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Robot Vaccuumm


huge

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Tell me which one to buy.

Smallish bungalow, mostly hardwoods, no pets.

Wife's cousin recommended the one that empties itself but that bitch is $1100.  The roomba, not the cousin.  

Also see eufy as an alternative?

Help me Obi-Wan...

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Dont like my eufy

has problems climbing over stuff.  the charging behavior is sorta wonky - sometimes itll drain itself, even when sitting on the dock. 

worst of all, their customer service is fucking shady as shit.  which is surprising since its a subsidiary of anker which has a good reputation.

 

the sweeping pattern is decent, and if you prep the room right (tuck away cables and loose stuffs, block paths to constrain it, etc), it'll do a good job of cleaning.  like, gets rid of most of the gritty stuff you can feet with your feet.  and it'll clean up a ton of fuzzies and dust bunnies too.  which seems like its ultra effective, but still doesnt beat a manual vacuum job

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1 hour ago, huge said:

Tell me which one to buy.

Smallish bungalow, mostly hardwoods, no pets.

Wife's cousin recommended the one that empties itself but that bitch is $1100.  The roomba, not the cousin.  

Also see eufy as an alternative?

Help me Obi-Wan...

You can get the I+ series Roomba (previous top line) that also empties itself for 700 right now. 

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I bought the E5 (iirc) just a few weeks ago.  Does good and 100x better than the OG Roomba we had 10 years ago.    It’s one model below where the camera and room mapping starts.   I paid $250.  I might pay $400 or so for the room mapping version when this one goes kaput.   We use it as a backup cleaner (we sweep up every other day or so, but run Roomba 2x a week) and it’s been good.  We only use it downstairs on the wood. So far, so good. 
 

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yeah, it was just to give you some ammo in case you wanted to take the highly non-recommended tact, "You know all the data says these things are woefully underperforming.  Maybe let's save money, get an old-school kind, and make a chart that tells you when to get off your ass and vacuum."  Nothing screams holiday cheer more than that...

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i have the cheapest one possible (ecovacs deebot N79 ~$130 on sale) and it works fine.  yes, it runs into things and sometimes wedges itself under the fridge door, but the floors are much cleaner than my lazy butt was making them.  run it every other day b/c the dog drags in so much crap.  battery is big enough it could probably handle 1000 sq ft (i'm 800).  i keep its base under a ladder bookshelf where it's invisible and only rarely does it not make it back to the base.  don't know how it does with fringe carpet or crushed cheerios from the kid. 

cousin has had a neato for years which picks up after their kids and golden.  it's probably a lot smarter than mine and also costs 4x as much. 

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We run ours( whatever Roomba costco sold in 2017) everyday.

I fucking love it.  Yes it probably is less effective than a regular vacuum, but it vacuums every day when we are at work.  

 

The other huge benefit is it has trained our kids to pick their shit up off the floor lest legos and other small stuff disappear.

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Oh, don't get me wrong...as soon as the little one is a few years old...I want one.  I was just mentioning its inefficiencies so the OP could make the argument to his wife that $100 and some fervor is a helluva lot more effective (and cheaper) than an $1100 also-ran.  

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Have the Eufy 11 I think.  2 Roombas before this.  Eufy is  a little quieter and thinner but does get stuck more often than the Roomba.  

1st Roomba battery died after a few years. 2nd one, pup got sick and dog shit was inside.  I'm too lazy so just tossed that out and got the cheaper eufy jic I need to replace soon again. 

Roomba > Eufy.  I let it run every other day and still surprised how much crap it cleans up every now and then.  Would definitely recommend getting a/any robovac. 

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On 12/12/2019 at 1:33 PM, Lobo said:

yeah, it was just to give you some ammo in case you wanted to take the highly non-recommended tact, "You know all the data says these things are woefully underperforming.  Maybe let's save money, get an old-school kind, and make a chart that tells you when to get off your ass and vacuum."  Nothing screams holiday cheer more than that...

If someone's going to be lazy, just go all out and get a riding model.

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i had a Neato about 8 years ago.  got stuck everywhere. got lost. battery was crap. i hated it.

got the roomba 960 or some such.  The thing is awesome.  the dust bin is smallish but we have three 100lbs dogs so theres that. NO animals and smallish apt. would probably be fine for the dust bin. It doesn't get stuck or lost all that often.  about to get the new one that empties it self and run both.  

ours runs 6 days a week.  other then normal maintenance. like filters and brushes i had to put a battery in it once.  i bought the cheap ass one off amazon and it was a cheap ass one off Amazon.   bought the roomba one and all is good again. 

 

tldr  dont go cheap. get the good one.  well worth the money

 

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I have a couple Ecovacs Deebot, in small condos with tile floors. They're cheap and keep the floor clean. I'd recommend them as a budget robovac, hence my buying many of them.

Tried one in a larger condo and it simply couldn't get to all the rooms using random motion, we'd always find it dead in a random room. We wound up having to move it manually to a room, let it run 10min with door shut, move to another room, 10min with door shut, etc. Works, but not hands-off. If you have an odd house layout or many rooms, you'll either need to do the same or pay up for a model that does room mapping. I also tried a Eufy to compare, and their path planning was even worse. The Ecovacs at least will follow a wall for part of the cleaning cycle, the Eufy never did, so it'd just ping-pong around the same room to oblivion.

Has been hinted at above, but you really need to think about the use of robovacs differently than a traditional vacuum. A robovac is not a "cleaner," it's a "clean maintainer." Start with a clean room and run it regularly and the room will never get dirty. Start with a shithole mess and it'll definitely pick up less than a traditional vacuum and you'll probably be disappointed.

Also mentioned above, it really pays off to make the house robovac-friendly. Use cable organizers to get all the cables off the floor. If possible, pick cabinets and sofas and other furniture tall enough for the robovac to drive under. Get rid of rugs, or tape down their edges. Don't leave shoes on the floor, put them on a shoe rack (again, tall enough for the robovac to drive under).

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We have a Roomba, 800 series. It's fine, but it does get stuck sometimes and because one of our dogs sheds constantly, it fills up quickly. We only use it downstairs. All hardwood, about 2000 sq.ft.  We still use the regular vacuum occasionally. It's fantastic for getting underneath sofas and beds.

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1 hour ago, 52-80 said:

Somebody explain please what is the magic trickery behind self-emptying vacuums?

They have a home base containing a larger bag. The ones with this also have a continue cleaning function where they can dock, empty, charge, and then start up where they left off automatically.  You'll still have to occasionally replace the larger bag (I think every 30 cleanings or so?).

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  • 7 months later...
44 minutes ago, ROFL BOX said:

Is a Roomba still the gold standard here?

I love my i7, but there are definitely good competitors out there that are cheaper. You don't need to limit your search to Roomba. I know Neato makes good products. I believe the Shark and Roborock products have been well reviewed as well. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

On the cheaper end, we've had good luck so far with our Coredy ($145 on Amazon).  Does very well on hard surfaces and reasonably well on carpet.  No issues transitioning from one to the other, works with magnetic strips, has remote, etc.  Spent an extra $38 for the mop attachment, which has been pretty great in the kitchen and bathrooms.

Doesn't self-empty.

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  • 3 months later...
3 hours ago, elfenix said:

Any of these able to handle rugs with fringes? Might be an Xmas gift if so.

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I think the irobot models will deal with those fringes ok. The newer ones are fairly decent at untangling themselves. I've seen them handle similar ones. But, the sheer amount of rugs with fringe will mean that there will inevitably be problems. The shorter fringe less so, but the rugs in the first photo and last one are likely going to require some prep work to keep the robot from being constantly down. 

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