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

Richdog · 16 Jan 2017 at 19:19

Mekrel said:
I bought the Xiaomi Mi robot back in November and its a fantastic piece of kit.

The previous robot vacuum I had was a Roomba 650 so obviously this is an improvement as the 650 doesn't have any mapping features.

The navigation on this thing is extremely efficient. It breaks any large room into smaller chunks and will clean around the perimeter of said chunks before cleaning the area inside in a parallel series of lines. My main frustration with the 650 was with it getting stuck within the four legs of a chair but this thing gets in and out with absolutely zero problems.

The biggest gripe most reviews have with this bot is the Chinese plugin for the Xiaomi Smart home application but on Android, a translated version of the plugin can be installed through ADB backup without the need for root. You can also use Wireshark to sniff out the UDP packets being sent over the local network to send commands to the bot and these can be used to control it through a home automation platform.

Ahhh cool an owner!

How does it deal with carpets? I read many reviews saying it struggles, especially with darker ones due to the cliff sensors? The Roomba of course does the same.

Good to hear there is a translated app too. Can't the robot be controlled from the translated app though?

GDL · 16 Jan 2017 at 19:49

Just an odd question. How does this deal with rabbit droppings?

Me and teh wife have a number of in-house bunnies which have free run downstairs and are 95% house trained but do have the odd, lets say, release.

Mekrel · 16 Jan 2017 at 19:52

Richdog said:
Ahhh cool an owner!

How does it deal with carpets? I read many reviews saying it struggles, especially with darker ones due to the cliff sensors? The Roomba of course does the same.

Good to hear there is a translated app too. Can't the robot be controlled from the translated app though?

I've read the same on a few forums about dark carpets setting off the cliff sensors. It's hard to gauge how well it performs on carpet as only one of my rooms is carpeted (medium pile), but if I shut the robot in the room the bin is usually full of dust and I don't notice any missed spots. If I was to answer purely anecdotally, you would think the Roomba with its dual brush set up would have better agitation.

Yeah it can be controlled via the app as long as the robot is connected to WiFi of course (has to be a 2.4Ghz network though). They release firmware and plugin updates fairly frequently too and one of the recent updates has added a remote control function to the app - although the phone and device have to be on the same LAN for that to work.

Trifid · 16 Jan 2017 at 21:29

Mekrel said:
I bought the Xiaomi Mi robot back in November and its a fantastic piece of kit.

Where did you buy yours from?

Mekrel · 16 Jan 2017 at 22:15

Trifid said:
Where did you buy yours from?

Gearbest - took about two weeks to arrive.

Richdog · 17 Jan 2017 at 06:41

GDL said:
Just an odd question. How does this deal with rabbit droppings?

Me and teh wife have a number of in-house bunnies which have free run downstairs and are 95% house trained but do have the odd, lets say, release.

If you have rabbit droppings then a regular brush is the last thing you want. It would be best to go for a Roomba 8 or 9 series with the "brushless" rollers as they you won't get any crap snagged in them.

Mekrel said:
I've read the same on a few forums about dark carpets setting off the cliff sensors. It's hard to gauge how well it performs on carpet as only one of my rooms is carpeted (medium pile), but if I shut the robot in the room the bin is usually full of dust and I don't notice any missed spots. If I was to answer purely anecdotally, you would think the Roomba with its dual brush set up would have better agitation.

Yeah it can be controlled via the app as long as the robot is connected to WiFi of course (has to be a 2.4Ghz network though). They release firmware and plugin updates fairly frequently too and one of the recent updates has added a remote control function to the app - although the phone and device have to be on the same LAN for that to work.

Cool. And do you find the bin is big enough to do a full clean?

Psycho Sonny · 17 Jan 2017 at 10:39

Mekrel said:
Gearbest - took about two weeks to arrive.

I take it you had to pay customs on top?

Would prefer to order from a UK seller with UK stock but price difference is HUGE.

balky12 · 17 Jan 2017 at 11:07

These have caught my interest. All my downstairs is hard flooring and not overly big. Living room/ kitchen/ dinning room and hallway.

My only concern is the dinning room and the table chairs layout. So many legs. How do they cope?

Andr3w · 17 Jan 2017 at 11:15

I really want a Roomba. The 650 is down to £266 on Amazon at the moment but I'm finding it incredibly hard to justify the cost....for a hoover!!

I vacuum the downstairs 1-2 times per week and it takes me about 20minutes. Our hoover is ridiculously strong.

What is the performance like on the Roombas? Will they pick up dog hairs etc with ease?

Burned_Alive · 17 Jan 2017 at 12:51

We have a Neato Botvac D85 and its absolutely fantastic. Manages to do the lounge, hall, kitchen/diner without issue including navigating the dining room table and chairs and multiple obstructions. Never got stuck once and cleans brilliantly. Occasionally I run the Dyson round just in case but it never picks anything additional up.

Only downside so far is that the wheel leaves a little line in the carpet along the skirting board edge but supposedly this is fairly normal for a lot of rbvcs.

balky12 · 17 Jan 2017 at 13:21

Yea my other concern is scratching of hardwood floor. Especially if it gets a bit of cat litter caught somewhere..

