I have a Roomba that I've had for many years. It cleans better then my old vacuum. The problem is it doesn't get used as much as I would like for a few reasons. So I just got a new, much better, manual vacuum. My house is not huge, so it's not like it takes long to vacuum anyway.
Biased reviews, such as this one, really make me wonder if it's just product placement... give AI a bunch of money and they'll write a glowing review. A magnetic side brush? Seriously? It falls off all the time (=unusable), but other than that, the product is GREAT! Oh yes, and Roombas suck.
I have a Roomba 980 for half a year now, which maps the apartment, goes back to the charging station if necessary during cleaning, can be controlled through an iOS app from anywhere over the internet. It's a huge step up from the previous, arbitrary devices and I'm genuinely happy with it. The house is always clean and it neatly sits on its charing station when I come home. A robotic vacuum in general was one of the best purchases ever.
We don't get paid by Neato, and we don't get to keep the vacuum. I've gone back to running my robot army of 5 Roomba discoveries, and they are messy and don't pick up as much as the Neato. Neato is the better product. You like your 980? Great. It does a pretty crappy job compared to the Neato in terms of mapping, because Neato uses Lidar and Roomba doesn't. Heaven forbid we like a product that competes with the one you own, I guess.
Come on, you can't believe pulling the back half of the robot off to empty is better than lifting the bin out the top, can you?
This should have meant this device failed this review.
If there's a downside, it's that the BotVac loses its side brush frequently. Most robots include a main brush and an ancillary side brush to get into hard to reach crevices. The side brush on a Roomba is screwed onto the motor shaft, but Botvac uses a magnet to secure its component. Hair often gets knotted in the brush spindle, displacing the part from its nook. We frequently find the brush some 15 feet away from the robot when the cleaning has finished.
You'd think so, but even with the side brush off, the bin kept ending up full. Had the bin not filled all the way up, or there been dirt left behind, it would have failed. Instead, it tells me that the side brush isn't as critical as I thought.
This should have meant this device failed this review.
If there's a downside, it's that the BotVac loses its side brush frequently. Most robots include a main brush and an ancillary side brush to get into hard to reach crevices. The side brush on a Roomba is screwed onto the motor shaft, but Botvac uses a magnet to secure its component. Hair often gets knotted in the brush spindle, displacing the part from its nook. We frequently find the brush some 15 feet away from the robot when the cleaning has finished.
You'd think so, but even with the side brush off, the bin kept ending up full. Had the bin not filled all the way up, or there been dirt left behind, it would have failed. Instead, it tells me that the side brush isn't as critical as I thought.
Or maybe, the fact it does the perimeter first negates the need for the brush once it's finished doings the edges.
Generic question on these robot vacuums, how do they handle doorway thresholds? Can they drive over them or does it treat them as obstacles and remain in a single room? I wouldn't mind leaving a few doors downstairs open and let it clean several rooms at once if possible.
Comments
Come on, you can't believe pulling the back half of the robot off to empty is better than lifting the bin out the top, can you?
Generic question on these robot vacuums, how do they handle doorway thresholds? Can they drive over them or does it treat them as obstacles and remain in a single room? I wouldn't mind leaving a few doors downstairs open and let it clean several rooms at once if possible.