Like most pool equipment companies, Beatbot wants to own your entire pool cleaning setup. The idea is that their Sora 30 takes care of everything below the surface, like the floor, the walls, and the waterline, while their solar-powered iSkim floats on the surface and grabs leaves, bugs, and other debris before they sink. Beatbot sells the duo as a bundle, and you essentially get an entire cleaning crew for your pool. I am a big fan of bundles like this and, quite frankly, would prefer two separate robots as opposed to one mega-expensive robot that does it all. Aiper also sells a duo bundle, and I suspect other robot cleaning companies will hop on the train soon as well.
I’m mixed on this duo overall. I think the iSkim is a great product that just works. It has a huge 9-liter basket, solar charging, which means it can run 24 hours a day in theory, and an app that makes it very easy to figure out and track. The Sora 30 is a little harder for me to love. It can go a lot of places, supports sun shelf cleaning, which a lot of robots cannot do, but it’s slow, and the 150-micron mesh filter doesn’t work as well as I had hoped, with some silt and pollen drifting back into the water at times. You can get the duo bundle for $1,158 as of the date of this review, but for some reason people in forums are saying you can buy the two individually and ultimately save $30 overall. The prices of these pool cleaners are constantly changing – one day on sale, the next day back to full price. So, keep an eye out if you want to save some dollars.
You can choose two colors for the Sora 30, a deep blue or a bright orange. For me, either color shows up great against my white pool bottom, but you personally might want the color that helps you find it the most. Besides the color choice, the Sora 30 definitely has a budget feel to it and sits one tier below the Beatbot AquaSense line, which is marketed as a more premium line of robot cleaners. It weighs 19.6 pounds dry and is heavier with water and debris in it. I would add another 5lbs on average to it when it’s full. Beatbot sells a caddy to help you move it if you want, but I didn’t think the weight was much of a burden.
The power switch was a little odd for me to figure out at first. It’s a single toggle on top. You push left for Standard mode or right for Preset mode, then let go for a second to start. Hold it left for three seconds to power the unit off. You do not get much feedback when you press it, and the robot can bob on the surface for up to two minutes while it purges air before sinking – much longer than the Aiper Scuba X1 I reviewed a while back, for example.
On first impressions, the iSkim is a mixed bag for me. It’s a lot wider than the Aiper Surfer skimmer, which I like. It floats flat and has rubber bumpers on the corners and sides, and a nice handle for lifting it out of the pool. It feels premium, with its hardware and finish, but the propellers feel exposed to me, and I worry they are fragile and might break over extended use. That didn’t happen to me, but it’s something I worry about. The basket is very large and pops out with the push of a button, which is nice.
The Sora 30 works in in-ground and above-ground pools. It is rated for up to 3,229 square feet of floor cleaning per charge and can work on shallow pool tanning shelves up to 8 inches of water on a platform.
The iSkim never touches the floor, of course, and works on any pool shape – both in-ground and above-ground pools. Beatbot rates the iSkim for saltwater up to 5,000 ppm and chlorine up to 4 ppm. Supposedly you can even run the iSkim under a pool cover if you have the clearance, but that’s not something I was able to test. I simply didn’t have the room. And of course, you’ll need lots of sun to keep the skimmer charged. If you have a lot of shade, you’ll need to purchase the charger.
The Beatbot Sora 30 uses what they call SonicSense ultrasonic mapping to map out your pool. The sensors and mapping work fine. I didn’t have any issues with areas of the pool floor that were left uncleaned, and the auto parking at the surface worked as designed.
The iSkim navigation and coverage work as advertised. It uses a random path with edge cleaning, backed by ultrasonic sensors and dual guided wheels that help it ride along the walls and into the corners. I didn’t have any issues with it being hung up or stuck. If you do have large things in the pool, like toys, floating thermometers, or goggles, make sure to clean those out first, or the iSkim will suck them up.
When compared to the iSkim Ultra, the Ultra version uses path planning and adds side brushes. I don’t think you’re missing much and would recommend getting the regular iSkim version.
Compared to the Aiper Surfer I reviewed a while back, the Beatbot iSkim is both faster moving in the pool and has smarter behavior. The Aiper Surfer would sometimes hit my pool wall or a corner and just sit there for minutes planning its next move. I also experienced issues with the Aiper Surfer getting wedged under my built-in pool skimmer overhang and the water, and it couldn’t navigate out of it. The iSkim didn’t experience that issue at all. Keep in mind that the iSkim is over $100 more in price than the Aiper EcoSurfer S2, so you are paying for more performance. Both products get the job done.
