Aiper Scuba S1 review

Aiper Scuba S1: Introduction

Over in Vegas at CES 2024, the Aiper stand was getting plenty of attention, with its new range of Scuba Series robotic pool cleaners doing their thing for all the assembled tech nerds (me included) to see.

The Aiper Scuba S1, which we’ve been testing for the past few weeks at our Florida test lab, isn’t the top-dog of the new series (that honor belongs to the S1 Pro or the N1 Ultra) but it is the pool cleaner that my Aiper contact described to me as its “flagship product” and the one that they were most hopeful could be a big success.

The Scuba S1 picked up an Innovation Award at CES but obviously the real proof was seeing if it could indeed take on our dirty test pool and impress us.

Read on to find out if it did or not in our full Aiper Scuba S1 review.

Design and components

Weighing in at around 16.5lbs and measuring 44.45 x 38.86 x 22.1cm, the Scuba S1 is a lot more compact than its predecessor, the Seagull, and it’s a lot slicker in the looks department.

The shiny black domed top is nicely supported by a grey trim and the turquoise accents really make the whole unit pop.

On the front you’ll find the LED power button and a little surrounding display, and around the back there’s a handle to carry the unit around and the port where the charger goes in. This is a totally cordless cleaner, you’ll close this port and no wires will be attached to the Scuba S1 when it’s cleaning at all.

Replacing the four wheels we saw on the Seagull are a pair of caterpillar treads, designed to give the Aiper more grip when climbing walls.

Flip the unit over an you’ll see the dual active PVC brushes and a suction section, surrounded by a little trim to mop up small particles.

Aiper tells us that there’s actually three motors on board; two for traction and one for filtration but this is all obviously hidden away from view.

Around the LED button is a little screen with capacitive buttons for choosing between the modes. The buttons aren’t actually great indicators of what each mode is, so you’ll have to learn and memorize them.

In the box you’ll also get a collection hook, which will fit on a regular pool cleaner pole, so you can easily retrieve the S1, even if it’s floating in the middle of the pool; although it is designed to park itself near a wall when it’s finished cleaning.

In use and features

To get started is actually super simple and, while an app and some connectivity would make matters a little smarter, there is some beauty in the simplicity of just chucking the S1 in the pool and letting it do its thing.

Actually, don’t chuck it… place it gently into the water and fully submerge it. You’ll notice all of the air escaping as it slowly makes its way to the bottom.

Obviously make sure that the cover for the charging port is in place before doing this, as otherwise you’ll have an expensive, useless, box of plastic on your hands.

Once the S1 hits the bottom of the pool, it will get straight to work, guided by the Wavepath Navigation 2.0 tech on board.

There are four modes on offer from the S1 – auto, floor, wall and eco – and you choose the one you want, as mentioned, using the capacity buttons around the main power button.

The auto mode is actually pretty clever as it gets the more energy draining task – cleaning walls – done first. It will continue to clean walls until the battery drops below 50%, before moving onto the floor.

This is the mode we used the most in testing and the one you’d probably end up using daily to keep your pool looking spotless.

The eco mode is really only useful for keeping your pool clean-ish, once it’s already clean. That’s because it limits cleans to 45 minutes, every other day, and you should get 3 cleans out of this. So it’s good if you’re going away for the weekend, for example, but not a mode you’ll need to bother with otherwise.

Floor and wall should be fairly obvious what they are – but it’s nice that you can select them independent in case you felt a particular area needed more attention.

Aiper tells us that is supports pool sizes up to 1,600 square feet, or around 15m length pools.

It works with all pool shapes and is happy cleaning numerous surfaces too; vinyl, tile, concrete and fibreglass are all ‘officially’ supported.

Performance

The pool we used for testing has a slightly odd shape; two straight edges forming a right angle but one end curved slightly inwards to a B-shaped 4th side that also housed some steps and a raised section. At its deepest-point it’s around 8-feet.

The Aiper had no problems navigating either the irregular footprint of the ball, nor its various levels. It mounted the stairs with no issues (although it doesn’t clean stairs) and it found and cleaned the higher section too.

Aiper tells us that it can handle walls up to 105 degrees and, while it did sometimes get stuck in corners, it had no problems navigating the various curved walls of our test pool.

The Scuba S1 can churn through 70 gallons per minute of suction and filtration, collecting large and small debris in its the basket as it goes.

It cleans pool floors, walls and the water level too and can run for up to 2.5 hours at a time, from a full charge.

When you’re done, you simply need to get the S1 out of the water, empty the 3.5-litre debris basket of all of its contents and give the basket a rinse.

In our test pool, we didn’t have any issues with leaves as the pool area is screened-in but you can see from the image above that plenty of soil, sand and other gunk was collected. The pool’s floor and walls were noticeably cleaner even after just one session.

Getting technical, the Scuba S1 offers 180μm fine filter collection, if you want finer particles sucked up then you’ll need to upgrade to the Scuba S1 Pro, which boasts 3μm ultra-fine filtration… but that’s double the price.

That doesn’t mean that sand and soil are left behind though, save for a few hard to reach corner sections.

Battery life is a maximum of 150 minutes from the 7,800mAh power pack and a full charge takes around 3 hours. The LED around the button will tell you when it’s full and ready to go.

Final thoughs

The Aiper Scuba S1 is a brilliant mid-range robo pool cleaner that may lack some of the app-connected smarts of its rivals, but makes up for with a simple-to-use feature set and a great cleaning performance.

You might still find the odd corner where smaller particles haven’t been sucked up but, overall, the S1 is a great pound-for-pound contender.

How we test

When we publish our reviews, you can rest assured that they are the result of “living with” long term tests.

Robot cleaners usually live within an ecosystem, or a range of products that – supposedly – all work in harmony. And they are designed to offer a range of different cleaning options. Therefore, it’s impossible to use a robo cleaner for a week and deliver a verdict.

Because we’re testing smart home kit all day, everyday, we know what matters and how a particular smart cleaning machine compares to alternatives that you might also be considering.

Our reviews are comprehensive, objective and fair and, of course, we are never paid directly to review a device.

Read our guide on how we test to learn more.