Psycho Sonny · 17 Jan 2017 at 13:38

Andr3w said:
I really want a Roomba. The 650 is down to £266 on Amazon at the moment but I'm finding it incredibly hard to justify the cost....for a hoover!!

I vacuum the downstairs 1-2 times per week and it takes me about 20minutes. Our hoover is ridiculously strong.

What is the performance like on the Roombas? Will they pick up dog hairs etc with ease?

What is the price of a Dyson these days are they not £200-£400?

I know the dyson hairdryer for instance is like £600-£800 for a hairdryer.

Take that into account I think £266 is pretty cheap.

Martynt74 · 17 Jan 2017 at 13:59

I've been looking at these recently but seems the Roomba 650 is old now and doesn't offer a lot of the features that others do.

I was looking at this bObi, seem to be an American device and gets good reviews on Amazon. Seems to do a lot all in one (hoover, mop, sweeping) so big question i guess is whether it does them all well enough.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/bObsweep-7...b-bd11-4e9e-8c26-9ca0139074ee&pf_rd_i=desktop

My only irritation is the Go, Juice, Waffle name settings!

Happy to pay up to around £350 but there seems a huge gulf between the cheap ones and then the top end models over £500.

Found the Miele one for £330 after cashback which seems tempting too http://thurgo.co.uk/item-40070-miel...xVpBSJ05OSEEXlc5LonwX7h3hUU1RgwDL4aAlf98P8HAQ

Martynt74 · 17 Jan 2017 at 14:00

Andr3w said:
I really want a Roomba. The 650 is down to £266 on Amazon at the moment but I'm finding it incredibly hard to justify the cost....for a hoover!!

I saw that but it says delivery time is 1-2 months which seems mental!

Mekrel · 17 Jan 2017 at 22:36

Richdog said:
Cool. And do you find the bin is big enough to do a full clean?

I can't say I've experienced the Xiaomi failing to pick up stuff due to a full bin but my bungalow isn't the biggest of places (~960 sq ft).

Psycho Sonny said:
I take it you had to pay customs on top?

Would prefer to order from a UK seller with UK stock but price difference is HUGE.

I personally didn't but I don't know if I was just lucky. I didn't ask Gearbest to under call the value of the item or anything - not sure if they did that off their own backs as I don't have the paper work to check.

Andr3w said:
I really want a Roomba. The 650 is down to £266 on Amazon at the moment but I'm finding it incredibly hard to justify the cost....for a hoover!!

I vacuum the downstairs 1-2 times per week and it takes me about 20minutes. Our hoover is ridiculously strong.

What is the performance like on the Roombas? Will they pick up dog hairs etc with ease?

I can't say for sure how well it copes with dog hairs (do have dogs but the breed doesn't really malt). My guess would be the brush may struggle to loosen hair that's deep within a thick pile carpet, anything else should be fine.

GDL · 17 Jan 2017 at 22:45

Richdog said:
If you have rabbit droppings then a regular brush is the last thing you want. It would be best to go for a Roomba 8 or 9 series with the "brushless" rollers as they you won't get any crap snagged in them.

Many thanks! I'll take a look at those.

Richdog · 18 Jan 2017 at 08:40

Andr3w said:
I really want a Roomba. The 650 is down to £266 on Amazon at the moment but I'm finding it incredibly hard to justify the cost....for a hoover!!

I vacuum the downstairs 1-2 times per week and it takes me about 20minutes. Our hoover is ridiculously strong.

It is a luxury, first-world purchase... if you are strapped for cash then don't buy one.

What is the performance like on the Roombas? Will they pick up dog hairs etc with ease?[/QUOTE]

You can Google the basic info on Roomba picking up pet hair in 2 seconds (including Youtube vids), and it has already been discussed in the thread.

Marvt74 said:
Found the Miele one for £330 after cashback which seems tempting too http://thurgo.co.uk/item-40070-miel...xVpBSJ05OSEEXlc5LonwX7h3hUU1RgwDL4aAlf98P8HAQ

Sure, it's your money to waste...

Psycho Sonny · 18 Jan 2017 at 10:58

Miele is regarded as a very good brand. Would need to google comparisons of it to others to see if it lives up the the brand name.

Richdog · 18 Jan 2017 at 12:00

Psycho Sonny said:
Miele is regarded as a very good brand. Would need to google comparisons of it to others to see if it lives up the the brand name.

Robot vacuum cleaners are a very different thing to washing machines and ovens. The traditional home appliance giants like Miele have little experience with them and much less expertise than other companies... and it shows in their mediocre reviews.

Tefal · 18 Jan 2017 at 13:09

Psycho Sonny said:
Miele is regarded as a very good brand. Would need to google comparisons of it to others to see if it lives up the the brand name.

most reviews (wirecutter do very extensive ones) found that the pathing software is much more important than the hoover.

while the dyson and mille have good hover components the robotic side lets it down.

i think they ususaly recomend the roomba or the neeto.

neeto seems better if you have a big area as it can find its way back to the dock to recharge before heading out.

the roombger uses an IR light house so if it cant get back in sight of the charger it just sits there and dies.