You guys have any insights/advice on robot vacuums?
Our entire ground floor is some cheap vinyl. The dogs (especially the golden retriever) drag in tons (not literally) of dirt…and mud (which, given time, converts to dirt).
We have a Dyson Ball Animal which is at least 5 years old & could reasonably be up to 10 years old (or more!) . Parts are starting to break (the canister should probably be replaced & one of the hoses was holey holey holey so it was) & I’m not sure if it’s having trouble cleaning or if that’s just because it’s gunked up with dog hair.
I’d like to get one of those fancy robotic vacuums that also mops at the same time. I don’t know where to start or if I can trust random online-review-site-that-gets-a-commission-if-I-click-on-their-link-and-buy-the-product.
I always tell my story of coming home one day to have found the vacuum had rolled right through some dog diarrhea and smeared that all over the first floor of our home. That was the end of my robot vacuum.
We’ve had two Roombas and a Shark. The Shark just never did a great job, and it often got stranded somewhere and then ran out of juice, and we had to hunt it down and put it back on the charger.
Both Roombas lasted about four or so years. They did a nice job of keeping pet hair way down, they didn’t sweep 100% of the house every time but we ran them every other day and it was really helpful. I’m debating buying another one, but it’s a decent expense for something that, in our experience, doesn’t last all that long.
Going to guess this is a very common occurrence as it happened to us within like a month of having the Roomba and we only have 1 dog. Unfortunately she was a golden retriever so there was a lot of mass to the poop the Roomba went through. It had a lot of material to work with. Having to pull the mattress off our bed to clean underneath there was the most fun LOL!
I recently bought a Roborock S7 vacuum/mop in anticipation of our new vinyl upstairs flooring, but haven’t gotten or tested it yet. I’m kind of regretting not springing for the ultra version that is self-emptying, self-cleaning, self-refilling, but both had stellar reviews on Amazon and I was already cringing at spending more than $500 on a robot vacuum, I wasn’t ready to spend $1400. Maybe if it’s amazing, I’ll upgrade.
Also will add, I had a Roomba 15 years ago, and it was nothing special. Those were the early days of robot cleaning, and I’ve heard the improvements made now are incredible, so after years of swearing them off, I decided to try again. But I will say, part of me is still a little skeptical. Especially with pets!
Well, why not save $10 where you can save $10, but, come on, when you’re selling something for hundreds (TENS of hundreds, even!) of dollars, $10 off just isn’t enough to get excited about.
I’m going to guess no, and that’s always been an issue for any vacuum I’ve had, because I often have very long hair and a lot of it, and the strands wreak havoc on vacuums and pipes.
Alright, well I have the vacuum now and have used it on my downstairs a few times. Not going to set up the upstairs one until I get my new flooring. It’s pretty great, I admit. I have it set on the highest settings for both sweeping and mopping, and it drains the battery pretty good, but I have a small house so I can get away with it.
Now that I have two of these going on both floors, I am seriously kicking myself for not giving them another try years ago. They pick up so much dust and pet hair every single day. Of course, the pets are shedding a lot right now as the weather gets warmer, so I hope that trend doesn’t continue forever.
