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

[bloodiedathame]

I'm in love with my s6. And I've not even tried the mop yet. Just using it downstairs at the moment. It did an hour and was still on 50% battery. Tempted to give it a run upstairs too. Room mapping is really clever and the app lets you manage the map eg to split or merge areas and add names. You can set no go zones, spot clean areas and set schedules. It also gives you an indication of maintenance needed on the unit. Only thing I haven't figured out yet is how to get it to send my phone a notification if it gets stuck.

 

[gailjon]

Well, after reading through this thread and researching robovacs I have finally ordered a Deebot Ozmo 920 from Amazon. It was a toss up between Roborock S5 Max and the 920 but in the end the ability to map upstairs and downstairs was important to mainly prevent the thing tumbling downstairs. Looking forward to getting it up and running when it arrives.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

Well, after reading through this thread and researching robovacs I have finally ordered a Deebot Ozmo 920 from Amazon. It was a toss up between Roborock S5 Max and the 920 but in the end the ability to map upstairs and downstairs was important to mainly prevent the thing tumbling downstairs. Looking forward to getting it up and running when it arrives.

https://www.rtings.com/vacuum/reviews/best/robot

Tempted by the roborock e4 only £150

 

[Electroshadow]

got to love these robot vacuum cleaners, i purchased the original XIAOMI MIJIA MI Robot Vacuum Cleaner although i now wish i had done a little research and bought the slightly newer one. Due to the fact the original cant work on thick heavy carpet.

saying that though it does an excellent job on everything else from medium carpet to hard floors. Setting it to go twice a day I'm surprised how effective it is with collecting pet hair, which is great now more tracking it around the house

the little thing has vacuumed for over 38h since mid October covering more than 2200m2 of floor space without a fault or breakdown

 

[Richdog]

Hi guys. My dad is looking for a new Robovac for £200 or less (available inside the UK)?

Needs to have:

• Laser /infrared mapping
• 2000 suction or so
• Long battery life

Any ideas please?

EDIT - It doesn't have laser mapping but the eufy [BoostIQ] RoboVac 15C MAX seems decent for £180? https://www.amazon.co.uk/BoostIQ-Connected-Super-Thin-Self-Charging-Medium-Pile/dp/B07R5R7XF6/ref=sr_1_6?crid=34BAVN5JI8EPV&dchild=1&keywords=robot+vacuum+cleaner&qid=1606197401&refinements=p_72:419153031,p_36:146169031&rnid=388997011&s=kitchen&sprefix=robot+va,aps,172&sr=1-6

My dad ended up buying a Roborock E4 for £240 from Amazon... doesn't have LIDAR but the navigation is still almost as good, although it doesn't have persistent mapping. Cleaning ability seems awesome though. I'm sure he will be very happy as he is not the best at manual cleaning routines.

 

[Hilly]

got the S5 Max heading my way end of this week; Will review when I've had some time with it

 

[gailjon]

Update to Deebot Osmo 920 purchase. Got it delivered on Saturday and set up charger in relatively clear open area of wall.

Downloaded the Ecovacs Home app and set the advanced settings for continuous cleaning, multilevel mapping, etc. Set it going!

Sweet Dee as she is known (Philadelphia reference anyone?) set off and swept and mapped the entire ground floor. It took her two sessions, returning to the charger halfway through. Battery lasted around 90 minutes on a mix of hard floor and large area rugs.

Did a better job then me in the cleaning stakes. After the initial sweep of the house I was given the option to save the map and as I had left all the doors open and she had managed to map the entire ground floor I saved the map. This meant that I could now use the app to rename the various rooms and set up a cleaning schedule.

9 am this morning she came to life and duly swept the kitchen and hall as scheduled. She couldn't get back to the charger however, and eventually asked me to put her back on charge. Concerned by this failure I tried several attempts to get her to return to the charger automatically but no luck. Thinking that I would have to return it, I unplugged the charger and realised that the plug in the back had come lose. Plugged it back in and she has managed to return to the charger automatically with no issues at all. Did a custom clean of a section of the kitchen today and she managed it no problems and made a beeline for the charger which sits in the hall.

So far I am really pleased with the vac and the app is excellent with the ability to set no go zones and have different rooms named so that they can be cleaned at different times and days. It does a great job despite its small size.

Next job is to map the upstairs but that means tidying up the children's bedrooms...

