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Roboter oder Mensch?

Pool cleaning

Weekly pool service vs Robotic pool cleaner (you still do chemistry)

Modellschätzungen von Whirrwork, keine Fakten. Methodik · Trefferbilanz

Mensch · Pro Jahr1.500 $Pool service
Roboter · Pro Jahr1.156 $Buy a robotic cleaner
Amortisation22 Monate
Jahr der KostenwendebereitsBase-case year (earliest to latest across scenarios)

On these numbers the robot option is clearly cheaper.

Vereinigte Staaten · USD · BLS OEWS May 2025 national medians by SOC occupation

Mit eigenen Zahlen rechnen

Change anything. Results update as you type and stay in your browser; nothing is stored or sent. Works offline after your first visit.

Arbeitsmenge
Annahme

One month of pool care.

Annahme

Robot cycle hours per day it runs.

Annahme

Cleaning cycles per month.

Annahme

Months the pool is open.

Personal
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

BLS OEWS May 2025 national median hourly wage, SOC 37-2011.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Wages and salaries were 70.0% of total employer compensation cost for private industry workers in June 2026 (ECEC), so total cost = wage / 0.70.

ilostat.ilo.org

Nominal 4.4% a year, 2015-2025 (ILOSTAT hourly earnings).

Preise
Abgeleitet PoolRobots.com

Midpoint of $100-$150/month weekly professional service.

Roboter
Annahme

A month of cleaning needs about 24 robot-hours (8 cycles of 3 hours).

Abgeleitet Maytronics US store

Midpoint of $849-$1,449 mid-range Dolphin models.

Annahme

Plug it in.

Annahme

Yearly parts (filters, brushes, eventually a motor) as a share of price.

Annahme

Useful life in years.

Annahme

Availability.

Annahme

Months lost to faults.

Annahme

Share of the service you still need: water chemistry, filter and equipment checks. Many owners do these themselves (then set 0).

Annahme

Your time is not costed.

Annahme

kWh per robot-hour.

Annahme

Electricity price per kWh (USD). Check your bill; energy is rarely a big line.

Finanzen
Annahme

Annual financing / discount rate. Nobody publishes yours; 8% is a round mid-2026 commercial borrowing guess.

Annahme

Years in the NPV comparison.

Annahme

Share of a human service price that is labour (rises with wages). Used to escalate and to adjust US service prices to other countries.

Annahme

Share of a robot service price that is labour (pilot, technician). The rest is equipment, which learning curves make cheaper.

Annahme

Share of a lease or RaaS fee that pays for hardware (learns down). The rest is service and support (moves with wages).

Download these results (CSV)

Ergebnisse

OptionPro MonatPro JahrPer unit (month of service)EinmalkostenAmortisationBreak-even utilisation5-year NPV vs baseline
Mensch Pool service Vergleichsbasis 125 $1.500 $125 $— — — —
Roboter Buy a robotic cleaner 96,37 $1.156 $96,37 $1.149 $ 22 Monate 27 %
Utilisation 52 %
 1.596 $

What moves the answer most

Each bar shows the 5-year NPV of the best robot option when one input moves to the low or high end of its range, with the rest held at your values.

5-year NPV vs baseline: Buy a robotic cleaner5-year NPV vs baseline: Buy a robotic cleanerRobot purchase pricelow value: 849 → 1.994 $high value: 2999 → -863 $Work that stays humanlow value: 0 → 3.191 $high value: 0.7 → 347 $Active months per yearlow value: 5 → -226 $high value: 12 → 1.596 $Pool servicelow value: 100 → 968 $high value: 150 → 2.224 $Useful life or contractlow value: 3 → 948 $high value: 7 → 1.816 $Maintenance per yearlow value: 0.04 → 1.785 $high value: 0.15 → 1.265 $Financing and discount ratelow value: 0.05 → 1.805 $high value: 0.12 → 1.347 $Wage growth per yearlow value: 0.0236 → 1.525 $high value: 0.0636 → 1.669 $Electricity price per kWhlow value: 0.08 → 1.604 $high value: 0.3 → 1.578 $1.596 $0low valuehigh valueSource: Whirrwork Robot-or-Human model v1.0.0 (whirrwork.com/tools/robot-vs-human/pool-cleaning/). Modelled estimate, not a fact.

