Dolphin Premier Review

The Dolphin Premier does everything right. From Multi-Media, NanoFilters, and being built on the ProLine commercial robotic pool cleaner platform, there isn’t another cleaner quite like the Premier. Living up to its name, the Dolphin Premier is a total pro when it comes to cleaning your pool. The Premier is a part of Maytronics' Dolphin ProLine, which are some of the best robotic pool cleaners out there.

"If you want the best robot for leaves, the Dolphin Premier is it."

We’re excited about this year's model for many reasons. It’s one of the most advanced, intelligent, and full-featured robotic pool cleaners on the market today.

Rated the Best Robotic Pool Cleaner by USA Today, the Dolphin Premier stands alone as the only robot with 4 filtration options. As the flagship model in the Maytronics lineup, let's dive in and see how the Premier stacks up.

A part of the advanced Dolphin ProLine, it uses stronger commercial-grade motors, NanoFilters, and Multi-Media – which puts the Dolphin Premier in a category above nearly all other Dolphin pool cleaners.

How We Tested The Premier

We tested the newest 2024 model of the Dolphin Premier for over 4 weeks, and we’ll share our findings. Spoiler alert: It was impressive. After testing it in a 40ft vinyl pool and 35ft gunite pool, it was one of the best pool robots we’ve tested.

A robotic pool cleaner such as the Dolphin Premier is way more efficient than older pressure-side and suction-side cleaners. By using powerful, yet energy-efficient motors, these robots can consume over 90% less energy than older pool cleaners. With an onboard D9 Microprocessor, the Premier intelligently navigates your pool creating the most efficient route.

We’ll walk you through all its impressive features, including waterline cleaning, smart navigation, Multi-Media Filtration, NanoFilters, and more. The Premier costs about $1200, so it’s not a budget cleaner. But – it has the power to do everything for you, picking up where lesser robots leave off.

What's Included with the Dolphin Premier

Let’s look at what comes with the Dolphin Premier.

The unit itself is a solid unit with a high-quality, plastic body. The color scheme looks great in the water and holds up well in harsh pool conditions. Premier also has this buoyant handle that makes dropping the Premier into the water and pulling it back out of the water easy. It also feels sturdy, and way more well-built than a lot of other pool cleaners.

Included is a 60-foot cable with Dolphin’s patented anti-tangle swivel, so the cord won’t tangle. This swivel has a genuine 360-degree rotation and worked well during testing. We didn’t see any tangles during the four weeks of testing the 2024 model.

One of the most sought-after features of the Premier is Multi-Media Filtration. Most pool robots come with one type of media. Premier offers four types. Most pool cleaners come with one cartridge or bag for all types of debris. The Premier has an impressive four media types: standard cartridge filters, NanoFilters, Oversized Leaf Bag, and optional disposable debris bags.

With Multi-Media, you can swap between all four filters in just seconds. Allowing you to customize each clean to your pool's needs. If you have a ton of leaves, swap to the leaf bag. Or if your pool has a lot of small particles like algae or cloudy pool water, swap to the NanoFilters.

The included Weekly Timer is programmable, so you can schedule the Premier to run daily, 2 times a day, or 3 times a day. This is a must-have. Without it, you’ll have to go out and turn your cleaner on and off manually, which makes no sense. And with Media-Alert, there’s a handy indicator light that tells you when the filter media is full. This is another nice feature. You won't have to wonder if it’s time to clean the robot. You’ll get a flashing LED when it’s time to clean.

For all its features, the Premier is surprisingly easy to get going. It’s a true plug-and-play design, so it’s ready to clean right out of the box. No setup, assembly, or booster pump is required.

Dolphin Premier Cleans the Whole Pool

In terms of coverage, the Dolphin Premier is excellent. During testing, it covered the entire pool, including the floor, the lower wall, the upper wall, and even the tile line. A review of the spec sheet reveals there are a lot of reasons why Premier can consistently reach and clean every inch of your pool.

Commercial Performance with ProLine

First, the Premier is engineered differently from other Dolphin robots. It is a part of the Dolphin ProLine. It’s built on the same platform as the commercial robots.

Large Dual Stabilizers

The dual stabilizers offer exceptional waterline cleaning. This is such an important robot feature for climbing to the very top of the wall. The Premier is the king of the tile line. It attacks scum and buildup at the waterline, which is where most algae, bacteria, and biofilm accumulate. With consistent, excellent performance at and above the waterline, the Premier takes a big responsibility off of its pool owner.

So, the Premier can reach the hard spots. All of them. But how does it clean them?

