So, anyone got an iRobot Roomba or other robot vacuum cleaner?

Interested in getting a Eufy Robovac, but not sure which one.

I only live in a one bedroom, one floor flat, with just five rooms (including the hallway). I have laminate flooring throughout the flat, with lino in the kitchen.

Any recommendations? I just want a vacuum that will clean the whole flat on a schedule that I choose, so it does it without me having to do anything and I just clean it's bin every so often.
 
Marky said:
Interested in getting a Eufy Robovac, but not sure which one.

I only live in a one bedroom, one floor flat, with just five rooms (including the hallway). I have laminate flooring throughout the flat, with lino in the kitchen.

Any recommendations? I just want a vacuum that will clean the whole flat on a schedule that I choose, so it does it without me having to do anything and I just clean it's bin every so often.
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I'm also in a 1ish bedroom 1st floor flat, mix of laminate and carpet. Got the 30c when it was discounted (£200).. works wonders. Had to lay one of the strips down to stop it going into the bathroom as it had a tendancy to get stuck under the toilet :rolleyes:
 
You can currently get the Eufy Robovac 30C from their own site for £189.99 using code "EUFYROBO80"

Anyone got one? Would you recommend it?
 
I have an old school Roomba 650 purchased around 2013. To it's credit it still works OK, would I see much benefit from upgrading to a more modern one that can map the floors?

I tend to simply put it down in an area, shut doors etc and let it get on with clearing one area at a time.

Only had to replace the battery once as it died of old age.
 
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Marky said:
You can currently get the Eufy Robovac 30C from their own site for £189.99 using code "EUFYROBO80"

Anyone got one? Would you recommend it?
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I've got no idea but I just impulsed bought it for downstairs (combo of hard surfaces and carpet/rugs)! :)
 
darkgen said:
I've got no idea but I just impulsed bought it for downstairs (combo of hard surfaces and carpet/rugs)! :)
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Oh nice :D Please could you let me know how you get on? The deal expires on 30th I think, so I’ll have enough time to take a punt on it :)
 
anyone picked up a roborock s6 yet interested in what people have said about it and if anyone has had any trouble with the mi home app to control it
 
I've been without a robotic vacuum cleaner for about a year now after I moved house and found my Xiaomi V1 could not climb over some areas. I was waiting on the LG RoboKing R9 but it hasn't appeared in this market and there's zero info online, I can only assume it's not coming to these shores considering this was announced at CES 2018 and there's no sign of it still.

I found a brand new Neato Botvac D7 for £475 delivered online and I've bought that for the following reasons:
  • Large clearance - a must for me considering the reason I had to sell the Xiaomi)
  • LDS navigation - personally, I favour this over a camera due to it working better in darker environments)
  • D shape design - trade off here, better edge cleaning and efficiency due to the wider brush vs circular bots, yet more potential for fall foul of chair legs
  • Software - love the software based "no go zones" rather than using physical barriers. I know the Rockrobo S50 has this also, but I never did like the Mi Home application.
  • Performance - Supposedly weaker than other bots at 1500Pa vs others at 2000Pa, but reviews measuring in CFM have this down as a strong performer. There was detailed test here, it trounced the Roomba 980 (which are £700 new still).
Think it's a great time for consumers of robotic vacuum cleaners at the moment, lots of competition and manufacturers trying different things to set them apart from others. There's a v3 of the Roborock/Xiaomi in development too (not that S6/T6 as that's supposedly more of a v2.5).
 
I like the look of the Eufy 30c because it doesn't rely on anything for navigation, I can just plonk it down and let it go.

Biggest issue I have with my current Roomba is that it leaves "tire tracks" in my carpet along the edges.

Is anyone using theirs on carpet and not getting these? don't mind spending a bit more on something like the D7 if it avoids that kind of problem.
 
HungryHippos said:
I like the look of the Eufy 30c because it doesn't rely on anything for navigation, I can just plonk it down and let it go.

Biggest issue I have with my current Roomba is that it leaves "tire tracks" in my carpet along the edges.

Is anyone using theirs on carpet and not getting these? don't mind spending a bit more on something like the D7 if it avoids that kind of problem.
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Correct me if I'm wrong but that doesn't make any sense. Wouldn't a bot with navigation be better to just plonk down an let it go? I believe the Eufy uses infrared which I assume allows it to just detect objects so it can slow down before touching them and the bot just bounces around until it might or might not clean the entire area. I also don't think you'll get any robot that won't leave wheel marks, unless the Dyson's tank tracks are better in this regard

Just to update on my experience with the Neato Botvac D7: I've had a mixed experience so far, although I'm hoping some of the issues can be easily solved through feedback and software updates.