The Sora 30 cleaned every spot I expected it to, except for my steps which it missed some spots. The floor, walls, and waterline were all touched and cleaned adequately. I do not have any shallow shelves for tanning, so I was not able to test the Sora 30’s capabilities there. My steps were about 70% cleaned, with some dirt and debris still there in the corner of the stairs. The 6,800 GPH suction is more than enough for a pool, and the 10,00 mAh battery lived up to its 5 hours of cleaning time before needing a recharge. I was able to clean my entire pool and still have 2 hours of battery life left. I recorded a charge time of 4 hours and 26 minutes with the included 65-watt charger.
On the iSkim front, it was able to clean the surface of my pool, which included leaves, bugs, small tree debris, etc., in around an hour – half the time of the Aiper Surfer, which was my previous favorite pool skimmer. I also never needed to charge it for the month I had it during this review period. Keep in mind that you can clean your pool surface with a net in under 10 minutes, and I recommend you do that if you do not already have the iSkim in the water. Otherwise, I just kept the iSkim in and removed it when we had people over to swim. The iSkim comes with a 10,000mAh battery with a 24-watt solar panel, and Beatbot rates it for up to 28 hours on a full charge with no sun at all. That’s longer than the iSkim Ultra’s rated 18 to 20 hours and the Aiper Eco Surfer S2.
The Sora 30’s top-loading 5.2-liter basket is large and does fine with leaves, bugs, and larger debris but struggles with some of the finer particles like pollen or fine sand and dust. Here in Western Oregon, we have a lot of pollen, but not fine sand or dust. Pollen was often sucked up and then shot back out in the pool on a couple of occasions. Beatbot, however, does sell an ultra-fine dual filter basket on their website for the Sora 30 at a price of $47.99, so if you live in a state with a lot of dust and fine debris, I would recommend picking this up. Higher-end models from Beatbot and Aiper will often come with an ultra-fine filter, but again, that’s built into the price.
The iSkim comes with a 9-liter basket, which is very large and works great. It has a wide 29 x 270mm inlet and an anti-spill baffle that keeps debris from escaping during turns. The mesh is rated at 550 microns, which is coarse, but that’s fine for a skimmer’s job of catching leaves, bugs, and debris. I only wound up emptying mine about once a week and never had it fill up all the way.
The Sora 30 connects over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and the app does a good job with cleaning modes and settings. I was able to scan the QR code to set up the Sora 30 over my Wi-Fi in under 5 minutes. Like every cordless pool robot, it loses the connection once it’s underwater, so you can’t monitor it mid-cycle. Most people get stumped by this, but all robots seem to have this issue. Aiper sells a floating Wi-Fi extender that is solar-powered so you can communicate with your pool cleaner underwater. It’s $299 and has some other information it will tell you about your pool, but at that price it’s better to skip it.
The iSkim stays on the surface of your pool, so it stays connected to the app. Setup is also QR code-based and is very simple to get going. After setup, you get Standard and Eco modes, scheduling, cleaning records, solar charging stats, firmware updates, and a manual remote with an accelerate boost. The one-tap Park button sends it to the pool edge so you can grab it. I rarely used that feature and would just grab it as it naturally came close to the edge. Unlike the Ultra, the basic iSkim doesn’t talk to you, but it does work with 5GHz Wi-Fi as well as 2.4GHz. Using the remote-control features of the app is a cute way to show it off to your friends, but I rarely used them.
I think the Beatbot Sora 30 and iSkim Duo are a great package for anyone wanting a solid no-frills, hardworking pool cleanup team. I have never been a fan of the expensive all-in-one pool cleaners because I worry about battery life, reliability, and price. The advantages of a dedicated skimmer like the iSkim are that it can run basically 24 hours a day with proper sunlight. Your pool will almost certainly have a clean surface, and the Sora 30 does a solid job for the price. What it lacks in features, it makes up for in simplicity and reliability. The Beatbot Sora 30 and iSkim are the best pool cleaner duo on the market right now.
Cordless. Its 10,000mAh battery lasts up to 5 hours on floor-only cycles and about 4.5 hours when it’s cleaning walls and the waterline too.
Yes. It can clean platforms in as little as 8 inches of water, as long as the platform is at least 3.3 by 3.3 feet. Testers found it weak on steps, though.
The Ultra adds a clarifier dispenser, voice announcements, side brushes, underwater sensors, path planning, water temperature readings, and a magnetic wireless charger. The standard iSkim uses a random cleaning path, supports 5GHz Wi-Fi, is rated for longer runtime (28 hours vs. 18–20), and has a 3-year warranty instead of 2. It also costs much less.
No. It charges from its solar panel, and the 64.4W wall adapter is sold separately. In sunny climates, reviewers found solar alone kept it charged.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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