In order to soften the crushing metal blow of the oncoming robot apocalypse and carry favor with our soon to be robot overlords I am considering allowing a emissary of robot kind in to my household.

To this end I am considering trying a (relatively) cheap robot vacuum cleaner as I am a) busy, b) slightly lazy c) have better things to do than sweep / vacuum in my spare time (i.e. ride my bike).

Anyone have any experience of them?

Its mostly for the downstairs of my house (3 bed semi sized) which is all open plan and laminate floored.

One like this?

(sorry, someone had to)

If I ever buy a cheap robot I will be sure to get a vacuum cleaner for it (etc)…

I don’t have one but my friend who does have one for his flat doesn’t rate it particularly well. I think it sort of keeps the dust bunnies at bay but doesn’t replace actually cleaning things properly. This is probably a real buy cheap buy twice sort of purchase so you might be better researching what works well

Unless you can sex with it, I’m out…

Unless you can sex with it, I’m out…

Yeh I think the clever ones can sex new born chicks and tortoises. Rubbish at vacuuming though.

If it’s for hard floors then it’s tough to beat a ‘freetime whiskers’. Effectively a bump ‘n’ go robot that will spend about 45 minutes diligently sweeping up detritus from your hard floor into its little dust store. Cheap on eBay and better than an expensive LG model.

If you’re a bit flush with cash then the iRobot models do hard and soft floors sufficiently to make a difference. though on hard floors not that much better than a whiskers, albeit nearly 10x more expensive.

The iRobot Scooba is a great hard floor washer.

None of them are a substitute for a proper vacuum cleaner, but they make a difference.

I’ve got a Roomba, he’s called Jesse.

He’s ace, although sometimes he chases me around the kitchen when I’m cooking.

I used to live ankle deep in fluff. No more.

Adopt a Roomba. You know it makes sense.