Pros & Cons
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- Cleans pool walls, floor, waterline, and surface
- Accurate AI mapping
- Good battery life
- Dispenses clarifier
- Dual filter baskets
- Easy to remove from pool and recharge
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- Expensive
- No underwater control
When we reviewed the Beatbot AquaSense Pro ($2,199) last summer, we praised its cleaning prowess, long battery life, and ease of use, but lamented its hefty price and lack of underwater control. The Beatbot AquaSense 2 Ultra still can’t be controlled while submerged, and at $3,550, it’s even more costly, but it’s also the most advanced robot pool cleaner we’ve tested. It features AI-powered pool mapping, advanced debris detection, and multiple motors and scrubbers that work to keep your entire pool clean from top to bottom. If you’re looking for the ultimate in hands-off pool maintenance, this is it. If you're looking to spend less, however, consider the $1,499 Dreame Z1 Pro. It won’t skim the surface of your pool, but it offers excellent cleaning performance, cordless operation, and underwater control for less than half the price, making it our Editors' Choice.
Design and Features: Built for Whole-Pool Cleaning
The AquaSense 2 Ultra looks similar to last year’s model, but there are a number of differences, the most prominent of which is the addition of scrubbers mounted on the left and right sides of the robot that clean the corners and edges of your pool. On the front, there’s an AI Vision camera, an infrared sensor, and an ultrasonic sensor that work with Beatbot’s HybridSense AI to scan your pool and create a cleaning map. Additional infrared sensors are located on the bottom and the left side of the robot, and there’s a secondary ultrasonic sensor on the left side as well. A built-in water pressure sensor calculates depth and measures the water temperature.
Beatbot's latest robot is designed for in-ground and above-ground pools of up to 3,875 square feet in size with a depth of 1.3 to 9.8 feet. It has a 5,500GPH (gallons per hour) suction rating, an IP68 waterproof rating, and three preset cleaning mode buttons. Floor mode cleans just the floor of the pool; Standard mode cleans the floor, walls, and waterline; and Pro mode cleans the floor, walls, waterline, and surface. There's also a Custom mode button on the unit that you can configure using the Beatbot mobile app (available for Android and iOS devices) to set the cleaning areas and duration according to your needs.
Other modes available via the app include AI Quick mode for touch-ups, MultiZone mode for pools with multiple steps and platforms, and Eco mode, which cleans the entire pool once every two days. You can leave the robot in the pool while in Eco mode, and it will automatically park itself on the side when the battery needs charging.
(Credit: Beatbot)The AquaSense 2 Ultra comes with a charging dock, a retrieval hook (in case the robot gets stuck), four side brushes (plus screws and a screwdriver for attaching them to the robot), a waterproof cover, a clarifying agent kit, and a user guide.
The AquaSense 2 Ultra measures 10.9 by 17.2 by 17.8 inches (HWD), weighs 29.1 pounds, has a dark-blue-and-black and finish, and is powered by a 13,400 mAh lithium-ion rechargeable battery that will provide up to 10 hours of continuous surface cleaning (skimming), up to 5 hours of floor cleaning, or up to 4.5 hours of wall and waterline cleaning on a charge. The docking station needs around 4.5 hours to fully charge the robot's battery.
For propulsion, the AquaSense 2 Ultra uses 11 motors, up from nine in the AquaSense Pro. Two of the motors are used for propulsion while in surface cleaning mode, and two are used to regulate buoyancy. When the robot enters surface cleaning mode, it activates the SmartDrain water release feature, which allows it to rise to the top of the water. This technology is also used to send the robot to the side of the pool where it waits on the surface for easy retrieval when it has completed a work cycle or when its battery is low.
The robot has a pair of front-to-back track wheels and six guide wheels (three on each side) for smooth 360-degree navigation. It uses front and rear scrubbers to loosen dirt and debris and has a two-layered filter basket system. The outer basket captures fine particles like sand, while the inner basket catches everything else. To clean the filters, simply pop open the cover on the top of the robot, grab the handle to remove both baskets, and use a garden hose to wash away the debris.
On top of the robot, you'll find a water output port, a handle, and a control panel with a power button and the four aforementioned mode buttons (Floor, Custom, Pro, and Standard). There is also an LED indicator that glows green when the battery is fully charged, yellow when the battery is getting low, orange when the battery is almost fully depleted, and purple when the clarifier is being dispensed. A breathing green light tells you that the battery is charging.
