Baracuda Captura

Worked extremely well until it stopped working – I was delighted with the Captura, and soon forgot the pain of spending $1000 buying it. I found it very effective, and easy to use and maintain. It gave me good service for 2.5 years, and then one day, it refused to move. I didn't feel as though I'd got all that much use out of it, and I would guess I used it about three times a week. It mainly… Read more

picked up leaves from my pool - the pool is about 75000 litres.

So my 3/5 score is because I feel its build is not rugged enough. I'm an engineer, and as the Capura was 6 months outside warranty, I decided to open it up, and see what the problem might be. I soon discovered that the track motor had a comutation problem. The motor could be made to run again by rotating its shaft, but it would soon stop again. I formed the conclusion that the track motor was much too pathetic for the job it had to do. The pump motor on the other hand was much more impressive. I have replaced the Captura with an Adventura, which seems more robust. I'll take my time and find a replacement track motor for the Captura.

Love it, better than I thought it would be – I agree with everything Adrian from Victoria said, it had a random cleaning pattern but it made a massive difference once it finished its 2hr cycle. For the first few minutes it got stuck on the ledge so I set it to only floor only and yet it still wet up the sides just didn’t get stuck on the ledge which was great. A couple of small sections I… Read more ·  1

had to brush coz it totally missed those small areas plus it only cleaned the bottom step and not the first two but to be honest I didn’t even expect it to clean the bottom step. It didn’t clean the child ledge which is also fine as I didn’t expect it too. For the first 30minutes into the cycle I thought oh no I have bought a dud it’s not looking that much cleaner but omg when I went away and came back an hour later I was so happy to see my pool so much cleaner. I also felt confident buying it from Bunnings as I think they’d be a company who wouldn’t give you hassle if you had problems with it and needed to return it. Touch wood I don’t ever have to return it. I did find the directions to build the caddy hard to work out but when I finally worked it out I started singing the song “we don’t need no man around” lolol

Does exactly what it says it does – I bought the barracuda capture plus from Bunnings on the weekend after years of manually vacuuming my pool and getting frustrated and annoyed with the time it took and backwashing my filter all the time.LOVE IT . I basically run it 3 or 4 times a day and yes the pattern is a little random but it eventually does the job it climbs the walls with no… Read more ·  1

problem but doesn’t clean the kid safety shelf around the pool or the steps but hell that takes me a minute and a half to sweep,no big deal awesome machine and if like some of the other reviews it dies I’m confident that Bunnings will come to the party cos they are brilliant with their warranty’s

you still need a leaf rake – so 2 years long term review updates: I think I must give it 5 stars becasue it's been working tirelessly everyday without missing a single day and i just let it sleep in the water all the time. Oftentimes I still need to manually pick up leaves it lefts but not his fault my pool is surrounded by gum trees! I'm aware that the maker does… Read more ·  1

recommend to take it out from water while not in use. however, in my case I use it 2-3 times a day and there're setps from the pool to the shed, it's not practical to take it out and put in the shade eveytime after use. I think leaving it on the pool deck in the hot sun is much worse than letting it stay in cool water. think about all the short life plastic pool pipes and tools.

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1. It's headless and brainless and aimless and blind and just randomly wanders around so do not expect it covers the whole pool and pick up all the leaves in a single run. I usually let it go two or three cycles until achieves a satisfied outcome if I'm at home. 2. Factory filter does not pick up fine dust but I'm ok with that. Let it stirs up and the pool filter will do the job. 3. Finer filter may decrease the wall climbing ability. 4. It climbs the wall and steps but it doesn't like to stay in the shallow water for too long. 5. I doubt it'll survive two years heavy use like what I'm doing: 2-4 runs per day and sleeps underwater. 6. Cable is not anti tangle so it needs to be sort out from time to time. 7. Control panel is not weatherproof. is it? 8. Sometimes suction cleaner works better. eg. get rid of the silt and fine dirt at the bottom after heave rain or windy day. (my pool is surrounded by gum trees, retaining wall and garden, what the hell...) 9. I worry about hurting my back every time I pull it out. That's one reason I let it stays in the water all the time. 10. Very quiet. 11. If I don't have terrible leaf litter problem, I probably would prefer a suction cleaner as it runs by the timer with zero human intervention.

