If you have a robot vacuum cleaner….

[CoffeeIsMyMiddleName]

….what kind do you have and would you recommend it?

And do you need a “normal” vacuum cleaner or hand held one as well?

Our trusty Henry is finally on the way out after over ten years and an extension (which may have finished him off, it certainly nearly finished us off). DH thinks we should get a robot vacuum cleaner. I am concerned this won’t cover stairs, nooks and crannies and feel like maybe we’ll just end up with two? Are they OK on wooden floors? How about with pet hair?

Would welcome any recommendations as to whether robot ones are worth paying the extra for….

We have a Eufy X8 and like it. We also have a Dyson stick hoover for the stairs and the places where the Eufy doesn't do so well (corners and the coir door mats).

We're not massively houseproud and this is enough for us.

And god yes, of course a robot one is worth paying the extra for, it means you don't have to hoover! I can work while it's wandering about.

We have a Euphy robot and a shark upright - you are right that you need both really - the robot can’t do stairs, but does do under a lot of furniture that is normally too heavy to move. We have wooden floors and it does a great job.

The two vacuums are complementary; does the robot do such a thorough job as the upright? No! Do I set the robot off approximately 4 times for every time I’d be using the upright? Yes! So overall our house is loads cleaner. I send the robot around most days / at least every other day. Work full time so definitely wouldn’t vaccuum that much manually!

I have a Neato It's brilliant does the whole of the downstairs every morning whilst I walk the dog. I also have a gtech air ram mostly used upstairs and a gtech handhold for stairs and sofa cushions and any crumbs outside if the Neato morning run.

You need both. I have a Eufy 30c upstairs and the one with mop downstairs and would definitely recommend. We do however still need Henry for sofas, corners, cobwebs etc.

They work well together, the robos go off every day and we (the cleaner) only do a full hoover once a week.

We have a Eufy and the shark upright. The Eufy is great for a daily whizz round, and it fluffs the carpet up. However it doesn’t do edges or stairs, so we do that once a week with the Shark.

I’m also quite old fashioned and do a dustpan and brush on the stair carpet once in a while as it makes it look brand new.

Can highly recommend the Proscenic 850T. I bought one off ebay a few months back for £100ish, was basically new condition,but the original packaging was damaged so it was quite a bit cheaper than RRP. I was so impressed that I bought a second one for upstairs, so I can set the both running on a morning and have that lovely freshly hoovered feeling without the effort! I find it quite motivating, as I potter around dusting and doing odd jobs that I used to procrastinate over whilst it's zooming around. I've also noticed in general that the house doesn't get as dusty, as everywhere apart from the stairs is getting hoovered everyday.

I have a greyhound and it does a great job of picking up his hair and also feathers from our two budgies.

I've kept my Shark cordless for doing the stairs, sofa, mattress, car and odd spot cleans. The Proscenic has a spot clean function and all sorts of scheduling functions but I just use it on auto. I can see myself going back to a corded vac now.

I have an Eufy and a shark upright. We aren't particularly messy, no pets and mostly wooden floors so the Eufy is perfect for us. I set her off most days then the shark comes out once a week to do the stairs and behind the couple if bits of furniture that Eufy can't get under.
I honestly wouldn't be without it now the house always looks clean now with minimal effort l.

Eufy, Dyson, Dyson handheld. They all pick up different dirt.

Can I just ask, do the robot cleaners do well where you have different floor surfaces? I have mostly hard floor with some quite deep pile rugs - wondering if it would cope with them 🤨
Thank you 😊

Dyson and highly recommend it. It doesn't replace a normal one though, I have two others. The robot can't do stairs and it doesn't have any attachments. Robot is great on wooden floors, no pets though so can't advise on that.

I have a Eufy too. I have a hard floor, short pile carpet, big pile carpet and rugs. He sometimes has to have a run up at the rugs but otherwise no problem at all. Definitely worth it!

I also have a dyson that I had before Eufy, which I rarely use apart from on the stairs.

We got a eufy in the summer and I absolutely love it. It's got an edge mode and does a great job under furniture. I have put our Henry round and then the eufy and it always picks up more! I use the eufy 90% of the time and then occasionally use the Henry for skirtings.

I have a Eufy and a stick vacuum.

The Eufy is brilliant but can't do stairs and is no good if you need a quick clean, it just bumbles about so takes a while to clean a whole room.

We have 4 cats with wooden floors downstairs and carpet upstairs. The eufy gets up an alarming amount of dust and fur so I think it's pretty good.

I generally mostly use the Eufy and then occasionally do stairs, corners and under sofas with the stick vacuum.

I have Eufy LR30 with mop. I adore it and I have never liked any of our hoovers. It empty's itself as long as the mop module isn't on. You can map different areas and just send it to vac and mop the kitchen for example which I do once a day. Just need to teach it to do the stairs... That's all I have had the other vac out for so far. I just carry Eufy upstairs for bedrooms and bathrooms and so do the rest of the family. It needs a bit of regular attention to the filters and it can get stuck on low profile things like the bases of our bar stools so I move them out of the way.

I have had 3 ( pretty much el cheapos) my fourth is arriving today (Eufy) as I can’t be without one ha ha!

It goes on 2-3 times a day, everyday. By far the hardest working member of the household.

Oh and others have said, still need a regular vacuum cleaner as they compliment each other.

I have. Miele cat and dog and a Miele stick.

Three woman with long hair live here, plus a dog and a Maine Coon cat!

Thanks everyone - this sounds promising! Better get saving….

Do! Absolute game changer. My house is much cleaner than it was when we had to motivate ourselves to drag the old hoover out.

Got a a robot vac for Christmas. Absolutely brilliant. We have woode floors downstairs and it makes light work of those and the ruggable type low pile rug in the living toom. Goes under the furniture too unlike me

I still get the Miele out for upstairs as the kids rooms are not robot friendly and neither are the stairs and do all the behind the doors/awkward bits Optimus Grime doesn't reach on his daily toddle about.

We have a dog and there's far less hair with it cleaning daily, unlike when I was in charge because I am a slattern.

We have one. No I wouldn't recommend. It's such a faff having to move everything out of the way etc. It was easier to get the hoover out.

I'm impressed with how well it handles pet hair on both hardwood and carpets. As for stairs and tight spots, you're right, the robot might miss those, but it's amazing for daily maintenance. We still keep a handheld vacuum for those hard-to-reach areas.

I have a great telepresence robot idea, that sounds like an awesome sci-fi twist! Imagine your robot vacuum introducing you to its telepresence buddy while cleaning up. It's always a tough decision, but from our experience, the robot vacuums are totally worth it if you're okay with a bit of backup cleaning for specific areas.