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Surrounding the cylinder are four arms that help the device float and stay upright. One arm has a power port and an on/off button, plus a Bluetooth button that is used to initiate a connection to the Bublue mobile app. The only accessory is the mesh filter that sits under the filter basket. This filter, in turn, is kept inside a round frame, which holds it well. All told, there are five parts to this device, a fact that will be very important when I discuss cleaning.
Put together, this robot is very tall, requiring a water depth of 1.5 to operate.
Sorry, No Solar
Your first order of business with the BuVortex V5 is to charge its 7800 mAh battery, because—and this is important—the device does not have a solar charge function, common in skimmer-type robots. The device takes four hours to charge and is said to work for three. I spent about four hours trying.
Photo: Christopher Null
Not having solar power alone can be a confusing thing for many. (It’s for me, at least.) When I use a pool skimmer, I usually throw it in the pool and run it for a week or so, letting it sleep overnight when the battery dies and turning it on again in the morning when the sun comes up. The beauty of solar power on a skimmer is that you don’t have to think about it. I can’t remember the last time I plugged mine in. The only time I take the skimmer out of the pool is to clean it every once in a while.
Even with four hours of running time, when working, the device does not sound good. Just think of the times when you need a skimmer the most – during the fall, especially when the leaves are falling all the time. A four-hour swim will not make a day’s waste land on the surface of your pool, and even if you remove the robot properly, recharge it, and run it again, you are only counting one third of the 24-hour period. Although no skimmer is perfect, with BuVortex, there is no way to prevent many leaves from falling to the bottom of the pool or, better, to the skimmer wall.