 

[rexehuk]

got the S5 Max heading my way end of this week; Will review when I've had some time with it

You gave in.

Mine came today, and just given it full run of the floor and beyond impressed.

I was worried about a few things like full glass table but it didn't confuse the lidar at all. Few things to optimise in house like pulling table few cm away from.wall more so it can clean but it aced the kitchen.

Going to be a nice addition to the house... Added bonus it happily went under the sofa which we never clean! Sounded like an angry dog was under us

 

[Hilly]

You gave in.

Mine came today, and just given it full run of the floor and beyond impressed.

I was worried about a few things like full glass table but it didn't confuse the lidar at all. Few things to optimise in house like pulling table few cm away from.wall more so it can clean but it aced the kitchen.

Going to be a nice addition to the house... Added bonus it happily went under the sofa which we never clean! Sounded like an angry dog was under us

Yea, needed to though really; having a new baby and me being lazy as chuff, meant the house was in need of a clean more so than often

 

[rexehuk]

Yea, needed to though really; having a new baby and me being lazy as chuff, meant the house was in need of a clean more so than often

I don't think you'll regret it, the amount of stuff it picked up was satisfying. The only problem I had was that it can't use 5ghz networks so my Google WiFi won't work with it out of the box, had to fake the said via phone hotspot.

 

[PaDE]

Yep, he went back due to a docking station issue. We deliberated about a replacement but other factors persuaded us not too.

In saying that, if suited to your home (plus you have no docking issue) it’s a quality bit of kit. Loved the self emptying into its own bin.

Will revisit again in a couple of years.

also looking for black friday deals for a robovac;

Been researching and like the look of the i7, but interested to hear others opinions; Needs to have room mapping, and resume / recharge feature. Not massively fussed about auto emptying, but for a small increase I could justify it.

what did you end up doing @PaDE ?

 

[Deleted member 66701]

got to love these robot vacuum cleaners, i purchased the original XIAOMI MIJIA MI Robot Vacuum Cleaner although i now wish i had done a little research and bought the slightly newer one. Due to the fact the original cant work on thick heavy carpet.

saying that though it does an excellent job on everything else from medium carpet to hard floors. Setting it to go twice a day I'm surprised how effective it is with collecting pet hair, which is great now more tracking it around the house

the little thing has vacuumed for over 38h since mid October covering more than 2200m2 of floor space without a fault or breakdown

Had my Xiaomi for over 2 years now, 286hrs, 15k sq m and 621 cleanups. Not had a single failure.

 

[Richdog]

Had my Xiaomi for over 2 years now, 286hrs, 15k sq m and 621 cleanups. Not had a single failure.

Yeah they are so reliable and spare parts so freely available.

Speaking of which anyone have any recommendations on the cheapest place to buy xiaomi original spare parts? All I can seem to find now are cheap 3rd party options and it's really hard to find the originals (filters and brushes etc) !

 

[Hilly]

got the S5 Max heading my way end of this week; Will review when I've had some time with it

So far so good; haven't tried the the mopping function yet, but will do in the next few days.

So setup went really easy, put it all together (didn't come with a UK plug though, but meh); it went off and mapped the floor. I have a big ol' table, which sits on a huge plush rug, which I was worried it would struggle on. First time, it tied its own brush in a knot (it got stuck, so kept turning on the spot and yea, got stuck). So had to take the brush off. I set up a no go zone for that corner - there's a couple of boxes around so it makes navigation really difficult and it since hasn't had issues with the rug.

It's already been out for around 300 minutes in the week or so I've had it, so pretty much every day. The amount it picks up is impressive, girlfriend was sceptical to begin with, but she's come around to it also!

Brought in a christmas tree (was a man and cut it down myself), and that obviously dropped a few pine leaves across the hall and living room. Robovac had no issue picking those up, it's made short work of everything so far. Impressed overall.

 

[Psycho Sonny]

My dad ended up buying a Roborock E4 for £240 from Amazon... doesn't have LIDAR but the navigation is still almost as good, although it doesn't have persistent mapping. Cleaning ability seems awesome though. I'm sure he will be very happy as he is not the best at manual cleaning routines.

I'm tempted to buy this from AliExpress.

What's your views on it?

Already just spent £350 on a cordless vacuum this year to make cleaning up easier but decided another £150-£200 wouldn't hurt if we never have to hoover downstairs again on a regular basis.

