To regret not getting a robot vacuum sooner

[JudesBiggestFan]

Oh my days. What a game changer! Bought it on Wednesday and the joy of seeing him pootling about, vacuuming and mopping my floors while I get in with other things! I have three kids and I think I’ve vacuumed twice a day for the last 16 years. Hours of my life back. And it does a great job too. Am I alone in my new obsession?

No, I have had one for over a decade (well, upgraded a couple of times, not one single machine) and having one still brings me joy- especially when I’m off out to do something nice with kids and I start it off as I head out

I'm so so tempted to get one. I have a pretty small space and feel like it will spend more time getting stuck around chair legs etc that actually cleaning!

Love ours! We have one upstairs and one downstairs and I love seeing them trundle around.

Is there a particular brand you have or one you would recommend? I have 3 kids and hoover at least twice a day too . I have thought about buying one but not take the plunge yet.

Absolute game changer. Makes me so happy too!! Just wish I’d got one with longer battery life as it can’t do all our upstairs in one hit and someone else told me the eufy is better than our Roborock at mopping floors. Still love it loads!!

I love mine! Got him just before Christmas. Mine is a Eufy. We have a large open plan kitchen extension and he fully takes care of it.
My only regret apart from not getting one sooner is that I didn’t get the mop version.

Love mine as well although could do with getting a new one soon.

I feel like people should talk about this more! The joy of seeing the kids dropping crumbs and sending the robot vacuum after them instead of knowing I’m going to have to wrestle Henry out of the cupboard…immense! We have the Riborock S10…it was only £169.99 so I wasn’t sure how good it would be, but no complaints. So so clever how it maps the rooms!

Yanbu.

My fave bit is when my eufy beeps and boops then trundles off home congratulating himself on a job well done

I am on my 2nd the first one was very much the "dumb as a shoe" country cousin of my new eufy but I remember him fondly too

We have Tapo, partly as we have other Tapo stuff so it’s in the same ecosystem. Had no issues.

I wouldn’t ever buy Ecovacs again, the software was atrocious, our old one constantly lost the map or had weird overlapping maps, ignored the boundaries we put on app etc.

Congratulations!! I had one that cost a lot more than that, and it did help but there were so many issues, would get stuck and the map would go offline etc. The mop was like a light sponge so only useful for floors that were already very clean. And the nail on the coffin was we sanded our floors and got rugs, and he can’t make it up them. I’ve given him away.

What are the downsides, if any? What can’t it do? I have mainly carpet - downstairs is two reception rooms and a hallway and then unfortunately a step up to tiled dining room, kitchen, boot room and downstairs loo.

Doni help it up the step and it will just carry on? Will it end up on its back if it falls down the step?

My shit one was ecovacs!

Hey @JudesBiggestFan what make and model is your robot vacuum? I had one that was meant to sweep and mop but the water / mop function never worked. Think it was a Roborock.

Yeah it won’t be able to do the step. Some have boundaries though so it wouldn’t necessarily fall back down. But having to help it up defeats the purpose, you want it to pootle about in the background.

I haven't got one, but must confess I thought about getting one purely to see if our cat would ride on it like they do on YouTube...

We've got a cheap eufy and it's rubbish. Maybe our house is too cluttered but it gets stuck on stool bases, between dining chairs, on door thresholds etc. It doesn't pick up everything and often just blows crumbs around. It's spinning bits get tangled in the rug and my cat hates it. Not worth it in my opinion.

Honestly, I evangelise about this to everyone! It's the best thing I've ever bought for myself. Now I have an upstairs one and a downstairs one that also mops.

I started out with a eufy and they are good but then I upgraded to a basic iRobot Roomba combo and it's genuinely fantastic (this one https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DV9VK9K4/ref=sspa_dk_detail_5?pd_rd_i=B0DV9VK9K4&pd_rd_w=zq5gE&content-id=amzn1.sym.7c2bff8e-4ce3-4cc7-b3f6-35ac6c74cf9b&pf_rd_p=7c2bff8e-4ce3-4cc7-b3f6-35ac6c74cf9b&pf_rd_r=RA5N9NBBJ9YEJ6FBTNHB&pd_rd_wg=YGVrO&pd_rd_r=ff6335bb-fe47-4ff4-b936-9cb4868e831f&aref=aYzQ2UU2OW&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWw&th=1)

I have a sweeping broom and a mop.

Does it go over the door thresholds? How about between rugs/wooden floors? Does it not get stuck between dining chairs? Also if using upstairs, does it have a sensor to stop it falling down the stairs? Sorry for so many questions (!), it’s so tempting in my busy household!

I had a roomba, after it had an incident with a rogue cat poo I swore off them. Also found it tended to push a lot of dust/dog hair under the sofas.
Would recommend to those without pets though.

Love mine, we have an Eufy that is set to trundle out once a day. His name is Morris and he has googly 👀 which the kids added! He copes well with thresholds and from carpet to wooden/tiled floors. He does suck up the cats toys and occasionally gets stuck behind furniture, but then he has to wait until I get home and hunt for him! Our cat also attacks his spinning brushes sometimes but he doesn't seem to mind

I might be being a bit daft, but I just don’t understand these. I don’t see how they would get into corners, under tables with a lot of chair legs, underneath things, etc. Rooms that have small steps or divides. When I vacuum, I lift the edge of my rugs and vacuum just underneath. Can’t see how a robot would do a good job of that. Also vacuuming doesn’t take long so I don’t consider it much of a timesaver either. For all these reasons I just don’t understand robot vacuums but since I haven’t tried one I guess I could be wrong.

Oooooh @NewGoldFox I had forgotten about the cat poo when ours was a kitten. Yes I agree that was grim .... tracked throughout the house, leaving us to clean the carpet AND disembowel the hoover to clean him BUT only happened twice and not since the cat is toilet trained.