There’s a moment every year when it just clicks. The air feels different. The sun lingers a little longer. And suddenly your backyard pool goes from “that thing we’ll get to eventually” to the place everyone wants to be. That moment usually hits right around National Pool Day, and honestly, it couldn’t come at a better time.
Let me paint you a picture.
It’s a Saturday morning in June. The sun is already doing too much. Your nearly three yeas old grandson who is absolutely convinced he was born to be in the water is standing at the back door in his swim trunks, floaties already on, pointing at the pool like a tiny version of that impatient woman you always seem to get in front of at the supermarket who gives you the “look” when you’re doing the weekly shopping and have a CART FULL of groceries (and she has one of those small red baskets).
“Pool, Nana Zee. POOL.”
And you have two choices in that moment.
You can be the grandparent who says, “Hold on, sweetie, I just need to… check the chemicals… and find the skimmer… and figure out why the water looks like that…” while he melts into a total toddler meltdown.
Or you can slide open that door, hand him a pool tube, and say, “Go ahead. Jump in.”
I am here to tell you that this summer, I AM that second grandparent. And it feels pretty darned good.
First, Let’s Talk About the Deck
Every spring, I walk out to my pool area and have the same reaction: how. How did it get like this? I was just out here. The pollen, the leaves, and the dirt that appears to have piled up over the past months not only ground into my cement deck (I need to have it tiled), but with actual MOUNDS of dirt in the spots near the lawn. It’s a lot.
This year, I swept, rinsed with a high-powered hose attachment, and made a very executive decision to schedule the power washing for “later” (a time slot I find incredibly flexible and forgiving). But even just getting the deck cleared off changed everything. Suddenly, it looked like somewhere a person might actually want to sit, rather than a crime scene of winter neglect.
Baby steps. This is about making it easy (not my entire day spent scrubbing cement…that’s either for later or my handyman to do).
But, There’s A Part I’m Actually Excited to Talk About
I need to tell you about the Beatbot Sora 70, because over the past few years, Beatbot LITERALLY changed my life. It made it so that I could actually use my pool more often, instead of sitting in the kitchen, looking out the window, and wondering how much it would cost to have a cement truck come and fill the whole thing in.
I’ve had a 70robotic pool cleaner for a while now (the Beatbot AquaSense2 Ultra), and I loved it. Genuinely. It got me through the aftermath of a hurricane and tornado when my pool looked like the swamp exhibit at a nature museum. That thing worked better than any pool service that I’d had in the past, and I was (am) loyal.
I love watching the bubbles just before it dives down into the pool
But then the newest version started popping into my Facebook feed. I started seeing ad after ad for the Beatbot Sora 70. I was obviously already a big fan, but I wondered. How could it be any better than what I was already using? My pool was clean, it was clear, and I did no manual work beyond dropping it in the pool and pulling it out (and charging it overnight). But, me being me….I had to know. The advertising made it look so much smaller, lighter, and more efficient. So, I did it. I decided to give the Sora 70 a try, and I have to be honest with you, the way a good friend is honest with you: it’s on another level ENTIRELY.
The Sora 70 heading up the stairs for the FIRST cleaning of the season
This robot cleans everything. The floor, the walls, the waterline, the surface, and…this is the part that made me actually say “oh, wow” out loud to no one, all of my pool stairs. Every single step. My older Beatbot cleaner handled the bottom step like it was doing me a favor. The Sora 70 climbs the whole staircase like it’s slowly washing every inch and not just a quick roll up the side to the flat section and back down quickly.
The suction pulls in 6,800 gallons per hour. I don’t fully know what that means in practical terms, but I know my pool has never looked this clean this consistently, so I’m choosing to be impressed. It handles fine sand, algae, debris, and basically everything Florida throws at a pool on a regular Tuesday.
For me, the MOST important part (being a 72-year-old, 5-foot-tall woman who’s not terribly strong) is that this new model is a WHOLE LOT LIGHTER. I can easily pick it up and put it in the pool, and it’s just as easy to remove (even when it’s filled with water and debris). Plus, it plugs directly into the socket via a cord and doesn’t need to be lifted onto a charging station. For some, those may be little things (neither of those would bother Mr. S), but if I am the one using it (and let’s be honest, I AM the one using it), these are big differences. I went from using a rolling dolly to get it poolside because of the weight, to holding it like I was taking my carry-on bag on a trip.
