Polaris 9550 Sport Review

Hey there and welcome back to the Pool Nerd. I’m Justin, your resident pool aficionado. Today I’ll be looking at the Polaris 9550 Sport, a robot that has been around for a while. It is a premium robot that is in competition with robots such as the REVA and the Dolphin Quantum, Premier, and Sigma. On the surface, the Polaris offers a lot of the same features as these robots, but when it comes to performance, it leaves a lot of room for improvement.

Now if you're coming from a pressure-side pool cleaner, such as the Polaris Vac-Sweep 280 or Polaris Vac-Sweep 360, the upgrade is well worth it to a robotic pool cleaner. Not only is a robotic pool cleaner 87% more efficient than pressure-side cleaners, they also clean better and with more power. It's an upgrade you won't regret. If you want to read more, check out my robotic pool cleaner vs suction-side cleaner overview or see my list of the best robotic pool cleaners of 2025.

Pool Coverage and Navigation

So, let’s start by looking at the 9550’s pool coverage. When I put it in my pool it was able to clean the floors and climb the walls, and even clean the waterline. That being said, there is a caveat to this complete coverage. Firstly, the 9550 does have four-wheel-drive instead of more efficient tracks, and this left me wishing its propulsion and navigation system was more precise.

The 9550’s navigation system seems to be not as advanced as those found on Dolphin or Aquabot cleaners, in fact, I had trouble finding any information to say it even had one. This means the 9550 may miss spots in your pool or clean the same one over and over again.

This could be a disappointment, leaving you with work to do, despite the 9550’s premium price tag. Despite this lack of navigation, when it did reach the waterline, it did a good job of adhering and scrubbing away. That being said, it can’t compete with the top waterline cleaners, the Dolphin Premier and Sigma, as it lacks a dual stabilizer or a gyroscope.

Cleaning Performance

Next, let’s look at how the Polaris 9550 cleans. The 9550 has a single split spinning brush at the front of the unit. With a single brush, it just doesn’t have the cleaning power of dual brush units. At this premium price point, it would have been nice to see an extra brush to match other robots in this range. Most robots in this price point have not one, but two brushes.

Past this, the 9550 has something called “Vortex Vacuum Technology,” which gives the 9550 extra suction power and helps it to capture larger debris and maximize its filter capacity. I will say, I was impressed with all the debris that the 9550 captured, but once again, there is room for improvement here. The 9550 only comes with a single fine filter, and at its price point, I would expect to see at least an ultrafine filter or NanoFilter as well, such as the one found on the Dolphin Quantum or Premier.

Without this, the 9550 will do an okay job capturing your general debris but will miss those microscopic particles that cloud your pool water. Once again, this means that the 9550 will leave you with some extra work to do. If larger debris such as leaves or twigs are your pool’s biggest issue though, I would recommend looking at the Dolphin Premier and its oversized leaf bag because the 9550 simply can’t compete with the leaf bag’s capacity. In conclusion, the 9550 has a good filtration system, although it is a little underwhelming at its price point because of its lack of a second brush and only one filtration option.

Features and Power Supply

Let’s see how it stacks up when it comes to features. The 9550 comes with a programmable timer that has functions to schedule your cleaning every day of the week, buttons to select the debris amount, options for cleaning the floor and/or the walls, as well as the choice between freeform and square pools. That’s a lot of buttons on a single power supply, and I didn’t even mention that it also has a full filter indicator and Lift System.

Things get stranger when you look at the 9550’s remote control. Firstly, I don’t know why they didn’t offload some of those options to the remote control, such as Dolphin did for the Premier. Polaris did add the Lift System button to the remote, which is nice, but why only add one button when there is room for more?

Secondly, the remote is motion-controlled so you point and tilt it to control the robot. This sounds fun on paper but is super gimmicky once you use it. It does not improve over a traditional remote and makes you wave your arms around to get the same result. So when it comes to the power supply, the Polaris does all that I expect it to, but the Polaris 9550 leaves a lot to be desired.

One positive is that it does include a caddy in the box, which is a nice touch.

Warranty and Conclusion

Before looking at the warranty, I must mention that the Polaris 9550 also includes a caddy. This is nice, but at this price point, it feels more like an apology for its disappointing navigation and filtration systems, and its dated power supply design. That being said, it will save you some cash and help you transport the robot with ease.

The 9550’s warranty is a standard 2-year warranty. Of course, this warranty doesn’t match up to the Dolphin Sigma or Dolphin Premier’s three-year warranty, and I would definitely recommend upgrading as it isn’t much more for a longer warranty, more features, more filter options, and an easier user experience.

Final Verdict

So what’s my final verdict on the Polaris 9550 robotic pool cleaner?

Think Before You Buy.

The 9550 packs a lot of the features I would expect from a premium pool cleaner, but it also misses the mark when it comes to navigation, filtration options, and power supply design. It’s simply a dated robot in need of an update. I would definitely recommend looking into the Dolphin Quantum, Premier, or Sigma as alternatives. Each of these robots includes more features and power than the 9550 for comparable prices. Check out my full reviews on each for all the details.

Conclusion

If you want to keep nerding out over your pool, be sure to check out our pool maintenance section to keep learning how to make pool maintenance way easier. Until then, enjoy that pool and check back soon for more pool maintenance tips and insight.

Your resident pool aficionado.

For over 4+ years, The Pool Nerd has been a leading source in the swimming pool industry. With years of experince owning a swimming pool, our hope here is to guide and help making owning a swimming pool easier.