Dolphin Proteus DX3 Automaitc Robotic Pool Vacuum Cleaner, Wall Climbing, Active Scrubber Brush, Ideal for In-ground Pools up to 33 FT in Length

Excellent vacuum. Only the 2nd auto vacuum I've owned but this one is great. Cleans 90% of the floor in about 2 hours. Has 3 speeds. Easy to use .

I had the Dolphin Nautilus before purchasing this Proteus and it was terrible. It left black marks all over my plaster from the black plastic body on it, it didn't pick up everything, I watched it roll right over leaves and not pick it up, and the filter was thin and didn't hold a lot and didn't hold fine particles like sand. I went through the return process bc of the black marks it left in the pool. Maytronix did refund me entirely, thank goodness. I decided to try the Proteus out and I'm so happy I did! It has a white body, so no black marks at all. If you have plaster, don't get the Nautilus. It's a common complaint that they haven't addressed for some reason. The filter basket is huge. It holds leaves, the squiggly fuzzy things from oak trees, and the mesh is so fine it even holds sand and fine dirt. It's easy enough to clean. I usually clean the bigger debris out and then put it in the sink to get the smaller/finer things out. The suction is great! I watched it approach a leaf and you could see it sucking it up before ever rolling over it. I never saw that with the Nautilus. It still climbs the walls of my pool like the Nautilus which is great for helping clean because brushing is hard for me for some reason. It doesn't go on my stairs, but it does go on the bench seat. I just brush my stairs when I brush the pool, no big deal, I'm brushing anyway. My only complaint is it pops a lot of wheelies and does a lot of stopping and reversing which makes you think it's not efficient or doing the job. However, it does still clean the pool in one cycle and that's all that matters to me. It can pop wheelies all it wants as long as it still cleans in one cycle. Overall I'm very impressed with the Proteus and even happier because it's hundreds less than the Nautilus, but better in my opinion.

I have had my Maytronics Dolphin Proteus DX3 for less than a year and it has quit working for the second time. It is not a large pool, there are no kids around, it is mostly undisturbed except by the pool maintenance man who keeps it cleaned. Yet 3-4 months after purchase it quit running. I would turn it on it would start and run for maybe a minute then stopped. Manufacturer troubleshooting could not fix it so I mailed it back to them for repair, and they made a point that they were doing me a favor by not charging me for shipping it to them, which I thought was odd considering it was under initial warranty. In any case it was 'fixed', and returned to me. Several months later it stopped working again, this time the controller, when turned on, would light up briefly then turnoff on its own, then a second or two later wouild flash all lights on the controller then shut off completely. Again calling the manufacturer for troubleshooting and again they determined it needed to be mailed back to them for repair. Now it is still under the first year warranty but they insisted I had to pay for shipping it back to them for the repair, which since it requires special handling i would need to pay someone like UPS to box and ship, which my estimated cost based on size and weight was going to be around 200 dollars. I am throwing it away having learned a hard lesson and will be more discerning in what brand I select for my next pool sweep. i can only caution you on buying Maytronics products, it would appear they need a lot of repair, and the cost of shipping will exceed the value of the product quickly

I just began using this cleaner today, so I'll update this review after a year, or at least after I've used it for a while. I purchased the Proteus DX3 because my old Polaris Sport 8050 (for which I paid $1,000) died after only four years. When I took it in to my pool store to be fixed, I learned that the warranty is only two years and that four years is actually longer than the average lifespan. The only way to fix it is to replace the entire motor module, which costs about as much as a new Proteus. The store employee actually told me that Dolphin pool cleaners are supposed to be more reliable, and so... First impression: (1) this machine weighs less than the Polaris and pulls out of the pool MUCH more easily, in part because the water drains out of it much more quickly. That's a welcome improvement, because the one thing I really hated about the Polaris was getting it out of the pool. (2) I like this filter basket better. You pull it out of the machine and then undo a snap on the bottom to let the debris fall out. Hose it off and put it back in - very easy! Without going into needless detail, this process was more cumbersome with the polaris basket. After one use, my extremely subjective impression is that the Dolphin cleans about as well as the Polaris did, for about half the price. Win! You do need to buy a caddy for the machine (at least I did - it protects the scrub brush from getting bent out of shape). And at $100, it's absurdly overpriced. (I also purchased it on Amazon, and you can read my review of it.) Whatever... I'll update this review after further use, but so far I'm pleased. I rated it four stars, rather than five, because I have no idea how long it will last. If this ends up lasting 5+ years, I'll come back and give it another star! Update #1: after about a month of use or so, my impression is that the Polaris is a better, more efficient cleaner. It has two scrubbers instead of one. The Dolphin seems to stop a lot and "think" about what it's doing next. The polaris also has a larger filter basket. That said, at the end of the day, as far as I can tell, my pool is just as clean with the Dolphin, even if it takes longer. At half the price, I would definitely buy it over the Polaris robot. Update #2: having now used the Dolphin to open the pool (I cover it during the winter), I can affirm that the Polaris was definitely a better cleaner. Last year when I used it to open the pool, the layer of dirt on the filter basket was MUCH thicker. For whatever reason, it just did a better job of "vacuuming" the pool. Now, having said that, the Dolphin did get my pool clean - it just took a day or so longer. I had to keep running it, pull it out to clean the filter basket, repeat, etc. Even so, given that this is (again) HALF the cost of the Polaris, I'm still pleased.

I tried a battery powered cleaner and it just didn't seem to have whatever it needed to get the bottom clean. After 4 straight days of use there was still very noticeable dirt on the pool bottom so I returned it. 10 days later the DX3 cleaned up the entire pool with no noticeable dirt remaining. Now I use it 2 or 3 times a week and the pool never looked better. Love it!