Thread: Robotic Vacuum Cleaners

I love them. Hard floors at my place allow you to feel a grain of sand. a type of polished Concrete downstairs and bamboo upstairs.

We do have to sweep the stairs of course. Two cheap kogan types added to a older and MUCH louder Samsung one. Just replaced the battery in that after four years use. I have to empty mine myself. The one room with carpet in it is small. they all work fine on that and over mats. Under kids beds and bathrooms gets them stuck at times.

The only thing apart from emptying is really cutting the hair off the roller every few weeks. It is not my long hair promise

The two cheapies I have a mopping attachment which is ok.

I used to turn them on when ever I left for work/school drop off. That made my tight arse smile a bit as usual they recharge from the Solar PV

Yours sounds very la de dah model. On the cost side I assume $15 to $50 per hour for a cleaner? With the hundreds of hours you are not pushing/pulling an old school vacuum cleaner about the $1000 upfront pain is recovered in just a few months

We all admit to watching them at times. I wonder how long before a cheap effective lawn more is in the mix?

https://www.husqvarna.com/au/product...c-lawn-mowers/

Not buying one. Mostly as I am about to plant "Dichondra repens" rather than grass - Weekends may be free for ever

I get ours to clean daily - it's all set on the App and will clean whatever areas you program it to. The main room, hallway and kitchen are daily and the bedrooms get done on Sundays and the mopping on Saturdays. Only intervention required is to install and remove the mopping attachment on Saturday morning then it just takes off at 10am and advises me in a friendly voice 'Cleaning Started'. The App also shows where its gone and tracks it live if you open the App when it's cleaning. You can also just draw lines across any part of the map to stop it going places you don't want it to.

After its Saturday clean and mop I remove the mopping attachment and give the machine a once over - the brush comes out really easily and yes I have to cut SWMBO long hair from the brush roller. It's the only time I touch it for the week - it just does its think the rest of the time.

Given the old 240 volt Vacuum we have was also around $1000 I don't think it's bad value, but the top of the range unit with the auto empty station and pro mopping attachment will set you back nearly $2000 - that's getting a bit much IMO, but the AI and camera systems are pretty cool. Even then they still do dumb stuff - if they can't get a vacuum to navigate a lounge room without issue, how long will it be before cars can navigate the roads?

I also looked at the robotic mowers the other week before buying the battery mower I ended up with - very neat and would have worked in my yard but a little more than I wanted to spend. Also I have a deaf dog who won't even move when you bump into him with the mower so I wouldn't want to run the risk of what a robot would make of my Pug and decide to try and drive over him...

Our 2 cats think 'Beasty' as it's been called is the spawn of Satan. They are absolutely freaked out by it and bolt to another room as soon as it comes out of hiding. The 2 Pugs don't care and won't even move for it if it runs into them.

We have a robotic cleaner but it more of a sweeper than a vacuum. It is a decent brand but does not have any mapping etc. From memory you could buy magnetic strips that you could lay on the floor to ring fence it in to rooms etc.

How does yours handle random clutter such as a power cord on the floor. Ours would get tangled in it. You basically had to pick up anything loose, even shoes on the floor as it would get tangled in the laces. As a result it hasn't been used for many months.....

I bought an ALDI one several years ago.
It did not like Oriental carpets.
Every time it tied itself in knots jamming the ends in its brush.
The same happens even now with a rotating brush vacuum.
Seeing my wife likes our now old carpets/mats I see no robot vacuum in the future.
Regards philipA

Originally Posted by cjc_td5

We have a robotic cleaner but it more of a sweeper than a vacuum. It is a decent brand but does not have any mapping etc. From memory you could buy magnetic strips that you could lay on the floor to ring fence it in to rooms etc.

How does yours handle random clutter such as a power cord on the floor. Ours would get tangled in it. You basically had to pick up anything loose, even shoes on the floor as it would get tangled in the laces. As a result it hasn't been used for many months.....

Not 100% sure from experience as our place doesn't have any such clutter, but based on the videos out there, even the standard T8 does a decent job. See this video -

Th AIVI version is quite a bit more expensive but does a much better job of avoiding obstacles overall but the lidar on the standard unit can still see quite a bit and avoid what it does detect effortlessly.