My first Robot Vacuum- how was yours?

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23rd January update:


 


I'm still pleasantly surprised that it actually works.  


I literally thought I'd be  getting a piece of plastic with a light in it and ..... that would be it.


 


It actually works.  


 


Last night I washed the floor with a mild soap/bleach solution.  


This morning I set the bot out before I left thinking it would be doubtful it would find anything. 


I returned and was surprised there was actually stuff in the bin.  


 


"customization": I put some weather stripping on the bottom to help it channel the air into the suction port. 


I also cut a piece of filter material and wove it into the exhaust port to control release as it has no exhaust filter.


 


One complaint I've read about older bots is the two spinning brushes on the front on some models they spin too fast and actually fling dirt around making more of a mess.


 


On this one, they spin at a reasonable speed.


 


I plan to make some videos on this.

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The Samsung bots, when I first saw them it was the first flat front and it actually sounds like a typical upright with beater-bar-brush vacuum.


 


Some of the new floor mopping bots will spray a section while moving forward about a foot, then reverse back, then move forward, and repeat.  It actually looks like someone invisible is moving the bot.  That's how a human would work a mop- back and forth.


 


I wonder if the bot vacs would benefit from changing their pattern from almost always going forward to the typical pattern that a human would use.
 
If all you have is hard floors that will probably do a good enough job to get the dust bunnies and small grit off the floor. I got the Eufy 11+ because we have low pile carpet and it has a brush roll that works pretty good on our carpet. My first one was similar to yours and did great on the hard floors but not so good on carpet. If it runs long enough to get most of your main areas and works good on your particular floors it looks like you got a awesome deal for the money.
 
This thing can't do any carpet. I put it on a low pile type commercial carpet and it just wimpered.
The tiny little wheels on the back are about the diameter of a quarter. the front ones slightly smaller.

This purchase was only meant to be my first experimental vacuum before deciding what others I would want to spend money on.  I'm in no hurry but I am impressed.


 


Vacwars just did a new video comparing the floor scrubber bots.  I really like their comparisons.


 


Now you can get vacuum bots that talk to the floor scrubber bots and both can dock so once the vacuum bot is done vacuuming the floor it will tell the scrubber bot to go out and clean.  It's impressive.





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I am more interested in the floor washer robots than the vacuum robots. I feel that a robot can theoretically handle floor washing better than vacuuming. Dirt is easier to remove from solid surfaces than from fiber carpeting.

My first robot purchase will probably be a floor washer. Until the robot vacuums get powerful enough to effectively handle all jobs I probably won't buy one of those.
 
Mixed Feelings

I acquired a Miele RX1 Scout on eBay for a reasonable price. It was in excellent condition. I like the Miele version because they said it would move in a systematic fashion, rather than a random pattern. I thought that would be more likely to clean better. And, while it did a sufficient job most of the time, I couldn't leave it unattended. I have very little clutter in my house, and it still would seem to struggle with getting stuck under my bed -- and I had hardwood in my bedroom at the time.

The real deal-breaker for me was, I have a large white shag rug in my living room and it simply could not traverse that without getting stuck. So, I would have to block off the living room to make sure it didn't get bogged down in the shag.

After a few weeks, I sold it. The prep for having an automatic vacuum run was too much for me. It was quicker for me to vacuum every other day or so, manually.
 
Cleaning floors isn't the only surface that bots are doing.


 


Windows and mirrors.  I'm not sure if they do walls, but I would suspect if it's flat (no texture) it would.


 


 


 





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Update on my $20 bot

Three days ago I was leaving to do errands and put the bot on the floor.  It was running but kind of sluggish.


 


I noticed one of the brushes wasn't turning .  It seemed jammed.  So I turned it over and gently pulled it out.  It came right out.  Without it in there the vac motor ran fine but without the brush.....


 


Then the other brush stopped turning.  When I lifted it up it just fell out.  And neither go back in.  You put them in the hole and there's nothing in there to hold them in.


 


So.....


 


I'm not going to try and fix it.  It was a fun $20 experiment. I'll probably gut the computer, battery, and motor. 


 


Since buying this I've found you can actually buy reliable (Roomba) used botvacs for affordable prices. 


That might be my next step.  it's all just fun.  I do like having the floor perfectly clean, though without having to do much for it....

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