Positives:
  • The no go lines feature is fantastic as I can mark off my plant pots, floor standing lamp and my dining table. Although this feature is a bit of a double edged sword as I'll explain in the negatives.
  • Cleaning performance is very good due to the strong suction, wide brush. I would say that the edge cleaning is better than all round shaped bots but it could still be improved. For example, if the bot is moving forward sticking to the edge of a wall and it comes across a recess (for example, a door), it won't sharp turn 90 degrees to try and tuck right into the corner where the wall drops away. Instead, it nudges itself closer and closer to the door as it continues to move forward. Now, the bot could later approach the door from a perpendicular angle but I didn't witness that happening.
Negatives:
  • The no go lines feature requires the bot to be really fussy about knowing exactly where it is. If the bot can't make it back to its dock for any reason then the next run has to be completed without the no go lines. This has happened to me twice now, the 1st being when I tested out manual mode and the bot shut down after being idle for around 15 seconds (I was replying to a message). After shutting down, the app didn't let me return the bot to the dock and the bot didn't respond to starting manual mode again. The second time I'll cover in the below point.
  • Navigation - A couple of points to mention here. Whilst actually cleaning, the bot does a pretty good job of navigating around in an efficient manner but there's been a couple of hiccups. Firstly, the bot appears to have some level of teenage angst and likes to bash into things . This has been noted as an issue with Neato bots and they do provide a gentle navigation mode feature within the app. I think the issues here are down to two reasons, one is the D shape of the bot meaning it can't turn on a circle as easily as a round bot and secondly, it doesn't have a front mounted proximity sensor like the Xiaomi bots do (I think they use ultra sonic). My coffee table has slanted legs which means the leg is closer to the bot than it realises as the LIDAR on top of the bot is measuring the leg further up, this is why bots shouldn't just rely on LIDAR. The second point around navigation is when it's not cleaning, either making its way to a zone I've asked it to clean or returning to the dock. It doesn't appear to chose an efficient straight line to travel but rather makes unnecessary turns.
  • Another navigation issue I experienced was also during the bot trying to navigate back to its charging dock. Again, caused by the above issue of the bot making unnecessary turns, it came across my breakfast bar stools that have a gunmetal circular base and poles. The bot drove up the circular base and eventually reversed off, then decided to turn in all sort of directions other than in the direction of the charging base that was all of 1.5 meters away. It eventually started to make its way towards the dock, but stopped 30 cm short and facing the wrong way to charger before pro-claiming via the app that it had docked.
I wouldn't say I was disappointed by the purchase as I can fix some of the issues with no go lines (such as the stools) or by moving the objects before leaving for work on the day the bot is scheduled to clean. However, it really does go to show that there's still a massive opportunity for a manufacturer to make an almost perfect bot. I'm talking LIDAR, front mounted object detection on top of the usual drop and side sensors. The bot would also be D shaped with a centre driven brush that's front mounted - this way, the bot can agitate the surface right to both edges.
 
Apologies of this has been asked a million times before, but what's the minimum I need to be spending to get a reasonably good robot vacuum that will deal with copious amounts of dog hair? Only needs to do the ground floor of a small semi, once a day or so as opposed to a continuous affair so I imagine mega battery life isn't really a consideration.
 
Cookeh said:
Apologies of this has been asked a million times before, but what's the minimum I need to be spending to get a reasonably good robot vacuum that will deal with copious amounts of dog hair? Only needs to do the ground floor of a small semi, once a day or so as opposed to a continuous affair so I imagine mega battery life isn't really a consideration.
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I ended up going for this one https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32837327014.html

You can spend hours looking at these things. Had the above one for about 6 weeks does the job at half the price of the big brand names.
 
It's the Xiaomi S50 - A very good bot. The 1st version of the Xiaomi is also very good still and can probably be found for cheaper.

The only real issue with the 1st one was the lack of pressure sensor on the LIDAR turret and the obstacle clearance being about 1.5cm. The S50 fixes both of those issues and adds some other features such as mopping and navigation improvements within the app such as zone cleaning etc.
 
Well guys I got a Xiaomi Roborock S6 for a decent price the other day (£435 with 5 year warranty, so works out at £87 per year for my own personal cleaner that works every day without complaint) and I got the black version which looks really damn cool and goes with my decor. I have it running now on Max suction and it is crazily quiet vs my original Mi Robot. It has the newer mapping and persistent map software and seems to be doing a very methodical job in covering the rooms. Apparently it will automatically create room zones when done so I am looking forward to having permanent maps where the robot always knows where it is, because my original Mi Robot used to easily get lost if you interrupted the cleaning cycle. Will also be interesting to see how it deals with my carpets and narrow areas where the old Mi used to get stuck sometimes. I do admittedly need to buy a new and more robot-friendly carpet without black bits though.

I will update you all later when I see how it performs after some full cycles. :)

PS: If you already have a Roborock S50 then it's very similar except with some new software features.

 
Are Eufy robo vacs any good? I'm not convinced we need one but they seem to be reasonably priced and I do like gadgets... our downstairs isn't particularly complicated, I think I'd just like it to run for ~1hr during the day ideally.
 
Just purchased a Neato D7 on Prime Day. Less than half list price, probably excessive for our needs but worth it to never have to vacuum again.
 
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