Well,
here's the latest. Using the Joystick it will climb some walls (in the shallow end) but not the ones for the deep end.

That was using the weight and the floats--it seems to need both but I AM worried about a lead weight. What can I paint it with to seal it?

Using the wall climbing, in the deep end, it seems to get stuck in a rut--normally, it climbs the wall, scrubs the waterline and MOVES, then hits another swath. Not doing that it gets stuck.

So I went back to joystick, moved it around and re-programmed for 2 hours and no wall climbing. Then I powered it down. I powered it up, into joystick mode, checked the programming and let it go. It SEEMS to be moving OK around the pool--but with no wall climbing, and on a 2 hr cycle rathr than 8 hours. Still, it's working better than before.

I also brushed my walls just to be sure--no help there.

So now I wait and see, but in ANY case, this thing is too d*** finicky and persnickety. What's the point of a robotic cleaner if you have to screw around with it so much? The idea is to make my life EASIER, not harder.

If it won't climb the walls, I have to brush--that's one of the things I WANTED the Dolphin for. Still I'm hoping it will work now. I STILL think there something screwy with the programming and that the drive mech isn't 100%.

Yesterday, I did not hear back from SmartPool. I guess they are hoping I will just go away. Some repair center!

An online dealer told me they are dropping the Dolphin line because of too many complaints about crap like this about it and SmartPool. I wasn't surprised....

At least the Polaris 165 is still working.