Cost per unit to 2035

Real terms (today's money). Robot hardware follows Wright's law; wages follow each country's history. Shaded band: robots-slow to robots-fast scenarios. Modellschätzungen von Whirrwork, keine Fakten.

ChartPersonalkosten pro Einheit (Basis), Roboterkosten pro Einheit (Basis), Roboterkosten pro Einheit (Roboter: schneller Fortschritt), Roboterkosten pro Einheit (Roboter: langsamer Fortschritt). Source: Whirrwork Robot-or-Human model v1.0.0 (whirrwork.com/tools/robot-vs-human/pool-cleaning/). Modelled estimate, not a fact.0,00 $50,00 $100 $2026202720282029203020312032203320342035USD / month of servicescenario rangePersonalkosten pro Einheit (Basis)Roboterkosten pro Einheit (Basis)Roboterkosten pro Einheit (Robote…Roboterkosten pro Einheit (Robote…Source: Whirrwork Robot-or-Human model v1.0.0 (whirrwork.com/tools/robot-vs-human/pool-cleaning/). Modelled estimate, n…

Jahr der Kostenwende: bereits

What the spreadsheet misses

Sicherheit
Wrong water chemistry is the real risk; a cleaning robot does not test water.
Qualität
Robots scrub walls and floors well; leaves and debris loads vary.
Flexibilität
A service catches failing pumps and leaks early.
Edge cases
Oddly shaped pools and steps defeat cheaper models.
Customer experience
No strangers in the garden every week.
Jobs and redeployment
Pool technicians keep chemistry and repairs; cleaning visits shrink.
Regulierung
None for private pools; public pools have water-testing rules.

Siehe auch

Quellen auf dieser Seite

Hinweise und Quellen sind auf Englisch; maßgeblich ist die englische Fassung.

  1. Weekly professional pool service $100-$150 per month PoolRobots.com, 2026-10 · vendor
  2. Maytronics Dolphin residential robotic pool cleaners $849-$1,449 (mid-range models) Maytronics US store, 2026-10-25 · vendor
  3. Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (median hourly wage by occupation) U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025-05
  4. Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026: wages and salaries 70.0% of private-industry compensation (series CMU2020000000000P) U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026-06
  5. Mean nominal hourly earnings of employees by sex and occupation (ISCO-08), DF_EAR_EHRA_SEX_OCU_CUR_NB ILOSTAT (International Labour Organization), from national labour force and earnings surveys, 2025
  6. Labour cost levels by NACE Rev. 2 activity (lc_lci_lev): Germany 2022-2025, total labour cost vs wages and salaries per hour Eurostat, 2025
  7. Rates and thresholds for employers 2025 to 2026 (employer Class 1 NIC 15% above £5,000) HM Revenue & Customs, 2025-04-06
  8. 令和6年賃金構造基本統計調査 (Basic Survey on Wage Structure 2024), table 1 by occupation Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan (via e-Stat), 2024-06
  9. Average monthly earnings of employees by sex and economic activity, DF_EAR_EMTA_SEX_ECO_CUR_NB ILOSTAT (International Labour Organization), 2022
  10. Average annual wage of employed persons in urban units in 2024 (by position and by region) National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2025-05-20
  11. Euro foreign exchange reference rates (cross rates to USD), via Frankfurter European Central Bank, 2026-10-23
  12. Wright, T. P. (1936). Factors affecting the cost of airplanes. Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences, 3(4), 122-128 Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences, 1936
  13. Nagy, B., Farmer, J. D., Bui, Q. M., & Trancik, J. E. (2013). Statistical basis for predicting technological progress. PLoS ONE, 8(2), e52669 (62 technologies; Wright's law among the best hindcasters; errors grow with horizon) PLoS ONE, 2013