’s in a hotel, country club, spa, swim club, school, or community pool, commercial-grade robotic pool cleaners can’t skimp or just be “okay.” With CDC health recommendations in place for public pools, aquatic supervisors across the nation have no choice but to take the health of their swimmers and purity of their water seriously. And it all starts with cleaning.

For a commercial-grade robotic pool cleaner to pass muster, it has to be durable, efficient, intelligent, and powerful. We judged the Odyssey on these characteristics in a local neighborhood pool and took away some impressive insights on Dolphin’s latest and greatest commercial robotic pool cleaner.

Gravity is Irrelevant
Let us clarify. Gravity is irrelevant to the Odyssey.

Once in the water, the Odyssey climbs walls like it’s a seasoned mountain climber. Many modern robotic pool cleaners tout being able to clean walls, but we’ve been hard-pressed to find the ones that actually stick to the wall the whole way up without falling backwards in defeat. The Odyssey not only climbed the walls of our 65-foot in-ground neighborhood pool, it reached the waterline with every pass-through.

The Odyssey’s gravity-defying attitude is thanks in large part to Dolphin’s game-changing gyroscopic technology. Used in everything from airplanes to the Mars Rover, the three-axis gyroscopic sensors detect and measure the rate of rotation of an object around a particular axis. These advanced sensors monitor and control position, orientation, direction, and rotation. To put it in laymen’s terms, Dolphin engineers used a heck of a lot of science to build a robotic-pool-wonder-cleaner.

Along with the gyroscopic sensors sending constant, precise information to the microprocessor to aid wall climbing and wall/waterline cleaning, the Odyssey has HyperGrip continuous tracks. Instead of lowly wheels that can’t gain traction when climbing slippery surfaces, the Odyssey has bypassed the traditional wheel for continuous rubber tracks. This provides a greater force than wheels and infinitely more grip when climbing vertical walls. We watched the Odyssey climb without struggling, slipping, or falling. And we’re convinced it has mastered this whole gravity-getting-in-the-way debacle.

It Doesn’t Wander
If you’ve owned a pool for more than a few years, you know very well the plight of the wandering pool cleaner. Even the best engineered robotic pool cleaners lose tons of efficiency points because they meander aimlessly through the pool. Without smart technology, older models and lower quality cleaners today will linger too long in one area and completely overlook others.

Not the Odyssey.

The Odyssey actually learns the pool it’s cleaning. Again, we have to harken back to the gyroscopic technology. The Odyssey’s gyroscopic control system powers the SmartNav 3.0, which is a scanning software that ensures every inch of your pool’s surface is reached. It knows where it has and hasn’t been so it avoids overlapping cleaning paths, and it creates the shortest, most efficient cleaning time.

This kind of technology seems promising in a family-sized pool, yet we were skeptical about the Odyssey living up to this hype in a commercial-sized pool. But we ate humble pie as we watched the robot methodically navigate the pool with each pass-through, elegantly and seamlessly climbing walls to the waterline and covering even the deepest corners. There was no lingering or blind wandering, and we were very impressed.

It Doesn’t Get Stuck
Dolphin engineers ruined us forever when they invented their tangle-free 360-degree cord swivel. Maybe it doesn’t sound like much, but trust us – it is.

Even the best pool cleaners can become a thorn in your side if their power cord tangles itself into a relentless heap of knots. When you’re talking about 40, 50, or 60 feet of cord, that’s a lot of headache and backache you have to deal with in order to make it right. But the tangle-free swivel is the game-changer of all game changers, preventing the Odyssey’s 78-foot cord from tangling as it does its cleaning job. Best of all, its durable design is immune to the wear and tear of everyday cleanings (which commercial pools need). So clean away – the cord won’t make trouble for you. It certainly didn’t for us after several cleaning jobs with no hands-on cord intervention.

It's Powerful
The Odyssey packs a powerful punch with triple 3,000 RPM 24-volt DC motors. Many robotic pool cleaners opt for weaker, power-hungry AC motors that require more energy to do less work. But the Odyssey displayed its power in all conditions. It remained firmly planted to the walls of the pool as it climbed to the waterline, powered over drains, and trucked across the floor of the pool with easy steadiness.

