Robot vacuums

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I see some threads from a few years ago but I figure it’s worth another one given the advancements.

I had a Roomba in the past but was distinctly unimpressed. I used it for a few weeks but ultimately gave up–it was more effort than it was worth to keep it from getting trapped. I had to constantly close doors, move the unit around, set up the virtual walls, etc. just to keep it running. Not worth my time.

I recently picked up a Neato D5 Connected. The difference is night and day–it actually navigates! Unlike the Roomba, which basically just runs into walls and bounces off them randomly, the Neato has a LIDAR unit–that is, a 360 laser rangefinder that maps out where your walls are. As it moves around, it progressively creates an accurate map of your house to navigate with.

This isn’t just speculation, either–it comes with an app that shows the floorplan it came up with. It successfully got almost everywhere, and more importantly, never got stuck or lost on the way back to the base station. Despite the slightly weird layout of my condo, it made its way into every room successfully (from living room to bedroom to master bath to master closet, and then back).

It did manage to get stuck a few times when I first ran it, but after selecting “gentle mode” (where it doesn’t try so hard to reach every little nook), it’s been virtually perfect.

Roomba does have their 900 series models out now, which have a camera and is apparently capable of the same kind of full-house navigation. Curious if anybody has tried one. They are more expensive than the Neatos, and the LIDAR has the advantage of working in the dark (and I suspect is more accurate).

There’s also a Dyson vacuum with a 360 degree camera, but the thing is enormous and expensive. And a Samsung, which has an up-facing camera that looks like it only maps the ceilings–good enough for room-to-room navigation it seems, but it’s not clear how well it does at ground level. The Neato correctly finds objects as small as the legs on my coffee table and the star-shaped base of my computer chair.

Anyone else using these guys?

2

I am using a very old roomba and find it is more trouble than it’s worth. It gets hung under the low furniture,will spin in one area and the battery life is short. Now, it was gifted to me so no out of pocket. I will use it sometimes.

I can sweep faster than it can vac the main room.

3

We have a Roomba in the 500 series, one specialized for pet hair. Have had to replace some parts, but otherwise never a problem. It does not get trapped, and covers pretty much everything. Our house is too big for one pass, so we use the virtual walls or pocket doors to confine it to the place we want it to clean.
My only complaint is that it does not get into corners. And that when it stops when cleaning the bedroom, it usually does so under the bed.

4

Roomba 980 is nice. I think It cleans pet fur well compared to other robovacs. But for a $1000!!! oh geez,

5

I need a robot vacuum that can climb steps, though, Dalek style. Not a whole staircase, just that one step between the family room and kitchen, and the other between the hallway and mudroom.

6

I still want my Robot Sweeper to look like this:

7

I thought you were going to link to this. What’s yours from?

(and good lord, I actually got Rule 34ed when searching for that image)

8

Classic Chuck Jones/Merrie Melodies cartoon, Dog Gone Modern

It seemed to be on very frequently. the Robot Sweeper sweeps the dirt into its dustpan, then slyly deposits it under a rug.

9

This is shocking to me. You must have very simple rooms with a straightforward furniture configuration. And no Ethernet or power cables running under your beds.

The Neato excels with this. If it runs out of juice, it returns to the base (even if several rooms away), recharges, and then resumes where it left off. No virtual walls needed (the Neato does include some magnetic strips for this purpose, though).

The Neato does a little better in this regard (though not perfect). It has a square front with the brush located up there. It gets within a few inches of the corner instead of 6-8 like the Roomba.

All that said, my Neato did actually trap itself under the bed once. Somehow it pushed itself under a bed skirt and couldn’t escape. Still, it’s at a <10% failure rate at the moment. I can live with that, compared to the 400% failure rate of the Roomba.

10

Are these things actual vacuum cleaners, with suction and a filter? Or are they just sweepers with spinning brushes?

11

They are actual vacuums. You have to empty a little bin every couple cleanings.

12

The dust bins are small but sufficient if you run it every two days or so (depending on your pet configuration). It’s not powerful enough to do a deep cleaning, but the whole point is that you can run it so often that the fur/dirt never gets ground in.