Robot Hoovers

We were thinking about getting one as neither of us are particularly good at bothering to run the hoover round the house (doesn't help that our Dyson has been really temperamental for years so it's made me hate hoovering). I've heard anecdotally that it can be more of a faff to keep your house accessible for a robot than it would be to just walk round with a hoover.

Does anyone have one and would you recommend it?

Do you live in a flat or bungalow? If you've got multiple stories in your home then you'll would either need to buy one for each level, or carry the thing upstairs, or still need to vacuume half your home - plus the stairs.

That's not a growth wrote:Do you live in a flat or bungalow? If you've got multiple stories in your home then you'll would either need to buy one for each level, or carry the thing upstairs, or still need to vacuume half your home - plus the stairs.

We live in a house. The high dustfall areas are very much downstairs to be honest, so that's where we'd keep it. I'm thinking we'd set it off after our son has gone to bed and it would sort out the front room, kitchen, hall, and litter tray area. Running it round the bedrooms doesn't take very long because most of the room is bed and there's stuff kept under all of them! If we got one and it was great then I'd consider a cheap second one for upstairs.

The stairs obviously need doing manually and you'd be mad not to actually keep a manual one for emergencies and the car.

I can't imagine a more perfectly designed trip hazard! Never in the same place twice, low enough to put half a foot on, sending you flying with a dish full of chilli!

My Dad had a cheap one back in the day, I think he spent more time encouraging the cat to sit on it and ride around than it ever spent vacuuming.
He got one of those G-Tech cordless upright jobs in the end. That was a genuine timesaver, with no faffing around with cables, etc.

Are there any genuine positive reviews that aren't actually promo ads? I feel like until it can 'tidy' as well as clean it will, as you say, be more of a chore to prepare for it cleaning that just doing the vacuuming yourself.

https://www.homemadebklyn.com/roomba-poop

I'm not sure if cats fare any better

I've had one about 5 years. A Neato Botvac D85



It was pretty expensive when I bought it (about £500), but is pretty old now and been surpassed by all the newer models.

Honestly, I've found it fantastic. I had 3 cats and a dog at the time, and the amount of hair they would drop daily was incredible. Gary (my robot hoover) would go out on his daily schedule and do the whole lower floor of my house.

It's not as good as say manually hoovering a room, but would say it's about 90% there. (bear in mind this is an older model). Easily good enough for if you have visitors coming over etc.

Positives

+ Easily replaces daily hoovering
+ Naviation is really impressive, you think it's missed a spot but it always goes back to finish it off
+ Set it off and leave the house, come back to hoovered house
+ Set it to hoover 30 mins before you come home from work, always come back to a clean house
+ Cleaning upstairs is easy. Open all the doors, and then set him off in the hall way and he will hoover all 3 bedrooms bathroom etc

Negatives

- They are expensive. I would avoid 'cheap' models as from looking at reviews you really do get what you pay for. The Cheaper models clean less and have more issue navigating.
- You have to empty to dust bin after every hoover. The new super expensive ones do this automatically but that comes at a premium
- If your pet has an accident, and then you hoover sets off on his journey you are in for a bad time. It happened to me once it reminded me of spreading marmite on toast.
- He can't do stairs, so you will still need to do that
- Over time Gary has got less reliable. His side brush broke (which I repaired) but one of his bumpers keeps sticking meaning I have to free him. To put it in perspecitve though I'va had him 5 years and use him every day, so he's hoovered my house approx. 2000 times.
- *Edit* - You do have to prepare the room. As in you can't leave cables/kids toys all over the place as they will get caught up in the brush. TBH I'm so used to that now that it didn't cross my mind to begin with.

When I was googling the picture I read a few reviews of people complaining about poor navigation. I can only vouch for my own experience and have had minimal issues. He sits in the kitchen below a shelving unit, and goes off into the hallway, livingroom and does under the dinner table with now issues and comes back to recharge himself (if he runs out of battery he will redock and then set off again when recharged).

I would absolutly recommend one, but only if you are prepared to spend a bit of money. I'm not convinced the £200 models are up to the task.

Lime wrote:I can't imagine a more perfectly designed trip hazard! Never in the same place twice, low enough to put half a foot on, sending you flying with a dish full of chilli!

That's oddly specific.

