Why we are not publishing a terms table
Warranty terms change, vary by region, vary between a manufacturer-sold unit and a marketplace listing, and differ between new and factory-renewed stock. A table of specific coverage periods written today would be wrong within a season, and a wrong warranty table is worse than none — it is the kind of thing a reader makes a $900 decision on.
What is durable is the list of things to check, which does not change. Verify the specifics on the manufacturer’s own support page for your exact model and on the listing you are actually buying from, before you buy.
The four things to verify
1. Is the battery covered, and for how long?
This is the one that matters most and the one most often different from the headline figure. Consumable and wear components — batteries, brushes, filters — frequently carry shorter coverage than the machine, or none. Since the battery is what ends a cordless robot’s life, a machine with a long chassis warranty and a short battery warranty is not what the headline suggests.
Related, and worth knowing before you need it: for some machines a third-party replacement pack exists at $69-80, which makes battery coverage less critical. For others nothing exists. The battery section lists what is available.
2. Does opening the unit void it?
On most machines, yes. That matters because replacing a battery yourself means opening the unit. If the machine is still in warranty, claim it rather than fixing it — the charging guide says this too, because it is the most common moment this decision arises.
3. Who pays to ship it?
A pool robot is a heavy, bulky item. “Two-year warranty” means something quite different if you pay freight both ways on a 25 lb machine. Check whether service is handled by a dealer network, by a return-to-base process, or by the marketplace seller.
This is where Maytronics has a structural advantage: Dolphin machines are supported by a dealer network, so service is often local. The same is true for Hayward and Pentair through pool-trade channels.
4. Is the listing new or factory-renewed?
Several of the deepest discounts in this category are renewed units, and the title says so if you read it. Renewed stock can be a sensible buy — but the warranty terms are different and usually shorter. The Aiper Scuba S1 Pro listing is a current example, and we flag it on its review page for exactly this reason.
What is almost never covered, in any brand
- Wear parts. Brushes, tracks, filters. These are consumables and should be budgeted as such — see the cost guide.
- Damage from running outside the specified water chemistry. Running through a shock treatment is a real exclusion risk.
- Damage from freezing. Leaving a machine out over a northern winter.
- Damage from a non-approved charger. Relevant if you replaced a $10 charger with the wrong voltage.
- Commercial use of a residential-rated machine. An HOA or rental pool running a residential machine daily may be outside its terms — which is what commercial-rated models are for.
What this means for the buying decision
Warranty is a bigger factor on a cordless machine than a corded one, because the corded machine’s failure modes are all cheap stocked parts anyway. A Dolphin out of warranty is a $23 brush or a $110 motor. A cordless flagship out of warranty with a dead sealed pack and no aftermarket replacement is a write-off.
That asymmetry is worth real money, and it is part of why the cordless-versus-corded decision comes down to your time horizon.