I don't think I'd get one for upstairs as most mess is usually made in the kitchen.

 

[toshj]

Advice needed please - I've not bought one of these before, so any thoughts would be appreciated:

- we'd look to use it on two floors, both of which are parquet. Would a cleaner able to store multiple maps be best?

- how do the robot cleaners that both vacuum and mop perform? This would be ideal for us but not essential if the mopping option is more of a rubbish add-on rather than a proper feature.

Given the sheer amount of walks we go on due to the pandemic, our ground floor hall is constantly flooded with dried mud and crap from outside, whereas with a toddler running around we seem to be generating enough general house dirt that daily vacuuming is required.

Mid-budget preferable, but I'd rather spend a little more on something very good that's likely to last. Currently looking at S6 MaxV, but that's very much top end and I'd be wary of spending that much on a vacuum!

 

[pioneer2000]

Yeah they are so reliable and spare parts so freely available.

Speaking of which anyone have any recommendations on the cheapest place to buy xiaomi original spare parts? All I can seem to find now are cheap 3rd party options and it's really hard to find the originals (filters and brushes etc) !

Got to disagree with this, my Roborock S5 has developed a charging issue after a couple of years (error 13). It's seemingly a fuse that needs replacing but requires quite a bit of disassembly and soldering to do so.

 

[Richdog]

Got to disagree with this, my Roborock S5 has developed a charging issue after a couple of years (error 13). It's seemingly a fuse that needs replacing but requires quite a bit of disassembly and soldering to do so.

Sorry to hear that dude but statistically even reliable brands have issues and while it's unfortunate you had a problem it doesn't make them unreliable in general.

 

[gailjon]

Advice needed please - I've not bought one of these before, so any thoughts would be appreciated:

- we'd look to use it on two floors, both of which are parquet. Would a cleaner able to store multiple maps be best?

- how do the robot cleaners that both vacuum and mop perform? This would be ideal for us but not essential if the mopping option is more of a rubbish add-on rather than a proper feature.

Given the sheer amount of walks we go on due to the pandemic, our ground floor hall is constantly flooded with dried mud and crap from outside, whereas with a toddler running around we seem to be generating enough general house dirt that daily vacuuming is required.

Mid-budget preferable, but I'd rather spend a little more on something very good that's likely to last. Currently looking at S6 MaxV, but that's very much top end and I'd be wary of spending that much on a vacuum!

We have the Deebot 920 which has multi floor mapping and it is really useful. You don't always need to vacuum the whole upstairs and being able to just get it to map rooms individually is much easier than having it do the whole floor which takes and age in our house.

The mop function is good for the wooden floors on our ground floor but it is really only a keep clean function rather than a deep clean. However, it means it gets done more often than when I used to get the mop and bucket out!

We are also bringing in dried mud from shoes and boots and sometimes vacuum the hall 2 or 3 times a day. You just open the app and get the hall done individually. It does a really good job of picking up the little bits of dried mud that get everywhere. Being able to set cleaning schedules of different areas of the house and different days is really useful meaning it can be truly fit and forget.

WE got our Deebot Osmo 920 from the Ecovacs Amazon store (so direct from the manufacturer) for the Black Friday price of £332 which I thought was a great deal.

It is such a great tool that I would consider getting another one for upstairs so that I can schedule the cleaning for there automatically rather than having to carry Deebot upstairs.

 

[toshj]

We have the Deebot 920 which has multi floor mapping and it is really useful. You don't always need to vacuum the whole upstairs and being able to just get it to map rooms individually is much easier than having it do the whole floor which takes and age in our house.

The mop function is good for the wooden floors on our ground floor but it is really only a keep clean function rather than a deep clean. However, it means it gets done more often than when I used to get the mop and bucket out!

We are also bringing in dried mud from shoes and boots and sometimes vacuum the hall 2 or 3 times a day. You just open the app and get the hall done individually. It does a really good job of picking up the little bits of dried mud that get everywhere. Being able to set cleaning schedules of different areas of the house and different days is really useful meaning it can be truly fit and forget.

WE got our Deebot Osmo 920 from the Ecovacs Amazon store (so direct from the manufacturer) for the Black Friday price of £332 which I thought was a great deal.

It is such a great tool that I would consider getting another one for upstairs so that I can schedule the cleaning for there automatically rather than having to carry Deebot upstairs.

Great - that's most helpful. Thanks!