Robotic pool cleaners have gotten remarkably good at scrubbing floors, climbing walls, and navigating around obstacles, including small steps. But when the job is done, you still have to haul the thing out, empty the debris, and rinse off the filter. It's not something you can't put off. A clogged filter chokes suction and eventually kills the cleaning performance, which means pool robot owners still need to do regular maintenance on the machine that was supposed to save them from regular maintenance.
Two new robots appear to have solved this problem. The Wybot S3 and Beatbot AquaSense X are both self-cleaning, but they use different approaches.
Wybot S3: self-emptying into a dock
The Wybot S3 is the first pool robot with a self-emptying dock. After each cleaning cycle, the robot surfaces, docks itself, and moves debris from its onboard bin into a larger 10-liter (2.6-gallon) base station. Wybot says you can go about 30 days before you need to empty it. The S3 also has solar-assisted charging, so it can top up its batteries during the day without being plugged in. Solar alone adds about 90 minutes of runtime per day in ideal conditions, so it's a supplement, not a replacement for plug-in charging.
See More: This Hovering Pool Robot Could Finally End Missed Spots
Beatbot AquaSense X: self-cleaning filter
The Beatbot AquaSense X, shown at CES 2026, goes a step further. Its AstroRinse dock collects debris and also rinses the robot's filter for you, blasting water through it to clear out the gunk, then flushing everything into a sealed bag. The whole process takes about three minutes. Beatbot says the 22-liter (5.8-gallon) bin can hold two months' worth of cleaning before you need to swap the bag. We gave this one a Techlicious CES 2026 Spotlight Award. It will be available as a limited-edition in March.
Why better automation matters for pool-cleaning robots
I live in a housing complex with a shared pool, and I can tell you that the pool does not get cleaned as often as it should. The maintenance staff has a lot on their plate, and cleaning a pool is one of the toughest jobs. Even if they had a standard pool-cleaning bot, it would not be as hassle-free as it should. Stuff like emptying the filter basket and hosing it down after every use is the kind of task that gets skipped when other things are more urgent.
I think self-cleaning pool robots could make a real difference. The staff could set it and largely forget it, and the pool might actually stay clean between their other responsibilities. Having filter maintenance handled automatically is a genuine improvement.
One big hurdle still remains: price. The Wybot S3 currently runs $2,499 (normally $3,299.99). The Beatbot AquaSense X is $4,250. (With only 500 units planned, you can pay $250 to guarantee a unit.) That's a lot more than the $500 to $1,500 you'd spend on a typical cordless pool robot. But for a community pool, a rental property, or anyone who can't get to rinse the pool robot filter after every use, the math might work out.
Whether these robots hold up over a full pool season is something I'd want to see before recommending one. But the direction is right. Pool robots have been stuck at the "good enough" stage for a while, so I'm excited to see it crawl towards a more complete automation.
[Image credit: Beatbot]
