If you’re like me, you put off vacuuming, washing toilets, and washing dishes. I don’t know why. It’s probably because I think it will take longer than it really does. While it won’t solve all your vacuuming chores, a robotic vacuum is a great tool to have in your home.
What Can’t Robotic Vacuums Do
Let’s start with the negative. Robotic vacuums don’t do stairs. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get one if you have a multi-floor home. You will need another vacuum like a stick vacuum. And you may want to purchase one per level to automatically vacuum every day.
Their collection cup isn’t large. You’ll have to empty it regularly.
Also, they don’t have the suction power of stick, canister or upright vacuums. So you may have to run it more than once if you have a lot of dirt or pet hair. Now, if you don’t have carpeting, the suction will be perfect. So you will need to evaluate your home.
You will need to clean the robotic vacuum cleaner regularly. The manufacturers’ recommend cleaning the brushes and bearings once a week. Then you need top open up the unit to remove any internal debris once a month. That’s a bit more than changing out a bag once every few months. But any vacuum will need the brushes cleaned very regularly.
What Robotic Vacuums Are Great At
I won’t mention it’s great to put a cat on it in a shark costume and post the video on YouTube. I will mention that most robotic vacuums have a battery life of at least 60 minutes. When it is close to running out, the robotic vacuum will go dock and recharge. It remembers where it was.
The robotic vacuum
The Reviews
Just know that there are no inexpensive robotic vacuums. Maybe as time goes on, the functionality will increase and the price will decrease. Until then, you need to decide if it’s the right answer for you.
If it is, than I recommend you do further research on these three, and figure out which will work best for your situation.
Roomba iRobot 614
Roomba robotic vacuums have an app that you can access from your smart phone or tablet. It allows you to program and check on the status of your vacuuming. The nerd in me just loves that.
The company has been around for many years and is known for excellent support.
The smaller size and extra brushes allows the iRobot to sneak into tighter places and improve the cleaning. Also, it is less likely to get stuck in tight places.
This Roomba uses a 3-Stage Cleaning System. First, it agitates the area, then brushes and finally suctions the floor.
It’s smart enough to automatically adjust its height for different types of flooring.
ILIFE V3s Robotic Vacuum for Pets and Allergies
This had the longest battery life that I could find. It’s 100 minutes. It also has a good sensor so it won’t fall down stairs.
This model does work better on hard flooring surfaces. And it doesn’t have an app to program it. But it does have a remote control. You can also set it up to spot clean. And it has an automatic mode where it just goes and cleans.
This robotic vacuum does have a HEPA filter, and ILIFE recommends that you replace it once a month. People felt it did as good of a job on picking up pet hair as their regular vacuum.
Eufy RoboVac 11
The Eufy RoboVac has a great battery that will power for ninety minutes. It also has a remote control, or can just be turned on to do its thing.
This robotic vacuum works on hard surfaces and low pile carpeting. Eufy states that it is not suitable for high-pile carpet or very dark-colored floors.
The RoboVac is also smart enough to not fall down stairs. It also has a HEPA-style filter specifically to handle pet fur and allergens. You will need to regularly replace the HEPA filter. And there are two other filters that need to be washed regularly.
It uses an infrared sensor to detect obstacles in its path. People love that the RoboVac is better at navigating around a room and doesn’t bump into as much.