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?

I've always felt that if my floor magically became un-cluttered enough to let a robovac do its job, manual cleaning would be trivially easy! It's FINDING the floor that takes the time!

@Verytall Can anyone tell me about why they vary so much, are the more expensive models genuinely worth it?

I think there are a few reasons for the price differences, these are only my guesses- I'm not a vac engineer or anything:
-Does it mop and vac, or just vac?
-Does it recognise say a rug and can lift itself onto it?
-Better technology to recognise toys/obstacles
-Brands that advertise on TV in particular, tend to me more expensive

We did a lot of online research before getting ours. Reading techradar and similar comparison sites to narrow them down, then asking about say 2 models on MN.

I have 2 golden retrievers. Will any robot vacc be able to cope with the copious amount of hair??

All mine did was attack the spinny side brush a few times, then ignore it. Boring!

The only carpet we have downstairs is in the hall and it is split level so a robot vacuum wouldn't work for us. :(

I have this one, upgraded from my old Eufy G40 and its fab. Goes over rugs happily, even up and down the threshold of my kitchen to get into the bootroom without fuss (an inch or so high). It empties itself, has a mop function (although I haven't used that yet) and you can plot no-go areas. Brilliant!

My son has just bought a Shark one which hoovers and mops. He says it’s a game changer! I have been thinking about building a ramp between my kitchen and living room step so that I can have one too 😂

I had one which was gifted from a company I did some work for who sold them. I didn’t find it very good, got stuck a lot and picked up ok on hard floor but was useless on the rugs/carpet. It was a £100 model so maybe the more expensive ones are better?

I’d love to buy one that did actually do a good job.

Oh no ! I hear you !
I am older and gave spent ( wasted 😭) years of my life hoovering and mopping.
Apart from our first 2 homes , all the houses I have had to clean were large , including our latest home .
i was beginning to get a sore arm and shoulder from endless hoovering and mopping.

My hoovering took me a while , was hurting my shoulder ( I’m older ) my Eufy goes under the sofa , love seat and footstool !
works its way around obstacles well too .
My downstairs is quite large and all hard floors , one rug in the living room and a couple of large turtle mats elsewhere .
It deals with the transition from hard floor to rug well and it mops too 😄 .
The upstairs of my house I hoover that myself, or husband occasionally does it .
I would need a 2nd one for upstairs as it found it needs to go back to base to empty itself or wash its mop

Ones that mop as well as vac are more expensive. The main difference is whether they use sensors to detect furniture, or whether they have the ability to map out a route which they will then follow in future. The cheaper ones like my Eufy G50 will just have sensors, I find it’s okay but it doesn’t always cover the whole of a room, it takes random paths. Doesn’t bother me too much because I send him round every day, so eventually he’ll cover everywhere.

My friend had a more expensive brand and it actually plots the area, and is much more thorough. You’ll also pay more for one that empties itself. If Robert broke, I would definitely upgrade to one that maps the area.

Incidentally, I’ve noted that we all seem to give them male names!

That’s what I have and it’s fine 😄 the entire ground floor is LVT plus a rug and some mats

I love, love, love ours. To the point whereby we’ve two - one upstairs and one downstairs.

Mine are called Doris and Gertie.

We had an eufy which we loved, so after 12 months we shelled out for a second one for upstairs. After month or so the first eufy suddenly stopped working. Just outside of warranty and eufy wanted nothing to do with it. After having a look online it looks like a common issue of them only lasting just over their warranty period. Massively dubious if you ask me. The unit powers on fine, it’s like the software was disabled or something!

We have a dream X50 and its the best thing ever i couldnt be without it. We have a open plan white tiled floors all down stairs so its a must!

You swore off cats or..?

It is on my to do list. I’d love one.

Do these work with having kids? I have pretty much given up with hoovering in general and sweep the floors (mainly hard floors). My Dd's seem to always manage to scatter hair bobbles across the floor, bits of cut off paper from craft projects and lots of random other bits. I can imagine a robot vacuum would end up broken trying to suck this stuff up. Maybe I have particularly messy children 🤦.

I have the eufy x10 it vacuums and mops and does a real good job. Especially the mop

Not worth the inconvenience of having to lift all dining chairs, bar stools, small tables, poangs etc off the floor so it doesn't get stuck. 🙄

They can't do those things, you do still need to have a proper hoover sometimes but it has made by busy life a lot more bare able. Instead of walking over crumbs and sticking to the floor and then having fix that at 9 o'clock at night my eufy gives it a good enough surface clean for me to be able to ignore cleaning the floors, I probably get the proper hoover and mop out once a month for a deep clean.

We have Bumble who generally does a grand job between different surfaces, under chairs, beds etc manages not to fall down the stairs, & clears dust, fluff & hair from corners..we have a long haired GSD & this makes life so much easier. Yes, I have to lift the odd cable & we have a stuffed parrot & whale shoved under the tv cabinet while hes on patrol as its just too tight for him to get fully under. He docks under our dogs bed & I love hearing his little beeps as he orientates himself to trundle home & 'go to bed' 😆 Yes I still do a deep vacuum regularly & the skirtings etc but for day to day he's brilliant as he pootles while I'm working or while I'm out. He also mops which I hate doing.

Apologies i have not RTFT just a warning for any dog owners, I remember vividly the video of the dog having a poop at night and the robohoover spreading it EVERYWEAR whilst it did its overnight hoover but apart from that yes I would love to be able to afford one!