HyperGrip Tracks Grip the Walls

First, these HyperGrip tracks are key to maintaining traction on pool surfaces. With a traditional wheel, it will often slip on wet pool surfaces. But these rubber tracks cling to wall surfaces like an underwater superhero.

Dual Commercial Motors

The Premier’s powerful dual commercial-grade DC motors are another key to its coverage. The Premier has larger motors than most other Dolphin robots. They’re the same size motors as the units found in the commercial Dolphin robots. With these motors, the Premier filters over 75 gallons per minute – that's over 4500 gallons per hour!

The extra power propels the Premier up coves, steps, even from the deepest part of the deep end to the waterline. And – they’re about 90% more energy-efficient than old-school pool cleaners.

Intelligence also plays a big part in the Premier’s coverage. It has an onboard microprocessor that uses SmartNav 2.0 software to map the pool and then create the most efficient cleaning route.

That way, it maximizes coverage and doesn’t waste time going over the same areas repeatedly. This, combined with dual stabilizers, gives the Premier precise control and positioning and makes it possible to adhere to the vertical pool surface up to the waterline and even slightly above the waterline. Watching the Premier in action, we were amazed at how it consistently seemed to defy gravity.

These dual HyperBrushes are made of durable rubber that has specifically designed bristles. They are fast, completing about 1 rotation every second. That’s a lot of scrubbing power. These are especially good for tough debris, like algae, bacteria, and biofilm. They can dislodge the grime that you’ve always had to scrub away by hand.

With how mobile the Premier is, Dolphin designed it to vacuum while it moves forward and backward. So even as it descends the wall or shimmies out of a tight corner, it’s still vacuuming debris.

A Step Above: NanoFiltration

The Premier does a great job at capturing the nitty-gritty, but it also makes the pool visibly clean and clear due to its pleated NanoFiltration. Exclusive to Dolphin ProLine and Max-Series robots, these filters do the dirty work for you as they capture smaller particles that other pool robots miss. With the high surface area, it can filter 75 gallons of water a minute, and our test pool was way more clear after just one cleaning cycle.

These NanoFilters are the Gen-2 filters from Maytronics. This marks the beginning of a new era at Maytronics. Included in all ProLine models, these filters lead the market as the best filters available.

This is a big statement. But we think the Premier has the best filtration system on the market today. Why? Multi-media. It comes with 4 different filter media, so you can customize cleaning jobs.

If you need a deep clean, use the pleated Nanofilter to remove the smallest micron particles. These are particles that pass right through 95% of robotic pool cleaners. Use the standard filter for everyday cleanings. Get out the leaf bag for all the large debris-like leaves that may fall into your pool. We were amazed at the size of the leaf bag when compared to every other filter on the market today.

Just look at what we were able to fit inside this oversized bag. And if you don’t want to clean filters at all, well, you’re also in luck, just use the disposable debris bags. It’s an innovative move and provides a whole new level of convenience. It’s especially a good choice when cleaning up during pool openings.

Easy to Use and Setup

As far as usability goes, the Premier is very simple to use. One of our favorite things about the Premier is that it has real buttons on the power supply for full control of settings. The power supply is also programmable, so it will start automatically every time you need the Premier to clean your pool. And the media light lets you know when the filter is full.

Efficient

Despite its power, the Premier is remarkably energy efficient. It requires only 180 watts, while traditional AC-powered cleaners use up to 1800. To put it into perspective, the Premier costs about 5 cents an hour to operate.

Accessories Available

Dolphin sells a handheld remote control and caddy separately. The remote control is a nice option if you want to spot-clean your pool or let the kids have some fun, but we wouldn’t say it’s a must-have. However, you may want a caddy to make transporting and storing your robot easier.

Longer 3 Year Warranty

The Premier comes with the best warranty in the industry – 3 years. That’s 50% longer than other Dolphin robots! It’s not pro-rated or limited to several cycles. If Premier doesn’t perform as promised in that 3-year window, Maytronics will stand behind it. To put the value in perspective, the cost of a motor or power supply out of warranty could be $200 - $300.

Is the Dolphin Premier Worth it?

So, $1199 is a significant amount of money. Is the Dolphin Premier worth it?

Absolutely, it is worth every penny. This robotic pool cleaner does it all while offering Nanofiltration, Multimedia, and complete coverage, including the waterline. Most cleaners leave some part of the pool uncleaned, so manual cleaning is inevitable, whether it’s scrubbing the waterline, using the handheld vacuum for missed spots, or pulling out large debris. Not the Premier. It takes care of all of it.

If you want to change your relationship with your pool for the better, we can’t recommend the Dolphin Premier enough. It’s an investment, but it can do all – and we mean ALL – the dirty work for you.

As always, you can read real reviews and learn more about the Dolphin Premier and 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.