Robot Vacuum Cleaners

[dragonseal]

Do you have one? Is it good? I have so many questions!

Is it noisy? Can it handle being upstairs in the day and downstairs at night? Does it fall down the stairs? How often do you empty it? Do you run it every day? Does it do the corners of the room?

Here's an example

We have a Roomba. Runs every day at 10am, very low maintenance as he’s mapped the house so doesn’t miss anything and empties himself, a new bag in his docking station is probably required about once a month. Then his cousin the braava mop goes out in the afternoon. He’s more high maintenance though as he needs a clean mop pad every day and a top of floor cleaner about every 3 days. My floors are spotless though!

That sounds amazing! So you can time it so it does its thing without being asked?

It's definitely not a total replacement for a hoover but they are great.

They need about 4 hours charge then run for about 3 hours.

You need to keep your floors clear of small toys, cables, bobbles etc and if you have lots of rugs, chairs/ stools with bars across the bottom (touching the floors) then it'll struggle. Similarly, if you have lots of furniture close together it may struggle to navigate them. It's best for open spaces and no/very, very minimal floor height differences.

Works better on hard floors than carpet. Great for under beds and sofas if your sofa is high enough. Won't fall down stairs but may strand itself on what it perceives to be a cliff edge (top of stairs, a sunny patch on the floor!).

Initially we emptied it twice daily but if you use it everyday then the amount to be collected is much less and we only empty once or twice a week.

One big bonus is there's just less dust in the house in general so less dusting of surfaces to be done.

I wouldn't want it running in the same room as me, noise-wise and if I haven't put the bar stools up on the island I don't run it overnight as it gets stuck and the error noise is loud enough to wake me up.

We replaced ours when the first one died. I'd replace it again.

Depends on what model you get. The most basic roomba and eufy (don't know about other models) can be programmed to run on a schedule. The schedule can be set each day, once or twice, depending on the model.

Room/ house mapping versions and self emptying versions are much more expensive than the randomised ones. Or next one will be a room mapping one because of the shape and size of our downstairs. But in a regularly shaped, small-medium house it's a "nice to have".

Love mine, he’s out every day, called Eugene. Can’t believe the amount of dog hair and dust he collects.

I have an basic Roomba called Tracey. She is very needy and asks for help often.
Can anyone recommend a good robot model? Thanks!

We’ve got 2 - long story involving a free replacement and a clever dh who fixed the original!
Harold lives upstairs and Harriet lives downstairs and they are both out and about at the moment doing their thing! They are Eufys, they map and they mop but I don’t rate the mopping function, I don’t think I would pay extra for it. You can’t add any detergent to the tank and mopping with plain water isn’t really mopping, it’s damp dusting! I empty them about once a week and clean the brushes and filters at the same time.
Our cats just ignore them, I would love it if they hitched a ride!

We have a roomba and it sits on a dock which empties itself. We have a very hairy dog and we only empty the dock around once every 3 months when it tells us it's full. It's great for maintenance cleaning but I do feel that the house needs a proper vacuum every couple of weeks. I wouldn't be without it now (especially with said dog)

DH have been doing a huge amount of research on them and currently this model is the one he likes. Its a mop and vac, and the only one he found that stops the mop function and lifts the machine to go over rugs. He said it also cleans the mop after use, which most don't apparently.
Roborock S8 Pro Ultra - Forget About Cleaning, Really. | Roborock Global

We have one for upstairs and one for downstairs. They're programmed to do a set area.

One is Dirt Bogarde, the other is Dirt Reynolds.

It's lovely to come home to swept carpets.

Still hoover but only very occasionally.

@SM4713 the ecovacs deebot t20 does this too.

Love mine. I’ve got a Eufy and it’s dead handy and also weirdly cute as it trundles round busily.

Love mine

It does get confused by the dining table and chairs and can't fit under it so have to get the sweeper out for that area. And hoover the stairs separately.

But it does a decent job everywhere else - we have hard floors downstairs.

I did consider getting one with a mop function but none of the reviews were great for those so didn't bother in the end as it just seemed like a damp cloth being dragged around.

Floors are definitely cleaner & I mop more often as I don't have to hoover beforehand any more so it's a much quicker job.

I have a Eufy. I have two actually. One for each floor. I love them, particularly for vacuuming under furniture. They don’t clean as well as a normal vacuum cleaner but they do a reasonably good job. I live in a large farmhouse and have two dogs and two cats for perspective.
I have a normal vacuum cleaner too but will always have a robot cleaner.
I clean the dirt bins out when they go back to base to recharge.

I have a lefant, my second one, the first hoovered and mopped but I found if you are not paying attention it will mop the carpets too. Gave it away to DS when he moved out, missed it so much I bought another one, Dirty Gerty.
It doesn't replace a good thorough hoover through every couple of weeks, but it does keep on top of the small daily messes.

Derek has never encountered stairs as we live in a bungalow. We empty him at the start of each run, filter change and maintenance monthly.
He does two runs a week, all the wooden chairs have to be moved or he gets stuck and bleeps pitifully.
The cat sometimes stands in front of him in a sort of feline protest movement but he doesn't seem bothered by her.
All in all he's useful but we need the Dyson as a back up.

I would advise against eufy. Had 3 of them and every single one had been absolutely fabulous, then after about a year of use they have broken, different problems each time. I really loved my robot hoovers but a bit too expensive to have to replace every year!

Same! We had one killed by sunlight because it was literally a vampire and their response was it’s a known fault so they gave us a refund.

Meanwhile the irobot roomba (we have the self emptying i7) has been flawless. 3 years in and I just replaced the wheels as the treads had worn down but that’s been it.

Snap i have both but! My pristine painted skirting have been marked but I think I can live with it

Do they object to fringes on rugs?

Inspired by this thread, I made a bet with myself.

I won.

You're welcome

I have a Eufy who rejoices in the moniker of Optimus Grime

He beetles about every morning during the school run. I still have to vac properly once a week as he's a bit sloppy with his cleaning of the rug and I have a grotty dirtbag of a spaniel too.

He is great. He also is rather noisy at the moment as one of his side flaps is loose 🤣

He's been a lazy godsend though. I do like sitting with a glass of wine in hand watching him clean up 👍😁

@Bovrilla do you think maybe you need to check your drinking habits if you start on the wine at school run time? 😁

I've had the same neato botvac for 8yrs. Changed the battery once. It doesn't bang into anything once it maps rooms, it uses lasers. Does the edges of rooms too. Even handles my thick plush carpets. Picks up loads but I still need my shark every now and then as I have moderate shedding dogs.