iGarden M1 Pro Max 100 Review: A Sports Car for Your Pool | WIRED

TriangleUp Buy Now Multiple Buying Options Available $1,600 at Amazon $1,599 at iGarden Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Rating: 8 /10 Open rating explainer Information WIRED Excellent battery longevity. Managed a perfect cleaning record, if you leave it in the water long enough. Delightful styling is conversation-worthy. TIRED Basket is quite difficult to clean. Must be retrieved with a pole when finished. Confusing control panel. App does very little. In an aquatic world dominated by robotic pool cleaners that mostly look identical, a company called iGarden has been that breath of fresh air you take after reaching the water’s surface. The company’s pool cleaners have always featured designs that feel inspired more by high-end automobiles than underwater janitors, and with the new M1 series, its gear is sportier than ever. The question is whether dazzling looks translate to what really matters: The ability to effectively clean your pool. Vroom Vroom Photograph: Chris Null The new M1 series, introduced at CES 2026 , evolves the design of last year’s K series , revising what was previously a sleek and streamlined look by adding what looks a bit like a bulbous cockpit component to the center of the device. You might expect this part of the robot to house cameras or other intelligence components, but that’s not the case: Rather, this is just a piece of the revamped debris basket, now designed to store up to 4.5 liters of detritus, a slight increase over the 4-liter basket available on the K series. The M1 is available in fire-engine red or black—the former being the far flashier choice. I, alas, was sent the latter as a test unit. The 25-pound unit is designed with longevity in mind. The 12500 mAh battery on the M1 Pro Max 100 is massive, and an even bigger battery (14500 mAh, based on CES reports) will be available on the M1 Pro Max 125 when it ships. The 100’s battery will likely be enough for most users, though: iGarden says the model will provide up to 10 hours of run time in floor-only mode, enough for at least a week of daily operations. You’ll spot another interesting design change by checking out the side profile of the M1 Pro, as the tread connecting each pair of wheels is no longer readily visible as it was on the K series. The tread is still there, but it’s been relocated to be concealed within the chassis except for a small stretch of it visible on the underside of the robot. The wheels of the M1 Pro are also now recessed within tight wheel wells, further enhancing the automotive look of the device. Ready to Submerge The iGarden M1 Pro Max 100 needs no real setup aside from a healthy charging session of about 5.5 hours (once you can dislodge the tight waterproof plug from the charging port) and configuration via the company’s mobile app. The app hasn’t changed much in the past year; it’s still useful only for setting basic operational parameters and installing firmware updates. It doesn’t even keep a historical log of cleanings. I expect most users won’t bother with it much after their initial unboxing and setup. Photograph: Chris Null The complex control panel on the front of the M1 Pro Max also hasn’t changed from its last iteration. It remains obtuse and complicated, with four touch-sensitive buttons available in addition to the power button. The onboard controls allow you to set running time (1, 1.5, or 2 hours—or run-till-dead) and cleaning mode (floor only, wall/waterline, both floor and wall/waterline, or “full coverage”—which adds ledges and steps to the cycle). A turbo mode increases the robot’s speed (at the expense of some battery life), and the so-called AI timer is used to set repeated cleanings every 24, 48, or 72 hours, if you choose to leave the robot in the pool for the long-term. All of this is conveyed to the user via nonintuitive pictograms and adjacent dots; you’ll likely want to keep the manual handy to ensure you have everything set right. Screenshot Screenshot To its credit, the app does make all of this easier to understand, and it also adds the ability to set longer running times of up to 10 hours in length. Connectivity is via both Bluetooth and 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, but as with most robots, it can only communicate with your phone while on land. Note that when starting the robot, the flashing power button must be pressed after you’ve entered all your desired settings. If you forget to tap it—which is easy to do—the robot will sit silently on the bottom of the pool as if it were turned off entirely. Slow and Steady Video: Chris Null A note on test methodology: I test all pool robots with both organic and synthetic debris—using whatever leaves and dirt naturally accumulate in the pool, followed by testing with a known quantity of silk crafting leaves. The synthetic testing has the advantage of being endlessly repeatable, and it allows me to accurately quantify what portion of debris is collected by the robot. My pool is in-ground a