I’ve also been impressed that the battery lasts up to 7 hours. It has app control, meaning, yes, you can steer your pool cleaner from your phone like a very relaxing video game (although I prefer the set-it-and-forget-it method), and it even has voice control from your Google Home or Alexa device. I just push either the pro or original version and put it into the pool. And when it’s finished, it parks itself at the edge of the pool.
It parks at the edge with the handle facing you for easy removal from the pool.
It parks itself. At the edge. No more doing the awkward lean-and-grab over the deep end, hoping gravity doesn’t make a fool of you (which by the way is a common occurrence for me trying to get almost anything out of my pool).
I turn it on. I go inside. I come back to a clean pool. That’s the whole story.
If you are a grandparent with a pool and you are still scrubbing walls by hand, I say this with love: please stop doing that to yourself. The Sora 70 exists. Life is short. Let the robot work.
Then We Added a Basketball Hoop, and Things Got Competitive
Here’s something you should know about our family: basketball is not a casual interest. It is a lifestyle. We follow our teams with the kind of devotion usually reserved for religion and really good barbecue. We have opinions. Loud ones.
So when I found the Step2 Vero Pool Basketball Hoop, it felt less like a purchase and more like a family calling.
This thing is sturdy. You fill the base with up to 250 pounds of water, and it does not move. It does not wobble. It does not tip over when your 46-year-old son gets a little too into it during a “friendly” game. It just stands there, stable and ready for a major dunk, while everyone around it loses their minds.
Photo courtesy of Step 2
It has a stainless steel rim, comes with a ball and pump so you’re playing within minutes of setting it up, and it rolls around on wheels, so repositioning it isn’t a whole production. The design is clean and white and actually looks nice out there (and not like you duct-taped a gym to your backyard).
Our almost-three-year-old’s approach to pool basketball is mostly just throwing the ball in random directions and then laughing hysterically, which is, frankly, a solid strategy. The rest of us have been playing actual games. Deeply competitive games. Games where the winner is gracious about it for approximately forty-five seconds before bringing it up again. Games where we’re talking SHT at each other. Yeah, we’re THAT kind of B-Ball people.
But, it’s become the thing everyone in the family, from Grandpa to Grandson and even my daughter-in-law and I gravitate toward. And every time I see the grandson splashing around, trying to make a shot, giggling when he misses, I think, yes. This is what we set all of this up for. FUN and FAMILY time.
Photo courtesy of Crystal Water Monitor
Don’t Forget the Unglamorous Part
Water chemistry. I know, I know. But balanced water is the difference between a pool that looks like a resort and one that looks like a science experiment. Test it, adjust the pH, add what it needs, and move on. Ten minutes of effort that makes everything else better. Worth it every single time. I wrote about the Crystal Water Monitor that I have in my pool last year. It reads the chemicals and sends the report to my phone so I know (well, my husband knows, because that’s HIS job) exactly what the pool needs to be clean, clear, and sanitary. There’s no fooling around with those little test tubes, but you do you. I love having everything at my fingertips ALL of the time.
The Part Nobody Tells You About Pool Season
Here’s my favorite secret about having a clean, ready pool: it’s not just for the grandkids.
On busy workdays, the kind where everything is too loud, and the to-do list has a to-do list, I sneak out for a quick dip by myself. Ten minutes. Maybe fifteen if I’m feeling rebellious. And it resets everything. The noise stops. The stress loosens its grip. I float there for a minute and remember that life is actually pretty good.
That’s what I want for you, too.
Not just a pool that’s ready for company. A pool that’s ready for you.
So let the Sora 70 handle the cleaning. Let the basketball hoop handle the entertainment. Balance your water, reclaim your deck, and then actually genuinely enjoy the summer you worked all spring to set up.
Because summer doesn’t wait around. And neither should you. So clean the deck. Get your water balanced. Let the Sora 70 take the heavy lifting off your plate. Add a little fun with something like a poolside basketball hoop. And then actually use the space you’ve created.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a nearly-three-year-old with floaties on who is very seriously pointing at the pool.
I’ve got somewhere to be.
- You can order the Sora 70 Robotic Pool Cleaner on Beatbot.com
- Go to Step 2 for the Vero Pool Basketball Hoop as well as other fun things like slides and chairs to make summer in the pool fun
