Keeping a pool clean is a challenging task, especially if you have a large number of visitors. This is what makes maintaining large hotel pools and water parks so difficult. The more people there are, the greater the chance of mildew and other bacteria clinging to the sides and bottom.
Large pools require daily or weekly cleaning to maintain a hygienic environment for swimmers, but draining and scrubbing the pool clean is time-consuming and labor-intensive. This is what makes large pool owners turn to robotic cleaners to solve the problem.
In this article, we’re going to take a close look at three of Dolphin’s most prized industrial-grade robotic pool cleaners – the Dolphin H50, the Dolphin H80, and the Dolphin H120 robotic pool cleaner.
Their model number indicates the maximum pool size in feet that each model can clean. These different models are designed for cleaning pools of various sizes, though they’d probably be overkill for most residential-grade pools. To give you a better understanding of the three models here, let’s just right into our comparison.
Patented Swivel Technology
H50, H80, and H120
One amazing thing that Dolphin has done is create anti-tangle swivel technology. This means that no matter where the robot turns, the power cord won’t twist and tangle, ensuring that it won’t snap underwater, nor will it become damaged due to changing directions numerous times.
All three models come with the proprietary technology, so no matter which one you get, you can rest assured that you’re getting the best cord-saving technology that anybody has to offer.
Accurate Navigation
H50, H80, and H120
Another impressive feature on all three of these models is the ability to detect underground obstacles (e.g., steps between pool depths) that’ll cause the robot to flip onto its belly. Instead, the robot’s sensors detect anything that could potentially ruin its trajectory and avoids the hurdle entirely before resuming its cleaning task. It beats having to dive into the pool to fetch the robot whenever it stumbles or topples over.
Cleaning Cycle
H50
The cycle refers to how long it takes for the robot to filter and clean a pool. The H50 has a maximum worth area for 50-foot pools and has a cleaning cycle of only 3 hours. For a large 50-foot pool, that’s hardly anything, and your pool with have reduced downtime in between cleaning sessions.
H80 and H120
The H80 and the H120 both come with three cleaning options – Quick, Standard, and Enhanced. Depending on how dirty your pool is or when the last cleaning cycle was, you’ll want to choose an appropriate cleaning option. The time needed for each cleaning option is 4, 6, and 8 hours, respectively.
Conclusion: The H50 cleans the fastest (only 3 hours), but understand that it has a maximum area-cleaning capacity of only 50-foot pools, whereas the H120 can clean 120-foot pools in just 4 hours (quick option). Regarding time-efficiency, the H120 is the fastest working robot of the three here.
Water Filtration (Gallons-per-Hour)
H50 and H80
The miraculous thing about Dolphin’s H series is that they don’t just scrub the sides and floor of your pool clean, but they also help in eliminating microscopic particles and organisms with their preinstalled water-filtration systems.
Both the H50 and the H80 have a filtration rating of 4,233 GPH. We’d expect the H80 to filter water quicker since it has more water to deal with (80-foot pool-cleaning capacity).
H120
The H120 works double the speed of the H50 and H80. It can filter up to 8,266 GPH, making quick work of filtering water and ensuring a safer swimming environment. The GPH increase isn’t proportional to the H50, despite it having more than twice the cleaning capacity.
Conclusion: The problem with the H80 is that it filters the same amount of water in the same amount of time as the H50. As for the H120, at only double that of the H50 while being built for pools more than twice the size, this means that it’s not working as efficiently as the H50. Even though the H50 is the most time-efficient model here concerning filtering water, this doesn’t mean it’ll work just as well in larger 80- to 120-foot pools.
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Remote Control
H50
Many of Dolphin’s pool-cleaning models for both residential and industrial pools come with a handy remote control. This allows users to manually control the robot to scrub hard-to-reach areas such as pool steps and around ladders.
Unfortunately, the H50 doesn’t come with a remote control for spot cleaning. The robot will fidget around a tight-fitting spot and turn around and resume work. Setting cleaning schedules and telling your robot to surface can be done using the caddy (included).
H80 and H120
Both the H80 and the H120 come with remote controls. This allows users to do a little bit of spot cleaning that the robot is either unwilling or unable to do without a human’s touch. Besides, you can schedule cleaning cycles and select between modes with the remote control. These models also include a caddy.
Conclusion: Even though manually controlling your robot is technically manual labor, it’s an essential part of pool maintenance, especially since each of these robot’s boxy shapes won’t allow them to get into every nook and cranny. For this reason, we believe that the H80 and the H120 are significantly better than the H50 in this regard.
- Ideal for hotels, motels and resort pools. Cleans floors, walls and waterline. Multiple...
- Large capacity filter bag. Dual scrubbing brushes attack tough dirt, debris and...
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Dolphin H50 vs H80 vs H120: Bottom Line
It’s really difficult to compare three models with three different specifications and purposes. The Dolphin H50 robotic pool cleaner is, in many regards, the most time-efficient model of the three, but this doesn’t mean it’ll perform as admirably in large pools.
As for the Dolphin H120, its large cleaning capacity means being placed in 50-foot pools is overkill, and you’ll end up investing in unused potential.
- Ideal for hotels, motels and resort pools. Cleans floors, walls and waterline. Multiple...
- Large capacity filter bag. Dual scrubbing brushes attack tough dirt, debris and...
If you decide to go with Dolphin’s H series for industrial-grade pools, it’s important to know the total size of your pool and how much needs to be cleaned. All three models have the same cleaning options and modes, and they all perform extremely well in their specific environments.
However, since the H50 is missing a remote control and a spot-cleaning feature, we’d recommend going with at least the Dolphin H80 to clean small 50-foot pools.
- No longer sold
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If you have any questions or comments, please add them below in the comment section. Similarly, please let us know if you spot any mistakes or omissions. Thanks!
Last Update: 2023-12-03 | Affiliate links/Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
