Bublue BuVortex V5 Pool Skimmer Review: An Impractical Cleaner

There are four arms around the cylinder that help the device float and stay upright. One arm contains the power port and on/off button, as well as a Bluetooth button that is used to pair with the Bublu mobile app. The only additional component is a mesh filter that sits beneath the filter basket. This filter, in turn, is housed inside a circular frame, which keeps it in place. All told, there are five pieces to the device, a fact that will become more important later when I discuss cleaning.

Overall, the robot is quite long, requiring a full 1.5 feet of water depth to operate.

Sorry, not solar

Your first order of business with the BeauVortex V5 is to charge its 7800 mAh battery, because – and this is essential – the unit has no solar-powered charging function, which is a standard feature on traditional pool skimmer robots. The unit takes a massive four hours to charge and is specified to last for three hours. I got about four hours of runtime during my testing.

Photograph: Christopher Null

The lack of solar energy alone can be a problem for most people. (It is for me, at least.) When I use a pool skimmer, I usually leave it in the pool and let it run for a week or more, letting it sleep overnight when the battery drains 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 periodically.

Even after four hours of usage, operationally, the device makes no sense. Imagine the occasions when you need a skimmer most – during the fall, especially, when leaves are constantly falling. Four hours of skimming won’t make any difference to a day’s worth of debris landing on your pool’s surface, and even if you dutifully retrieve the robot, recharge it and run it a second time, you’re still only spending a third of a 24-hour period skimming. Although no skimmer is perfect, with the Buvortex, there is no way to prevent most leaves from ending up on the pool floor or, at best, in the wall skimmer.