offering in that feature and all our prowlers. So no matter if you buy from the above ground to top of the line, you have that top axis filter basket, which makes a really easy way to remove debris without having to handle debris. The robot back in the day, you had bags that were like diapers, that when they filled with debris, you had to manage that debris in and get your hands, you know, get the debris out of the bag. And it was very cumbersome today to just have one touch operation where you click a button, the top copper comes out or list up, and then you take that debris basket out and just empty it and put it back in. So it's very easy solution. We just launched the 917 Power 917. That's our entry level ground cleaner. This is designed for small pools.
John Rotundo:
So it's the pools that are up to thirty three feet in length. And it has a 50 foot cable. It's a wall climb or so we'll climb to the waterline and scrub the waterline. These cleaners also have active scrubbers. They're rollers in the front of the unit that scrub the waterline and scrub the surfaces. Also, this Prowler 917 has a weekly timer capable power supplies. We just launched this, just hit the market. And it's for the entry level small pools market. And then you go to the 920 prowler 920, which is a step up and it's a bigger. He's a bigger, cleaner head and it has the same programmability in the power supply, so you can program it to have every other day cleaning every day, cleaning, every other two days cleaning. And how this program ability and with the time or works is you have to reset it every week. And there's a reason for this. You know, we define that this way. So when you come back to your cleaner every week, that reminds you to go and empty that debris, that if you have a programmability that is for a month, then the pool owner could forget that they have the cleaner and the poor forget that they need to empty the basket, the debris basket and that debris basket can before.
John Rotundo:
And now it's not picking up debris. It's still work still goes around, but not really picking up debris. We made that feature weekly time feature to be a weekly event. So it forces the pool owner to go out there, reset it, and then empty that debris basket and clean the debris basket and put it back on the pool. From there, we have the top of the line cleaner, which is a prowler 930. And this has the same length of cable, has the same programmability from the power supply. But it comes with two things. It comes with an app. And that app provides control of that cleaner from your phone and access to to that cleaner from your phone smartphone. And then the second one, it's a caddy and it has a caddy that now when you want to take your cleaner out of the pool, there's a place that you can place or cleaner and also wheel it and transport this cleaner to your garage, to the side of the house or wherever the pool owner chooses to store or take the cleaner and store, they clean it. And that is our four cleaners that we have in the market today.
Greg Villafana:
And what type of warranty is typically offered, you know, with most of these cleaners? And how do you submit those warranties?
John Rotundo:
So the warranties that we have today for all our prowler. It's two years warranty. You know, you can go once you purchase the cleaner, you can go to our Web site and very easily register that cleaner and that would automatically register for the warranty as well. Once you once you submit your purchase and your data will register the warranty as well. So a very easy process there. But there are two year warranty.
Greg Villafana:
Ok. And for the pressure in Sections I cleaners, pressure such as Cyclades is the same process.
John Rotundo:
And they are. It depends. So if it's a trait, great product. All of our trade great cleaners are two year warranty. Now there's some other cleaners that that that are sold online and they're sold and they can be sold anywhere. They can be sold in the trade. They can be sold in brick and mortar. They can be sold online. Most of those cleaners that are what we call old channel cleaners are one year warranty.
Tyler Rasmussen:
Very good. Thank you. We really appreciate you both joining us to end the podcast and for all the great information. So.
Brian King:
Thanks for having us. Yeah, thanks for having us. Absolutely.
Tyler Rasmussen:
Thank you. Hey, Paul Chasers. Thanks for checking out this episode. Did you know that each episode has its own page on our Web site? This is where you can find more information about the guests and episode topic, as well as all the resources that we discussed throughout the show. To get to the Web page, click the link below. Also below, you will find links to the sponsors of the show, as well as links to follows on our social media channels. On our channels, you will find some of our favorite clips. And bonus material, please follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Our tag is pole chasers. We also have a Facebook group for the Poor Chasers community. Here you will find like minded professionals all looking to make each other better. One last thing. If the episode has brought you value, please check out our patrie on page show. Support us. And if you could, please write and review the podcast. We would love to hear what your favorite topics are. Thank you for your time and your ear. See you out there for chasers.
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