Maytronics competes on a completely different axis
Read a Dolphin listing next to an Aiper one and the Dolphin looks worse. No published suction figure. No micron rating. No charging dock. No camera. No surface skimming. No app on half the range.
Then look at what happens in year five. Here is the full parts list for a Nautilus CC Plus, every item a numbered component stocked by pool retailers nationwide:
| Part | Number | Cost |
|---|
| Active front brush | 9983122-R1 | ~$23 |
| Front and rear brush pair | 6101641-R2 | ~$30 |
| Gray tracks, pair | — | ~$35 |
| Ultra-fine filter cartridges, 4-pack | — | ~$19-26 |
| Power supply assembly | 9995678 | ~$130 aftermarket / $210 genuine |
| Pump motor with impeller | 5500029 | ~$110 |
A Dolphin that stops climbing is a $23 brush. One that stops picking up is a $110 motor. One whose transformer dies is a $130 part. There is no battery at all, so the failure that ends most cordless robots simply does not exist here.
That is why owner reports routinely describe seven-to-ten-year service lives, and it is the entire brand proposition. The parts section lists every one of these.
The cheapest fine filtration in the category
Worth isolating, because it is the one place Dolphin beats Aiper on a spec Aiper is supposed to own. Ultra-fine cartridges cost about $19-26 for four. Four is the right quantity: the only practical way to run fine filtration is two in the machine and two drying, because a fine element loads fast.
Aiper’s 3-micron cloths are $33-60 for one or two. A genuine Beatbot fine basket is $60-100 for one. Over five years that gap is real money, and it means a $899 Dolphin delivers genuine fine-particle filtration more cheaply than anything else here — which the Aiper comparison covers.
Rated by length, not area
Maytronics rates by pool length, which is a different convention from Aiper, Beatbot and WYBOT. Match your pool’s longest dimension:
- 33 ft — Escape, Cayman, Nautilus AG
- 40 ft — Nautilus CC Plus
- 50 ft — Nautilus CC Supreme, Wave 60
Buying a 33-foot machine for a 40-foot pool produces the “it never does the far end” complaint, which no setting fixes. This is the single most common sizing error with the brand.
Where Dolphin genuinely loses
- No surface skimming, at any price. Maytronics does not make a skimmer. For a tree-shaded pool, the answer is to pair a Dolphin with a third-party solar skimmer — a combination that beats most single flagships on total debris removed, for less money.
- The cable. It twists on freeform pools. Polaris’ swivel is the only real answer anyone offers — compared here.
- You must site a power supply — dry, shaded, GFCI-protected, within cable reach.
- No published numbers, which makes paper comparisons unflattering.
- Waterline cleaning only on the CC Supreme, which is the expensive end of the range.
Which Dolphin to buy
- Inground pool under 40 ft: Nautilus CC Plus. The default, and the one we recommend most often on this whole site.
- Pool 40-50 ft, or waterline matters: Nautilus CC Supreme.
- Leaf-heavy pool under 33 ft: Escape, for the large top-load bin.
- Want scheduling without an app: Cayman.
- Above-ground pool: Nautilus AG.
- HOA, club or daily-use pool: Wave 60.
