Hello fellow housekeeping specialists. Has anyone here purchased a robotic vacuum cleaner? Any tips/opinions/warning? I am considering a made in Taiwan Panasonic, it is a third of the price of the made in Japan one.
On that topic, is the famous normal vacuum cleaner by Dyson really worth that humongous amount of money?
I bought ILIFE A6 Robotic Vacuum Cleaner on Amazon last September and brought it back to Taiwan. At around 210 us dollars it’s a great value for what it does. This model is thin enough to go under my sofa. For very large spaces it will definitely need at least 1hr+ to truly get everything because this model goes randomly. So it will go past the same areas multiple times and i’m sure it does miss spots. (obviously areas where the bot cannot go you will have to clean with a normal vacuum or hard dust.)
I like it so far. I just have to be careful with “cords” and smaller lightweight rugs. It did try to eat one of my earbuds that was on the floor. Earbuds survived but look a bit mangled.
Normally it will not get “stuck” since I go around to make sure there are not too many obstacles around before starting it up. Definitely a time saver.
We got a Dyson and I love it, especially with the cats - it makes the vacuuming so much easier than the old plug-in vacuum cleaner. Different heads making vacuuming the upholstery easy too - no more “taping up” the cat hair. But the big difference versus the corded vacuums is that vacuuming is now something I do for a few minutes every couple of days, and then I put the Dyson back in its charging station. My wife still says the old vacuum is better, but apparently she can’t care too much, since I put it above a closet for storage about a year ago and she hasn’t noticed yet.
But that doesn’t quite answer your question. Is it worth the money? I dunno. Mom and dad bought it over as a Christmas gift during one of their visits. I’m very glad we have it, but I’m not sure I would have bought it.
Note that you probably can’t do all the vacuuming in one day: the battery won’t last that long. That works well for me, but may not for everyone. We’ve had it about two years, and I haven’t noticed the charge getting weaker.
I thibnk I told you guys that when I went to Japan with a tour group, the Taiwanese families brought 8 of those with them. Like crazy. It was the must buy item.
I am thinking of buying teh robotic Panasonic as I am not that constant on vaccumming, but I really need a powerful one to get the cat hair, litter, etc. not to mention flea eggs.
If you can find some online store reviews or youtube videos that would be best. When I did research I initially was looking at the more expensive ones and did read some worked better than others with pet hairs.
Wife bought one made in China a couple weeks ago, I don’t know the brand. It’s bigger than the Philips one for sale at Costco. I think she paid around US$400 for it. Can be programmed to run at various times, and she has an app on her phone that lets her kick it off while she’s at work if she wants.
One of the things we had to do first was to let it roam all floors while it stored a map of our apartment.
It’s fairly quiet. It will also wet mop the floors but you have to be present to replace the dirty water in the reservoir with clean water. Our place is about 55 ping. First time she used it to mop we had to replace the reservoir five times (if memory serves). We don’t have any pets yet. We have it set up so that its home is in a closet that has an electrical outlet in it.
So far so good.
It’s probably on it’s way to China right now or it has made a clear map of your living space, in case they’ll invade Taiwan.
Yeah, I’ve also noticed that a small red lamp lights up whenever I speak English around it.
j/k
I hope. 
I bought a dyson display item which is a lot cheaper. And there hasn’t been any problem with it, because well, it’s dyson. I only hate its loud noise.
Xiaomi?
Maybe the PLA will come to liberate your apartment.
We have a Roomba iRobot. It works very well - pretty powerful and efficient. But if you have a lot of pet hair you’ll need to empty the dustbox - or whatever you call it - often. It sometimes eats rug fringes, so tuck them under the rug, or if the rug is small, simply move it elsewhere. You also need to consider whether it will drive your pets crazy, if you can’t put them in another room while the vacuum is working.
I also have Roomba iRobot. No water/mop function. In 3 years no problems. Replaced the battery recently (about $3000). Was a gift so do not know price.
We really like that it cleans under the sofa, beds, etc. Also with the side sweeper the dirt along the walls gets cleaned. We do not have pets. We still sweep and mob the floors but let Roomba run around once a week and can see all the dirt still picked up after our cleaning.
We also have two of the accessories which signals Roomba to enter a room or not enter a room. Very handy accessory but the battery life is very low for this accessory.
We got a robot ,never use it now.
It only takes off surface dirt and gets stuck on certain kinds of chairs.
It’s really more of a toy.
Dyson is over priced.
Now we use a rechargeable Hoover that is like a big handheld and easily washable. Quite good.
160 on sale for 100 bucks.
Last Hoover plug in was only 65.
A lot of vacuum cleaners can run into 200 tp 400.
I doubt they are worth the money
Yep. You guessed it.
I now say nice things about China when within earshot.
How about food dropped by toddlers during dinner?
I guess it may be hard for the robots to get it, since it can be kind of wet/oil, but does anyone have experience with that?
Dyson hand held series:
If you live in a one bed room or smaller, then it’s ok. Or if you are planning to do a bit of vacuum everyday, then it might be ok. The thing is it only lasts about 15 to 20 minutes, or just enough time to clean one room. Then it would take hours to charge. It cannot operate while plugged in. If you plan to clean just once a week, and want to clean more than 1 room with your free time, then don’t get Dyson. I have one, and I like it’s cleaning performance, but I just don’t have the energy to clean everyday.
Robotic vacuum:
Most of them can self-charge which is great. I don’t think the stressing out the pets criticism is all that valid because my Dyson V8 scares the crap out of my cats anyway. If a robotic vacuum runs around all day, the cats probably will get use to it sooner.
My only issue with robotic vacuums is that… they still cannot recognize poop… or puke.
If you have pets, then occasionally they would have stomach issues and poop ends up on the floor. That’s already pretty bad, but not as bad as a robot vacuum dragging it to cover your entire floor with it. The same goes with puke.
…which is why I fell in love with an industrial size vaccum cleaner at the Pet Fair. I would love a robot to clean for me but I have read enough poop meet robot disasters. In my case, it would be more hairball.
I liked Dyson sucking power but seriosuly, my home has no small debris. Fuggetaboutit.
BTW, steam cleaners are still all the rage when it comes to disenfecting and clenaing your home if you have pets.
Oh and an industrial size gadget is the same prize as Dyson.
The robots are more toy then anything at this stage
Cats like them generally,see all the YouTube vids of cats riding them?
My cat tried to ride ours but he’s way too big
We used ours for about a month then the novelty wore off and it just sits in one corner of the room never turned on now
I see our robot as peace of mind. Wife is tyranized by even the smallest amount of dust on the tile floors. She swears she can feel it when she walks. If the robot can keep the obsession away then it’s earned its keep (so far so good).
It will never meet the need for a total, wall-to-wall, corner-to-corner cleaning now and then.
And we don’t have pets, so no poop.
OK…