Also on top is a covered compartment for the clarifying agent kit, which releases a natural solution to help clear up cloudy water. You can activate the clarifier by pressing and holding the Floor button for three seconds or using the app to program it. The kit lasts for one month, and additional kits cost $49.99 for a two-pack.
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The Beatbot App: Useful Custom Cleaning Options
The AquaSense 2 Ultra is equipped with a dual-band Wi-Fi radio for connecting to your network and a Bluetooth radio for pairing with the Beatbot mobile app. As with the AquaSense Pro—and all other pool cleaners for that matter—the Ultra loses its connections while submerged, so you’ll have to wait until it surfaces to reconnect with the mobile app, change work modes, end the current work cycle, and send the robot to the side of the pool for retrieval. However, when it's floating on top of the water, you can control surface navigation using the app. One of the features we like most about the Polaris Freedom Plus ($1,699) is the ability to manually steer the robot while it's underwater using a light-activated remote.
(Credit: Beatbot/PCMag)The Beatbot app opens to a screen that has a picture of the robot and an enter button. Tap the button to open the main device screen, which displays the last AI-generated map of your pool, the outdoor air temperature, the battery level, and a panel showing the last cleaning cycle statistics, including total time and square feet covered. At the bottom of this screen are Park and Remote buttons that only appear when the robot is above the waterline and in Wi-Fi range. Use the Park button to have the robot move to a side of the pool, and use the four-way Remote dial to steer the robot while it is in surface cleaning mode.
At the very bottom of the main device screen is a mode panel that, when tapped, lets you select a preset cleaning mode or create a custom cycle. Once you’ve selected a mode, tap the play arrow to send it to the robot before placing the unit in the water. To view the robot’s entire cleaning history log, tap the cleaning cycle panel. This displays a cleaning record, by date, that shows which mode was used for that particular cycle. When you tap any cycle on the list, it opens a screen with additional details, including the mode, total area cleaned, duration, water temperature, and floor, surface, and wall area coverage stats. At the bottom of this screen, you’ll find an AI-generated map for that cycle.
To access the robot’s settings, tap the three dots in the upper-right corner of the main screen. Here you can view the cleaning history, enable remote steering for surface cleaning, enable or disable voice prompts, update the firmware, and change temperature units (Fahrenheit, Celsius) and area units (square feet, square meters).
Setup and Performance: Easy and Efficient
Setting up the AquaSense 2 Ultra is easy. After unboxing the robot, I attached the two side scrubbers to the cleaner and the two legs to the charging station. I placed the robot on the charging station, plugged it in, and while it was charging, I downloaded the app and created an account. I used my phone’s camera to scan the QR code on the robot's lid, selected my Wi-Fi SSID, and entered my password when prompted. I gave the robot a name to complete the pairing process.
The AquaSense 2 Ultra performed wonderfully in testing. I set it to Pro mode, placed it in my 16-by-32-foot inground pool, and waited a few seconds for it to completely submerge, at which point it began scanning the floor and walls. After a few minutes, it did a lengthwise lap around the floor of the pool before switching to a side-to-side sweep of the pool floor, effectively scrubbing the bottom and sucking up sand as well as larger debris such as berries and leaves. It then moved on to the walls before discharging water and rising to the top for surface cleaning. The robot didn’t get every leaf and bug floating on the surface, but it did manage to suck up most of the surface debris and saved me from having to use the net.
(Credit: Beatbot)The robot needed 6 hours to run a Custom mode that I created, which included two complete surface area passes. A single Pro mode cycle took 5 hours and 55 minutes, a single Standard mode cycle took 2 hours and 47 minutes, and an AI Quick mode run lasted 2 hours and 2 minutes. In comparison, the AquaSense Pro needed 6.5 hours to complete a Pro mode cycle and 2 hours and 29 minutes to complete a Standard cycle. The Polaris Freedom Plus took 2.5 hours for a full cleaning, but that doesn’t include surface skimming.
Beatbot's AI mapping feature did a good job of surveying and creating a map of my pool. It had no trouble cleaning my three pool steps and never had to be rescued. I was able to easily steer the robot using the app while it was in surface cleaning mode, and it always responded to my parking commands. Additionally, it always rose to the surface and parked itself along a side wall when it completed a work cycle or when it was low on battery power.
Cleanup was easy. I popped open the cover, removed both baskets, and gave them a good rinsing using my garden hose. Whenever I removed the baskets, the voice assistant reminded me that they had been removed.