Aiper Seagull 600 Review

The Aiper 600 is a made-in-China, inexpensive cleaner for flat above-ground pools only. With a low price tag, many pool owners are taking a chance on it and diving into pool season with this cleaner. Its looks, specs, price, and online reviews seem promising at first glance, but with just a few uses, it’s obvious just how misleading and poorly designed the Aiper 600 is.

"Small and lightweight design, but fails to capture any significant debris."

What's Included

Let’s take a look at what all comes with it. There’s not a lot of setup involved. It comes with a handle that you attach, as well as a charger and manual. There are these little port extenders that are supposed to help with suction, and a hook attachment for retrieving the unit.

Build Quality

The Aiper 600 is very lightweight, just 6 pounds. But it’s almost too lightweight. When you hold it, you can feel just how flimsy it is. The plastic components are thin and insubstantial. If you look closely at the wheels and top clasps, you’ll notice they look more like pieces you’d find on a toy, not a true robotic pool cleaner that can withstand years underwater and in the sun.

Charging and Run Time

To get the Aiper 600 going, it needs to charge for about 4 hours. Then it’s supposed to run for 50 minutes.

Cleaning Coverage

The Aiper’s coverage is very elementary. It’s confined to cleaning only pool floors, and there’s nothing smart about its cleaning routes. It makes a zig-zag pattern across the pool floor, but it inevitably misses spots because it doesn’t have any kind of advanced logic or smart navigation software, like you’d find on a unit like the Dolphin Escape. The Escape's SmartNav technology is a world apart. Aiper suggests adjusting the wheel axles depending on your pool shape, but that’s like putting a bandaid on a much bigger issue.

Wheels and Pool Compatibility

These small plastic wheels don’t help with coverage, either. The Aiper is designed only for flat pool floors. Even if you have a small slope, the unit will struggle or stop completely. What’s more disappointing is that the Aiper can’t even roll over a vinyl wrinkle in an otherwise flat pool floor.

Speed and Suction Power

It’s speedy, but like its lightweight frame, that’s not really a good thing. The Aiper tends to zoom quickly across the pool floor, sometimes missing debris completely because there wasn’t enough time for the lower suction power to bring it through the intake.

Cleaning Efficiency

Pool owners might be tempted to deal with the Aiper’s poor coverage if it cleaned well, but it doesn’t.

The brand describes these port extenders as brushes, but they’re not brushes at all. They do improve the unit’s suction, but they won’t help dislodge debris or scrub away grime, so that’s misleading. True brushes actively spin and scrub tough contaminants, like you’ll find on the Dolphin Escape with its front spinning HyperBrush. As it is, we’d classify the Aiper as a pool vacuum, not a true robotic pool cleaner.

Weak Battery Performance

Even for a simple pool vacuum, the Aiper is very weak. That’s because it’s powered by a weak battery.

A cordless and hose-free design certainly appeals to some pool owners. But that so-called convenience is actually a huge nuisance on the Aiper 600. You have to charge it for about 4 hours just to get a 50-minute cleaning job out of it. However, after a week of use, we noticed the battery started to lose its charge. We could even charge the Aiper overnight, yet the next day it would only clean for about 30 minutes before needing to be charged again. Based on what other reviewers have to say, that battery life will continue to go down the longer you use the Aiper.

Poor Suction Power

The battery-powered design also affects the Aiper’s suction. Because the battery is disappointingly weak, there’s not nearly enough power left to vacuum efficiently. That’s why you can’t trust it to suck up dirt on the bottom of the pool, and especially larger debris like leaves. Leaves tend to just clog the intake because there’s not enough suction power to get them through it.

Alternatives for Better Pool-Cleaning Power

To get real pool-cleaning power, you need to consider a unit that powers strong motors through a non-tangling cord, like the Dolphin Escape. The Escape has 2 DC motors that can filter 4,000 gallons of water per hour. We reviewed the Dolphin Escape and absolutely loved it.

If you want more of an automated solution, look at the Dolphin Cayman. In our review of the Dolphin Cayman, we loved the programmable weekly timer. This allows you to set it and forget it. No recharging daily, just automated pool cleanings.

Filtration Issues

But even if the Aiper were powerful enough to deep clean your pool, the filtration system would still let you down.

The mesh filter liner pops off of the filter tray pretty easily, but it isn’t fine enough to deep clean small particles that can make pool water cloudy. While the filter tray does hold some debris, it’s not nearly large enough to capture things like leaves or pine needles.

But what’s more frustrating is the poor design of the whole filtration system. When you lift the Aiper out of the pool after a cleaning job, the water it empties through its ports tends to flush out what the filtration system had already captured. So that debris goes right back into your pool.

Usability Frustrations

In terms of usability, the Aiper is very frustrating.

It’s supposed to stop at a wall when it finishes a cleaning job. That way you can use the hook attachment and simply lift it out of the water by its handle. But in our testing, the Aiper stopped in the middle of the pool about half the time. That means you may need to wade all the way into the water to get it.

Long-Term Issues

The real usability issues show up after using the Aiper a few times. Like we mentioned earlier, the battery holds a shorter charge after several uses - so much so that a 4-hour charge might leave you with just 15-30 minutes of cleaning.

The cheap plastic components simply aren’t strong enough to hold up to daily, even weekly use. One of the tabs on the top of our unit broke after 2 weeks, and we’ve had several users tell us about wheels falling off within a short time.

Warranty and Return Policy

The Aiper does have a 30-day return policy, but it also has an uncanny ability to wait to show its wear and defective parts once that return policy ends. The brand says it comes with a 1-year warranty, but we can’t find the fine print on that warranty. To put that into perspective, the Dolphin Escape comes with twice the coverage with a clear 2-year warranty.

Final Verdict

Ultimately, we can’t find a reason to recommend the Aiper Seagull 600 pool cleaner. Despite what the product listing says, it’s not a true robotic pool cleaner. Instead, we’d classify it as a sub-par pool vacuum. What’s more, it won’t last you a full pool season without some major issue popping up that will make it unusable. Based on our experience and those of online reviews, the Aiper will likely be dead in the water within 2-3 months. It may look shiny and perform decently for a few weeks, but time and use are its enemy.

A Better Alternative

A better option would be to invest a bit more into a true robotic pool cleaner, like the Dolphin Escape. It’s specially designed for above-ground pools, but it doesn’t skimp on power or cleaning ability. It can climb walls and actively scrub debris away, has onboard logic for efficient cleaning routes, and its oversized debris basket can hold everything from sand to dozens of leaves.

As always, you can read real reviews and learn more about dozens of other robotic pool cleaners at poolbots.com. Visit our website to find the best deals, tips, and tricks for pool ownership, and special buys that’ll help you enjoy your pool to its full potential.