The lead ballast on my aquabot finally wore through the plastic belly that held it, so it dropped out and the bot floated to the surface, chomping away at the waves instead of smooching the pool walls. Summer's coming, and there's no way I'll be able to or want to keep up with manual brushing once the sun hits the water for a significant part of the day. (Right now it's still clear, minor debris on the bottom, clearly not in best condition but not yet a major problem.)
What are these things made of? I'm too cheap and too poor to buy a whole new one, or heck, even the overpriced parts, and would prefer to get some filler material and patch it up with some heat (soldering iron, kept well below soldering temperature!). But for that to work, I need to know what that stuff is, so I can find a compatible filler material. Is it [likely to be] PVC like the other pool fittings? Or maybe polypropylene? ABS? Something else? How would I identify the material, lacking a mass spectrometer?
I'm open to alternative suggestions, of course. Ideally something that will last a while - at least through the coming summer! Bear in mind that it's a lead ballast, so screwing or gluing might not work out too well.
