Robot vacuum cleaners FAQs
Robot vacuum cleaner pros
- Time-saving: Assuming you don’t hang around watching your new robot vacuum in action, the biggest benefit to using one is freeing up your time to do something else besides vacuuming the floors.
- Hoover less often: You’ll still need to give your floors a manual clean every now and then, but robot vacuum cleaners can maintain a baseline level of tidiness around the home, which means you can hoover a lot less often.
- Cleans while you’re out: Schedule your robot vacuum cleaner, or trigger it from the app, and you can come home to a freshly cleaned floor. If you plan on not being in the house while the vacuum works though, it’s worth choosing a model that has obstacle detection. Particularly if you have pets who aren’t fully house-trained.
- Better reach: Because they’re only a few inches tall, robot vacuum cleaners can clean difficult-to-reach areas, such as under beds, sofas and the TV.
- Space saving: The compact and minimalistic design means robot cleaners take up much less space in your home than a traditional vacuum cleaner, plus they look a lot nicer.
- Spot-cleaning: Dropped a pack of lentils in the kitchen? Pop your robot vacuum on the mess and set it going. More advanced models can even remember the names and locations of rooms, and respond to voice commands like “clean around my desk” or even “vacuum underneath the Christmas tree”.
Robot vacuum cleaner cons
- Small bin capacity: Robot vacuum cleaners are much smaller than traditional vacuums, which means they have a much smaller bin capacity. Some models come with self-emptying charging stations but, for most, you’ll need to empty the robot’s dustbin once every hour or so.
- They get dirty: Robot vacuum cleaners clean our floors, but who cleans them? Well, you do. Brushes need removing and cleaning on a semi-regular basis, to keep the robot operating at its best, which can be unpleasant, but the best robot vacuum cleaners are simple to maintain.
- Price: Although they are becoming more affordable as the technology develops, robot vacs are more expensive than regular vacuum cleaners, making them a serious investment in your cleaning routine. Parts such as filters, brush heads and rollers all need replacing eventually, too.
- Obstacles: While our top pick of robot vacuums is able to avoid obstacles, most are little idiots and can get stuck on objects or under furniture. You need to ensure the room is reasonably clear before the robot is scheduled to clean, so don’t leave socks and loose cables lying about.
- Stairs and corners: Robot vacuum cleaners can’t climb stairs, but they’ll avoid falling down them by detecting when they’re near a steep edge. Corners are also difficult for them to reach, so some spots around the home might need a bit of specific human attention.
- Battery life: Most models last for at least 60 minutes, which won’t be enough time for a full clean if you have a large home. However, the robot will go back to the charging base when the battery is low and return to the area to resume cleaning once adequately charged.
Can robot vacuums be set to clean multiple rooms?
Basic robot vacuum cleaners will clean any area available to them – so if you leave the sitting room door open, it will navigate its way through and start cleaning the room. More advanced robot vacuums come with mapping technology. This means the robot can map your home layout using built-in cameras and smart sensor technology, remembering the different areas using its memory bank. The maps the robot creates will then show on your app, and you can usually change the boundaries of the map and assign each map a name – for example, “main bedroom”, “office”, or “dining room”. The robot will also note furniture placement, so it won’t bump into any of it when it next cleans.
Is it difficult to program a robot vacuum cleaner?
This, of course, varies depending on the model, but robot vacuums are generally designed to be as simple as possible to set up. All robot cleaners come with a charging stand or “home”, and the robot will need to be left to charge for a short while so you can then set it up to start cleaning. You’ll need to connect the robot to your wifi, and most cleaners have an app that you need to download to create a cleaning schedule for your vacuum. Here, you can track your robot’s cleaning progress, and some apps will give you more in-depth information, such as the time it took for the robot to vacuum and the areas it successfully cleaned. Some will also send alerts to your phone if the bin needs emptying or the robot is stuck in a corner and needs your attention.
Are robot vacuum cleaners worth it?
While a rather costly purchase, a robot vacuum cleaner is a great addition to your home, as it can complete day-to-day cleaning tasks without you having to pick up a vac yourself, saving you both time and energy. Plus, thanks to its compact size, it won’t take up too much room in your home.
Can a robot vacuum replace a normal vacuum?
If your living space is all on one level, a robot vacuum cleaner can clean your home for as long as it’s charged. However, robot vacs don’t have the ability to climb stairs, so they can’t (yet) replace a normal vacuum for a multi-floor home... unless you get two.
How do robot vacuum cleaners work?
There are two different ways for a robot vacuum cleaner to work. High-end models tend to use infrared lasers, while the more basic options use physical boundary stripes. Both mechanisms allow it to map your home, navigate your space on its own, dodge obstacles, and even know where your stairs are. Similarly, the sensors mean it can identify areas that it’s already cleaned and those it needs to move onto, as well as detect when it moves from a hard floor to a carpet.
The verdict: Robot vacuum cleaners
For homes with a mix of hard floors and rugs or carpets, we recommend the iRobot roomba combo j7+ for its clever two-in-one mopping system. By deploying the mopping cloth from a little compartment on top of the robot, it enables truly hands-free cleaning: you can feel confident about leaving it to do its thing and not coming back to a disaster scene.
We also rate the eufy robovac X8 and robovac 15C max as decent budget options. They’re basic when it comes to fancy features such as room mapping and obstacle detection, but offer great performance for the price.
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