Thread: Robotic Vacuum Cleaners

Originally Posted by jonesfam

I have an automatic vac.
It takes a bit of prodding to get started, can slack off in the middle of the job & makes a strange moaning noise a lot of the time.
The brand is McQuillen, it's 15 years old & the model is Number 3 son.
I get an error occasionally, something about me being on it's back?
Jonesfam

The model I have is broken and it seems I can't return it. Something about the shop being closed.

We purchased a eufy L70 hybrid vac last year when they were 50% off (so a very expensive cleaner). These things might seem like a stupid slow tedious machine to some people..... But I'm a computer programmer by trade.... and I watch this thing going around the room dealing with furniture, shoes, curtains open, curtains closed (think about it, closed curtains aren't a hard wall ... they push away and just get harder and harder to push the futher you move them). They handle animals and people moving around, people changing its already scanned area, people opening and closing doors ... The programing involved in once of these machines is mind blowing.

Ignoring all that crap .... I'm interested in how it cleans. And this thing is amazing. The magic is in the rotary brush. It actually seems to do a better job than the ducted vacuum (with a non-powered rotary head fitted).

with a large family at home, I've never bothered to schedule or link to the thing, so only use 0.005% of its functions. You see with kids are its impossible, all the rooms are to messy to schedule anything. With the kids home in lockdown, I wouldn't try to use it (quicker and easier to just vacuum). When they are at school. I pickup everything off an area of floor in the house and just punch "auto-clean' on it .... and away it goes. I do the house in 3 sections. That way I can empty it and if it gets stuck somewhere (usually something I've missed like a hair clip jamning up the rotary brush) I don't have to start from scratch if it looses itself (which happens occasionally). If lifts a HUGE amount of dirty from the carpet.

If you had no kids, I could just schedule it daily and the whole house could get done in one go (as there wouldn't be endless crap laying around on the floors)..... but that isn't going to happen for a lot of years (at least I hope its not .... A home isn't home without the kids here annoying the hell out of us!).

Originally Posted by DoubleChevron

We purchased a eufy L70 hybrid vac last year when they were 50% off (so a very expensive cleaner). These things might seem like a stupid slow tedious machine to some people..... But I'm a computer programmer by trade.... and I watch this thing going around the room dealing with furniture, shoes, curtains open, curtains closed (think about it, closed curtains aren't a hard wall ... they push away and just get harder and harder to push the futher you move them). They handle animals and people moving around, people changing its already scanned area, people opening and closing doors ... The programing involved in once of these machines is mind blowing.

Ignoring all that crap .... I'm interested in how it cleans. And this thing is amazing. The magic is in the rotary brush. It actually seems to do a better job than the ducted vacuum (with a non-powered rotary head fitted).

with a large family at home, I've never bothered to schedule or link to the thing, so only use 0.005% of its functions. You see with kids are its impossible, all the rooms are to messy to schedule anything. With the kids home in lockdown, I wouldn't try to use it (quicker and easier to just vacuum). When they are at school. I pickup everything off an area of floor in the house and just punch "auto-clean' on it .... and away it goes. I do the house in 3 sections. That way I can empty it and if it gets stuck somewhere (usually something I've missed like a hair clip jamning up the rotary brush) I don't have to start from scratch if it looses itself (which happens occasionally). If lifts a HUGE amount of dirty from the carpet.

If you had no kids, I could just schedule it daily and the whole house could get done in one go (as there wouldn't be endless crap laying around on the floors)..... but that isn't going to happen for a lot of years (at least I hope its not .... A home isn't home without the kids here annoying the hell out of us!).

Does the L70 self clean? I can’t find that detail on the web site. We have dogs so that would be a great feature

That’s one of the machines that made my short list. It doesn’t have a self emptying station available for it which ruled it out for us but it gets very good reviews.

Originally Posted by John_D4

Does the L70 self clean? I can’t find that detail on the web site. We have dogs so that would be a great feature

Never happen. Hair and dog fur will wrap around and seize up the rotary brush mechanism regardless of "self clean" claims. things that 'grab' the carpet like grass seeds and some fur/hair will not be picked up by a robot vacuum ... as if you manually vacuum you will go over the spot several times... then pick the seed out of the carpet with your fingers and try again. your robot vacuum won't do this.

The l70 is very effective at picking up hair... where I groomed our dog and its hair ended up through the entire bloody house (hair, not fur.... its a poodle) It effortlessly vacuumed it up. If you have females living in your house. You will be constantly unblocking hair from all the drains and pulling the rotary brush from the vacuum to clear the hair from. There is no way you can "self clean" wrapped around, tangle/wedged in hair

seeya
shane L.

Originally Posted by DoubleChevron

Never happen. Hair and dog fur will wrap around and seize up the rotary brush mechanism regardless of "self clean" claims. things that 'grab' the carpet like grass seeds and some fur/hair will not be picked up by a robot vacuum ... as if you manually vacuum you will go over the spot several times... then pick the seed out of the carpet with your fingers and try again. your robot vacuum won't do this.

The l70 is very effective at picking up hair... where I groomed our dog and its hair ended up through the entire bloody house (hair, not fur.... its a poodle) It effortlessly vacuumed it up. If you have females living in your house. You will be constantly unblocking hair from all the drains and pulling the rotary brush from the vacuum to clear the hair from. There is no way you can "self clean" wrapped around, tangle/wedged in hair

seeya
shane L.

My bad, I meant will the vacs dirt compartment self empty each night or would I have to manually empty it each night. Does that make sense?

Originally Posted by Homestar

That’s one of the machines that made my short list. It doesn’t have a self emptying station available for it which rules it out for us but it gets very good reviews.

That's an interesting point. This doesn't concern me. I take the opportunity to empty it and clear any hair/tissues/rocks/etc out of the rotary brush each time its used. The house is never clean enough to trust anything to run automatically.......................... When the kids have left home though .........

Originally Posted by John_D4

My bad, I meant will the vacs dirt compartment self empty each night or would I have to manually empty it each night. Does that make sense?

Nah, it doesn't do that .... How does that work? Does it have a much larger bin it dumps into that you must then empty with less frequency?