Beatbot Sora 30 review: two tests disagree

WIRED and The Pool Nerd both put a Beatbot Sora 30 in a pool for about a week or more and came back with opposite answers. WIRED measured an average 95 percent coverage rate on leaves and dirt and called it quite capable. The Pool Nerd found it slow, weak on the steps and cheap to the touch, and told readers to buy a corded Dolphin instead.

Both can be right. Which one is right for you comes down to what you expect a cordless robot to do on its own.

The Sora 30 is the large pool pick on our robotic pool cleaner picks, a cordless robotic pool cleaner with the Sora 70's suction and 10,000 mAh battery without its surface jets. We read Beatbot's spec table and FAQ, those two hands-on tests, and what nine owners say about their own units on Reddit and YouTube, counted by hand.

What the Beatbot Sora 30 cleans

Floor, walls, waterline and shallow platforms, all of it underwater. Beatbot rates it for water as shallow as 8 inches on a platform at least 3.3 by 3.3 feet, and its FAQ says platforms get cleaned in Standard Mode. Nothing happens on the surface.

WIRED's runs with organic and synthetic debris left material in one place only, a sharp corner by the steps where the robot pushed debris aside and left it. The Pool Nerd judged its navigation less thorough than other robots it has used. There is no camera and no debris detection. Beatbot's spec table promises S-shaped paths on the floor, though one owner says it has no pattern at all.

Owners split the same way, and the problem that repeats is footing. Three of the nine describe their robot losing its grip: one does handstands on the bottom and then stops, needing a factory reset at least once a week; one went back after two days of constant wheelies and a body that floated off the wall mid-climb; one climbs onto a wide tanning ledge, then tumbles and gets confused there. On the other side, one owner has two floor drains that stall most robots, and the Sora 30 gets off them within 30 seconds while clearing leaves, acorns and sticks from four oak trees.

Two owners say Floor Mode leaves the edge. One gets a dirty ring around the perimeter and can only clear it in Standard Mode, which spends battery on walls and waterline too. The other, whose floor curves up into the walls, sees it stop short of them.

Beatbot Sora 30 runtime and charging

Beatbot's lab figures are 5 hours on the floor alone and 4.5 hours over the floor, walls and waterline. WIRED maxed out at 4.5 hours in every longevity test, with about 15 percent charge left at the end, and saw a full recharge in about four hours against Beatbot's 4.5.

Automation is thin. WIRED's app offered Floor, Standard and Eco, with run lengths of two hours, three hours or max, and Eco cleans the floor for 45 minutes every 48 hours. Beatbot's spec table lists a fourth, Wall Mode, that WIRED's app did not show. There is no weekly timer, and Beatbot's FAQ confirms the app cannot reach the robot while it is on the floor or a wall.

Filtration and the ultra fine basket

The included 5.2L basket carries a 150 micron filter. Leaves and grit stay in it; pollen, silt and dust go through. That is The Pool Nerd's main complaint, and three owners say something like it: one finds the basket gets everything but dust and pollen, one says pollen settles and does not always get picked up, and one thinks the robot leaves some sand behind. Two others disagree. A windy desert owner is surprised how much fine sand the standard basket catches, and another found it doing a great job on fine dirt by itself. The Pool Nerd also rates the basket the same size as the Sora 10's. Near enough: Beatbot's spec table says 5.2L against 5L, and its own headline for the Sora 30 says 5L. We follow the table.

The 3 micron option is a separate ultra fine filter basket, sold as the Ultra-Fine Dual Filter Basket: a 400 micron outer basket that works alone plus a non-woven 3 micron liner that cannot. Beatbot says to run the standard basket first, because the fine one used first may clog quickly. Its store page has shown it as sold out on pre-order, while one owner already uses one: it picked up dirt and algae they could not see, and it grabs leaves less well with the liner in.

How the Sora 30 comes out of the pool

It floats to the surface when it finishes, and the app can call it up while it sits there. WIRED found that float made retrieval without a pole easy. The Pool Nerd found the auto-park hit or miss and the waterlogged robot heavy and awkward to haul from the deep end. Dry, it weighs 19.6 pounds, and WIRED found it shorter and easier to lift than the Sora 70 because the skimmer is gone.

Starting it takes learning, too. The single switch on top gives almost no feedback, and the manual says the robot can take up to two minutes to release its air and sink, so The Pool Nerd's first thought was a dead battery.

Is the Beatbot Sora 30 worth it over the Sora 10 or Sora 70?

Over the Sora 10, yes if your sun shelf sits in less than 12 inches of water: the Sora 30 is rated to 8 inches and the Sora 10 to 12. Our Sora 30 vs Sora 10 comparison has the rest of that gap. On the Sora 70 vs Sora 30 question, Beatbot lists what the cheaper robot gives up: surface skimming, the 6L basket against 5.2L, a remote control mode, and a year of warranty, two against three. WIRED does not find skimming especially useful in a pool robot, and our Sora 70 against Sora 30 breakdown shows when it pays.

If what you want is a robot you never lift, The Pool Nerd's case for a corded robot on a timer is the real alternative, and no Sora answers it. The camera-guided AIPER Scuba V3 still has to come out by hand too, and it sinks again if nobody grabs it soon after it parks at the waterline.

Rinsing the basket

The cover over the basket lifts off completely instead of hinging, which WIRED had not seen on a pool robot in years and liked, since a hinged lid flops shut while you hose. The basket under it is the catch. WIRED kept picking stuck leaves out of ridges low in it by hand, though one owner calls it very easy to clean. Hose it after every run, and wipe the ultrasonic sensors as well, which The Pool Nerd says the manual asks for after each use.