It can guzzle 75 gallons of water a minute through its filtration system, but it doesn’t guzzle electricity. The DC motors use about 87% less energy than traditional AC motors, and it costs approximately 5 cents an hour to operate. When you’re talking about daily cleaning of a large commercial pool, those numbers take on a whole new meaning.

Another extension of the Odyssey’s power that stood out to us was the scrubbing brushes. These things are tough, indestructible, and in abundance. Located on either end of the robotic pool cleaner, the brushes rotate at a high RPM to power scrub every inch of the pool. The variation in bristle size makes for even deeper, more thorough cleaning. Best of all, they didn’t show any wear or trapped debris after several cleaning jobs.

It Works Hard
Just take a peek in the filter to see how hard it works. After a 3.5 hour cleaning job the massive top-loading cartridge had accumulated an impressive amount of debris. We’re talking sticks, leaves, dirt, and even a few smaller toys the neighborhood kids had left behind. The pool didn’t even look like it had that much debris in it beforehand, but the Odyssey surprised us with all it managed to pick up.

The Odyssey also comes with two top-loading micron NanoFilters. You can use these to trap small particles like fine algae and other bacteria that may be lurking in the water or on the sides of the pool. After the initial cleaning job that gathered larger debris, we decided to try a short 1.5 hour clean with the Nano Filters. They came back impressively darkened with dirt, algae, and silt that was invisible to the naked eye. For a commercial pool cleaner this went above and beyond our expectation for it to just grab the big stuff. It actually purified the water.

Easy Maintenance
Commercial robotic pool cleaners are notoriously difficult to care for. From weighing an arm and a leg to having impossibly annoying filters to clean, they’re typically a nuisance for whatever poor soul is in charge of them.

We found the Odyssey to be very straightforward and simple maintenance-wise. The filtration system is one of the easiest we’ve seen, like many Dolphin products. The top-loading cartridge comes out with the push of a button and doesn’t perpetually trap debris and fine dirt in its nooks and crannies like smaller, more finnicky cartridges. It snaps apart easily, and all you have to do is dump the debris out, rinse the filters clean, and snap it back together. We’re all kinds of impressed that there’s no debris bag to fight with, yet it can still handle the mass of dirt, grime, and floating gunk.

Weighing 24 pounds, the Odyssey is light compared to many commercial robotic pool cleaners. The triple DC motors give it its heft, but it’s not so heavy you can’t carry it easily. To make life that much simpler, the Odyssey comes with a custom caddy to help cart it around. This is especially helpful in a commercial pool setting when the storage room is far away from the actual pool.

It’s Smart
Besides the gyroscopic technology, the Odyssey comes equipped with several smart technology features that make owning and operating it infinitely easier and more enjoyable than traditional robotic pool cleaners.

The power supply is simple and intuitive, yet its programmable modes let you schedule cleanings regularly for 1.5 hours, 2.5 hours, or 3.5 hours. The remote control also makes for easy spot cleaning or adjusting a cleaning job without having to access the power supply. Plus, the LED alerts on the power supply let you know when a job is complete.

One of Odyssey’s very best features is the SmartNav. Powered by the gyroscopic technology, Dolphin’s SmartNav software actually learns your pool, creating an efficient and optimized cleaning route every time. It scans as it cleans so it doesn’t overlap areas or completely miss others. It also senses obstacles like ladders and pool drains and avoids getting tangled up in them.

The Odyssey Is a Bang for Your Buck
The Dolphin Odyssey commercial robotic pool cleaner costs $1,997.00. In the realm of commercial pool cleaners, that price is unbeatable. The Odyssey is priced like a consumer pool robot yet is jam-packed with commercial capabilities and features. It also comes with a three-year warranty that isn’t limited to the number of hours or cycles it runs, so you can put it to work quickly and confidently.

For moderately sized commercial pools up to 65 feet, we strongly recommend the Odyssey. Its energy efficiency alone offsets the already outstanding up-front price, and its promise of durability makes it a shoe-in for the rigors of commercial pool cleaning. So to all the aquatic operators out there in search of a cost-savvy, overachieving workhorse of a robotic pool cleaner, look no further. The Odyssey is your answer