Dolphin Wave 200 XL

The Dolphin Wave 200 XL is the middle machine in Maytronics' commercial line, sitting between the mid-range Wave 100 family and the 50-metre Wave 300 XL flagship. Maytronics announced it on 30 October 2015 together with the compact W20, presenting both at the Aquanale trade fair in Cologne; it has been on sale in essentially unchanged form ever since, which in this market is a statement rather than neglect. It is built for hotel, resort and municipal pools up to 127 feet - about 39 metres - and works from mains power on a 140-foot cable wound on a caddy, not from a battery. The robot weighs 57.33 lb (roughly 26 kg), draws 9,000 gallons of water an hour and drives six brushes. Its filter is the one clear advance over the larger 300 XL: a multi-layer cartridge loaded from the top, so a maintenance crew can swap it without turning the machine over on a wet deck. The feature list is deliberately short. There is no mobile app, no weekly timer and no automation mode; a handheld remote is the only way to steer it. Cleaning coverage is the floor only - it does not climb walls and does not scrub the waterline. Cycles are set on the unit at two, three or four hours, although the same product sheet also lists a six-hour default cycle, a contradiction Maytronics does not explain and which recurs across the whole Wave range. The pricing inside the range is the surprise. At $10,499 the Wave 200 XL costs $3,000 more than the company's own Wave 120, yet reaches a shorter pool (127 ft against 138 ft) and cleans less of it, because the 120 does walls and waterline as well. What the extra money buys is bulk: more brushes, a cartridge filter sized for heavy debris loads, and a three-year warranty instead of two. For an operator whose problem is a large, deep, dirty floor rather than a decorative tile line, that is the trade being offered.

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