Ironhide wrote:

Lime wrote:I can't imagine a more perfectly designed trip hazard! Never in the same place twice, low enough to put half a foot on, sending you flying with a dish full of chilli!

That's oddly specific.

The scenario played out in my mind exactly like that . I guess it may have been bolognaise.

Lime wrote:I can't imagine a more perfectly designed trip hazard! Never in the same place twice, low enough to put half a foot on, sending you flying with a dish full of chilli!

My Dad had a cheap one back in the day, I think he spent more time encouraging the cat to sit on it and ride around than it ever spent vacuuming.
He got one of those G-Tech cordless upright jobs in the end. That was a genuine timesaver, with no faffing around with cables, etc.

Are there any genuine positive reviews that aren't actually promo ads? I feel like until it can 'tidy' as well as clean it will, as you say, be more of a chore to prepare for it cleaning that just doing the vacuuming yourself.

We were given one from my in laws that they weren't using and while its not amazing we set it off in the kitchen/dining room while we're not using it.

To be honest though, the noise it makes it would be hard to not notice it and trip over it.

I must admit, i would like one.

I imagine they would work much better on floorboards than anything else. I try to prevent leaving stuff on the floor, and I don't have kids so no toys etc, if it cleans around those objects then that's my own damn fault. I'm guessing this stuff is commons sense..


My mum is disabled so I'd like to get her one some day, but she does leave stuff EVERYWHERE so it's kind of pointless.

Albear wrote:I've had one about 5 years. A Neato Botvac D85



It was pretty expensive when I bought it (about £500), but is pretty old now and been surpassed by all the newer models.

Honestly, I've found it fantastic. I had 3 cats and a dog at the time, and the amount of hair they would drop daily was incredible. Gary (my robot hoover) would go out on his daily schedule and do the whole lower floor of my house.

It's not as good as say manually hoovering a room, but would say it's about 90% there. (bear in mind this is an older model). Easily good enough for if you have visitors coming over etc.

Positives

+ Easily replaces daily hoovering
+ Naviation is really impressive, you think it's missed a spot but it always goes back to finish it off
+ Set it off and leave the house, come back to hoovered house
+ Set it to hoover 30 mins before you come home from work, always come back to a clean house
+ Cleaning upstairs is easy. Open all the doors, and then set him off in the hall way and he will hoover all 3 bedrooms bathroom etc

Negatives

- They are expensive. I would avoid 'cheap' models as from looking at reviews you really do get what you pay for. The Cheaper models clean less and have more issue navigating.
- You have to empty to dust bin after every hoover. The new super expensive ones do this automatically but that comes at a premium
- If your pet has an accident, and then you hoover sets off on his journey you are in for a bad time. It happened to me once it reminded me of spreading marmite on toast.
- He can't do stairs, so you will still need to do that
- Over time Gary has got less reliable. His side brush broke (which I repaired) but one of his bumpers keeps sticking meaning I have to free him. To put it in perspecitve though I'va had him 5 years and use him every day, so he's hoovered my house approx. 2000 times.
- *Edit* - You do have to prepare the room. As in you can't leave cables/kids toys all over the place as they will get caught up in the brush. TBH I'm so used to that now that it didn't cross my mind to begin with.

When I was googling the picture I read a few reviews of people complaining about poor navigation. I can only vouch for my own experience and have had minimal issues. He sits in the kitchen below a shelving unit, and goes off into the hallway, livingroom and does under the dinner table with now issues and comes back to recharge himself (if he runs out of battery he will redock and then set off again when recharged).

I would absolutly recommend one, but only if you are prepared to spend a bit of money. I'm not convinced the £200 models are up to the task.

I think that's the longest post I've ever seen you do.

and the most serious.

Gary and I have a complicated relationship

We have one and its decent, it does a better job of carept thand tile or wooden floor, it has a rotating brush that does a great job of carpet. As mentioned you do need to kinda prep the room, no cables and stuff like that, we also have 2 stools that have a tapered bottom and they need to be moved or will will ramp up on those and get stuck, it can also wedge itself under certain furniture from time to time. Overall its great though, switch it on, head out for the day and come home to a hoovered house. If you have the cash Id reccomend it but dont expect it to replace your current hoover enteirely, its good for a daily go around but it cant do stairs and theres certain sopts it just cant get to so you will need to do some manual work still.