Every day-weekend, Workday, rain or shine—every robot vacuum I’ve been testing starts running at 9 a.m. This is always a good sign. I heaved a sigh of relief and continued whatever I was doing, at least satisfied with that. He My household work is being completed.
When I first started testing robot vacuums eight years ago, it sometimes seemed like it was more trouble than it was worth. I cleaned the floor. I carefully maintained the various sensors. Now I don’t care. (I mean, yes, I care, robot vacuum maker, I just care a little less.) Even if it gets stuck on my daughter’s latest knitting project, or it can’t mop the kitchen because I haven’t emptied the water tank. Just go, little soldier, go.
robots are vacuum so Very smart now. They can navigate through many more surprising minefields of Lego bricks, stuffed animals, or piles of shoes than you would have expected even two or three years ago. As a working parent with two elementary school kids and a dog, I need all the help I can get. Maybe this will clean the whole house; Maybe it will clear only 50 or 65 percent of it. But as someone who is constantly fighting chaos, consistency is what matters.
it’s a miss
Photograph: Amazon
It took me a while to reach this zen state (and also to assemble enough robot vacuums to command an army across every room and floor in my house). Based on my years of talking to many families (and trying to foist a used robot vacuum on them), these are some of the reasons why a robot vacuum might No Be worth it to you.
- You live in a small place. If it only takes you an hour or more to vacuum, why bother?
- The layout of your home is complex. Many 1970s houses have strange, complex designs – a sunken living room, a game room up some stairs, bedrooms upstairs. Although stair-climbing vacuums are becoming popular, it is still not advisable to carry the vacuum from one room to another.
- You have rugs with weird tassels. The 1970s were bad for robot vacuums. The shag carpeting is also bad, as is a lot of the crappy furniture.
- You hate maintenance. You really can’t afford to empty the fussy little dust bag or refill the water container. What I’m going to say here is that you probably have other issues that need to be addressed before getting a robot vacuum.
Even I don’t rely solely on a robot vacuum to keep my house clean. I also have a Dyson stick vacuum, a carpet cleaner, and a regular broom and mop in a closet. If my kid spills a bunch of flour under the counter while making pancakes, I won’t take out my phone, open an app, and watch the robot vacuum slowly run by to clean it up.
It’s also not good for deep cleaning. No matter how much a company advertises a robot’s suction power, it will never be as thorough as the smallest hand vacuum. It’s just physics. The motor and battery of robot vacuums are small.
Even the best navigation system can’t accommodate everything that happens in a crazy, dynamic environment with gremlins and animals running around. If I have people over, I still have to go around and put away the padded forts and pick up pieces of wood that my dog decided to pluck from the wood pile and bring into the house so he can gnaw in the warmth and comfort of the living room.