It does an OK job. Not happy with the buy – It does an OK job even after 2 cycles (2-1/2hr each cycle). The claim that it will reduce the load on the sand filter is wrong. All the dead algae or minute particles just pass through CAPTURA's coarse filter and makes the pool mucky and it finally settles on the floor again or wall or goes through the sand filter. Not happy with the product. Show details

Stopped working and replacement cost don't make sense – Similar to others here, mine stopped working after 3 years. Just sits in once place and continues to pump water through itself. I went to an authorised repairer and they estimated it would cost $800 to repair it, when it only cost $1000. Everyone I spoke with at the manufacturer and repairs spoke as if it wasn't unreasonable. I have gone back to a simple cleaner and chalked this up to experience. Show details

Slowly deteriorated after 18mths and died just out of warranty – I purchased the unit from bunnings, loved it for the first year but after about 18months it slowly stopped climbing walls and was just not performing as it did. I went to use it again recently after it being in the shed for the winter months and it would not move an inch completely dead. Unable to locate any repairs that will touch this product… Read more

and manufacturer will do nothing as its out of warranty. $1000 item should preform better then this, considering buying a maytronics device or just sticking to manual cleaning. I would not recommend at all.

My Barracuda Captura just stopped for no reason – My Barracuda stopped basically 1 year out of warranty, took back to Mitre10, was told fix out of warranty for good will, now they tell me it's going to be $900 plus dollars, nearly the price l paid for it. It's a shame you can't keep your promises, this robot worked well until it decided to just stop at of the blue Mark from Melbourne Show details

Not happy – We bought our cleaner approx 3 months ago and it was working well. Our cleaner will not turn on now . We have all LED lights on when power is applied but the main start/stop buttons do not turn the unit on. There is also no function on the floor/wall push button. The unit is kept in a shed when not in use. We would expect a lot better for the price. Show details

Poor performance - shocking letting down Australian quality. Simply does not do the job advertised – The product is meant to clean the sides and it does not. It does not pick up leaves. It only just collect fine particles, even that is in streaks. Please, as an Australian company, that I wish to support, quality needs to be improved. Show details

Terrible product, not worth the money – 1. The cleaner only stays in the shallow end of my pool. 2. It switches off intermittently. 3. It's ineffective at picking up leaves. 4. It's ineffective at picking up fine particles. Without a doubt this has to be the worst pool cleaner I've ever had the displeasure of using. I'd urge anyone considering spending $1200 at Bunnings to look elsewhere because this is junk. Show details

Not Good Waste Of Money, And Terrible Customer Service – Bought from bunnings during lockdown period, should of waited, Impossible to register the warranty online, Called baracuda head office twice 3 days in a row waited each time between 25-45 mins before hanging up (kept hearing current wait is zero minutes) Cleaner basically only goes from 1 side to the other in 1 area of pool only Very disappointed Show details

Baracuda Captura Plus – I purchased this today from Bunnings for $1299 and very disappointed at the randomness of the clean, it has been going 6 hours and still areas are untouched in a 7.5m x 3.5 m pool - also difficulty climbing walls on highest suction and does not go neatr the steps ...disappointed and will be retuning tomorrow . Show details

Worked amazingly..... For 18months – Purchased this cleaner about 18 months-2 years ago. Didn't keep the receipt like an idiot as i truly assumed it would last. It did a fantastic job cleaning the pool, walls and floor no worries at all. That is until it just wouldn't start anymore. rang the helpline. they say it isn't working. Take it to a service agent. The service agent tells me… Read more

he can pull it apart, but doesn't really work on them so doesn't know what he's looking for. Then his advice from Baracuda / Zodiac or whoever it is was that i should pull it apart myself and see what i can find. See if anything is stuck.

Stay away!!

Avoid – On 1st run after purchase, it worked quite well. However pool was pretty clean only with a few leaves that the captura managed to pick up and it cleaned the waterline quite well. However on 3rd run, it does not clean the waterline anymore. Sent an email through baracuda website before xmas and got no response. After xmas, ran the captura once… Read more

again and its performance just keep going downhill. Not only does it not clean the waterline anymore, it now requires 3 cycles to pick up everything on the pool floor. Sent them another email recently and after still no response.

If I could rate them negative I would with the non existence after sales service. I would not buy another baracuda / zodiac product ever again and will advice the same for everyone else.

Dissapointed – Bought this cleaner from Bunnings after reading reviews. Took it home. New fibreglass pool, doesn't cover all of floor leaves 30% untouched...even after running it for two 2.5 hr cycles. Doesn't climb walls...tries hard but just wont do it..even with setting on strongest suction. Packed it up, put it in shed...waste of $900, revert back to my kreepy Krauly. Show details

Brainless robot – If you've read through these reviews, then you'll know what the main focus points are, so these are them; 1. It doesn't climb walls.....tries hard ....and keeps trying and trying and trying.....until it stops. I know there are videos with it climbing walls .....but it wont....and with full suction on (& no it's not a tile pool) 2. No smarts at… Read more

all - would work its way into a corner and then just stay in that area. No machine learning or scanning etc. 3. Once its cycle finishes, it just stays wherever it's finished & you cant maneuver it out.....you need to fish it out...(it should return to a start position). 4. Cord length is great but easily get tangled 5. Does clean the floor section that it actually covers ok....but it's completely randomized by the look of it

No thanks.

Returned to Bunnings and am continuing to look for something else...