[Closed] Talk to me about robotic vacuums

Watching with interest. I’ve always wanted a robot to do my bidding : )

I've done a house sit in a big place where they had a roomba.

Good idea that works well, but not perfectly. It is has to be able to get in nooks and crannies and can occasionally get stuck. Basically, it breaks the back of any vacuuming and you can occasionally mop bits up with a decent battery handheld one.

I've only seen it work on hard surfaces however. I'm not sure how about the power on carpet. I can't imagine it's as good as a mains one in that respect.

I'd get one if I came back to the UK.

Also, fun innit.

I've got an Eufy robot vaccum, I like it. As said, it doesn't get in all the corners and it's not as good a clean as my Dyson v6. It does however run daily at a set time and get underneath cabinets etc... which wouldn't usually get done. It's not massively clever, you can get ones which plan out optimal paths to clean the room, mine does the job but it does the same bit several times. Also, if you want it to do upstairs and it lives downstairs then obviously you have to move it up there...

Was looking into this recently. The only ones Which? magazine reckoned were a legitimate replacement for doing it manually (rather than just a novelty) are the Dyson 360 or the latest Roomba. Both of which are considerably over 400 quid! Everything else sounds like a compromise.

I read a story once about someone who had a mostly carpeted house, a new puppy that wasn't yet toilet trained, and a robot vacuum cleaner that worked overnight.

In the morning they were able to see that the vacuum robot was very thorough in reaching every area of the ground floor, but the poo smeared carpets needed immediate replacement.

Hard Floor?

Just use a brush; put your sweeps* in a corner and vac up once or twice a week.

*copyright Mrs Crikey.

I've got one from a neighbour who don't use it now after a flooring change. I tried to charge it but couldn't be bothered getting it going. If anyone wants it for delivery... It's a roomba 650.

I've had Jesse Roomba for a few years, vacuuming was always "my" job so Ms Beej got mildly miffed that I bought a robot to do it. Good for a general once over but doesn't do as good a job as a human, especially with corners etc.

Mix of carpet and hard floor.

Good god....

5 mins with a normal vac, good core training...

I vac every day, usually twice as we have 5 cats, 3 of which long haired pedigrees.

A robo vac would die !

Thanks all - sounds vaguely what I might be after....

Jimmy, ygm!

I've just upgraded to this one - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Xiaomi-Mijia-1C-2-in-1-Smart-Robot-Vacuum-Cleaner-Mop-Visual-Dynamic-Navigation/184351557443

We couldn't live without one now.
No carpets in our house, so the mop stays on the bottom all the time, you can take it off if you want.
There is an app that lets you control 4x vacuum strengths and 3x water dropping flow for the mopping.
Apparently there are more functions on the app now, but I've not bothered to check them out as it does everything I need.
It usually gets used every day and it will get a surprising amount of dust every time too!
Plenty of review for the Mijia if you want to know more about it.
Spare filters and mops cost very little, I can't recommend this one enough as it does everything I need, so don't see the point in spending more.
Very comprehensive review - https://smartrobotreviews.com/reviews/xiaomi-mijia-1c-review.html
Straight forward short video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIsBVW6X3cY

The only thing you need to remember, look after it by cleaning it, it gets dusty. A lot of people buy things like bagless vacuums and throw them away because they break because they never clean filters etc..!

I solved this by getting a cleaner, 40quid for 2.5 hours a fortnight, well worth it for the arguments prevented (“oh let’s do a deep clean this Sunday” - erm no).

The option of a Rent-a-mum is a good one. I had one after my divorce because I have dogs, worked full time and the house was really too big for just me. She came in for an hour a week on a Friday and hoovered and dusted. Money very well spent.

Here, we have a Roborock S5. It was more than your budget, but works well for keeping dog hair down to manageable levels. It is _not_ a replacement for a decent go with a proper vacuum though. That said, Marvin is awesome and, since working from home started, has been a decent distraction. He now has a moustache and googly eyes. And graffiti.

I get adds on my phone that tell me there are loads of single 50 year old local ladies just gagging to get into my gaff for some vacuuming action.

ebay and Amazon do re-furbed Roomba's .  We have a 2 bed flat, mix of hardwood, tiles and carpet and getting a Roomba was the best thing we did.  It goes on every day, emptied twice a week and I NEVER have to think about or be bothered with hoovering every again.  Goes on when we are away so always come back to clean floors....

My missus has had us get 2 different Roombas over the years.

I'd rather vacuum myself. The annoyance of the Roomba going around, it's something else that needs servicing and maintaining (very small capacity), it does a meh job, it won't replace a vacuum cleaner so it's something expensive that isn't bike related.
Just get a decent quality vacuum and / or a cleaner every couple of weeks. Much better results.

The annoyance of the Roomba going around

Isn't the point of it being a smart robot that you set it to vacuum when you're at work or at night?

We’ve just got a Roomba after having previously had a cheap Housmile that we bought from Amazon.

It’s bloody brilliant. It cleans the entire downstairs, has no problems moving between the play rug and the hardwood floors, pics up easily as much as they Dyson and does it all by itself, returning to its charge bay when required and firing me a message via the App if it needs anything.

We paid £270 for ours and it’s worth every penny.

We have a basic Eufy one. Paying more seems to get you a smarter robot (it maps out the room, makes sure it gets everywhere, etc) but ours works well enough just randomly working its way around. Picks up the worst of the crumbs and stuff in between proper clean/mop sessions. It does help if you can keep any trailing cables off the floor or other stuff it could get trapped on.

I just pick it up and carry to other rooms for occasional vacuuming, it amuses the kids much more than watching me do it.