Robot vacuum cleaners

[Ian]

Those of you who know me a bit better, will be familiar with me penchant for fixing things to extend their lives, and for finding bargains. My latest adventure has been with a robot vacuum cleaner!

I bought a second hand i-Robot Roomba 891, locally, for just 40 Euros. It's probably about 5 years old but is in good condition and the battery still does a full 90 minute clean (probably less on carpet, but we only a have a few rugs on our tiled and wooden floors) despite the device log say it has done over 800 cleaning sessions.

This was after Julia commented, upon seeing one in action on the TV, 'shouldn't we have one of those?'. We actually use a Dyson hand vac and that has been adequate, but in the last two years, since we took on our rescue dog, Ruby, and not forgetting our two cats, pet hair has kept the Dyson busy.

Roombas appear to be an exception to the modern trend in that they are actually comparatively easy to dismantle, clean and refurbish. The one I bought emitted a loud screech when it was powered down. A bit of research indicated that a good clean and some lubrication could be the answer, and it was.

I had thought about a robovac for our place after we moved in 3.5 years ago because there is a relatively large floor area, but the ground floor is divided by a step of about 3 inches. I've now discovered that many owners have built simple ramps to solve this issue, and I'm currently making one, too!

You can actually just take it to any room and press the 'Clean' button and let it run until it's done a good enough job, or it runs out of battery.

I'm quite pleased about the one I bought as a similar one today would cost about £250 new. It does have a crude situational awareness via infra-red scanning and a bump sensor, but its travel and direction is basically random, so it can sometimes take a long time to finally cover the entire floor. Later models are more efficient and I'm looking out for a more sophisticated second hand bargain to refurbish. I could probably sell the one I have for a modest profit to finance the replacement

I was wondering how prevalent robot vacs are in members' households? Do you have one, and do you recommend it?

Ian

[MJ224]

Wow, Yes I had my little Robo friend for quite a few years now.2 Batteries, filters, and brushes have all been replaced. It is a great little machine, I use it for the upstairs bedrooms and bathroom. All rooms are carpeted. I work on the principle of its less efficiency, made up by doing the carpets more often, Several times a week normally.

As you mention, taking it apart to replace parts is easy enough. If I had nothing else to do, just watching it would pass the time quite well....(ish)...

[wornish]

Simple pleasures.

[Gerry]

My brother in law had something similar for cleaning his outdoor pool when he was living in Cannes. He demonstrated it to Evelyn and myself and it was impressive to watch, he also showed us how the pool was previously cleaned using a very long pole with something like a cross between a brush and a sponge at the end that took hours of work to finish the job. His robot was programmed and took just under 2 hours for the pool. The only thing done by hand was removing surface dirt.

[Phill D]

Robot vacuum cleaners? You mean in France you get someone round to clean your robot Ian 😁 Sorry couldn't resist.

[Ian]

Haha, touché!🤣

[rustyarrow]

I married one, may need a new battery soon, seems to get slower and slower.

[Keith-369]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣Know what you're talking about 😂😂😂😂😂

[MJ224]

Dangerous talk. Make sure she doesn't read the Forum...

[BDennis]

This sounds interesting.

We’ve got a Dyson cyclinder vacuum, before that Dyson uprights. I noticed they worked well when new and really suck stuff up out of carpets. Then they seem to go cranky, make screeching noises and lose suction because I think the rubber seals go. They don’t work so well on laminate floors and just scare the dust bunnies around. I hate emptying the dust out of the Dyson because it doesn’t all come out, it seems designed so all this stuff gets stuck in the magic root cyclone thing and never wants to come out - or it comes out all over your shoes just after you thought you emptied it into a bin bag! Sorry a bit of a rant about Dyson.

I wouldn’t mind a robot one. But how does it work with emptying the stuff out of them? I fear we may have too much clutter blocking floors…camera bags etc. I don’t suppose there’s one that does stairs? A job for a C-3PO style one I think

Bill

[Ian]

BDennis Haha, I believe there is one that can climb and clean stairs. It's probably very expensive. Up market 'conventional' robot vacs can empty themselves into a bin built onto the charging station. There are also 'combo' versions that can 'mop' though I'd call this to wet and wipe the floor.

[rustyarrow]

My nephew, who has far to much money, has one not sure which make but all part of his "connected house", it emails him a picture if it has a problem, the other day it emailed a pic of the cat laying in front of it- mind boggling really!

[LadyG]

Having just had to replace the vacuum (plus 2 other things - it's been 'one of those' months) I did look at a robot but eventually decided against it. Initially we replaced our old Shark with a new one but, as with the multi-cooker/air fryer, the new model was a lot louder. The cats were petrified and it set off his lordship'stinnitus (never a good sign) so back it went. That meant a trip to the dreaded Curry's and a new Hoover. Perhaps a Saturday afternoon visit when the Euros are on wasn't the best idea, no staff at all upstairs for the household appliances and when we did find someone he was more interested in finding out the latest score rather than going to collect the model we wanted from the stock room because it wasn't on display. He then argued about the internet discount I'd found (£70 already off list price in summer sale, I'd seen a 10% further discount if you brought in a machine - working or not). Eventually we ended up with about 4 staff and the supervisor confirmed that the 10% discount was correct - the lad was trying to offer us 5% off next purchase but think he was probably a Saturday lad. New vacuum seems to be doing ok.. haven't tried it yet though, himself likes to play with the new toys