Do robotic vacuum cleaners work? The easiest way to clean floors!

It sounds to good to be true… clean floors with no work?  Well, it is not to good to be true, it is very much a reality. The easiest way to clean floors without lifting a finger is to invest in a robotic vacuum cleaner and you can clean all of the floors in your house every day without having to do it yourself.  Depending on the vac you purchase you may not even need to be home while your house is being effortlessly rid of dirt and pet hair.  

Do robotic vacuum cleaners really work?

They really do. Some of the robotic vacs available will work better for hardwood and others work better for carpet.  There are some that will fit under your furniture and some that are more gentle when working around your furnishings.

Find out what the best robovac is for your unique situation.

How do these vacs work?

Robot vacuums use infrared beams to detect walls and other obstacles they encounter.  The vac will slow down as it approaches and object and then the touch sensitive bumper will stop the vac and turn it around so it can move along in another direction.  The vacs also have infrared sensors mounted on the bottom that point downward to detect stairs and other drops.  The home station also emits an infrared signal that the robot vac unit uses to “go home” when the battery is low.

In addition to your vac know where to go, you may need to tell your vac where not to go.  There are some different ways to do this depending on what robovac you get – you could just put up a barrier or you can purchase a small tower that emits its own beam creating an invisible barrier, or some units use magnetic strips that the vac won’t cross to create that barrier.

Some more robot vacuum perks.

Some of the newer vacs (and maybe the more expensive models) have room mapping features.  This means the vac has a laser-based mapping system that looks for contours of light and dark and creates patterns or visual landmarks to create maps of your home.  As the vac creates these maps you can name the rooms.   If you have a wi-if connected botvac you can ask Siri or Alexa to send your bot to a specific room of your home for cleaning.

Another new feature that is really useful is the self emptying dust bin.  When the dust bin of the vac is full it will return to the base and the dust bin will empty by the base unit sucking the dirt into a debris dump bag that will hold up to 30 full dust bins.  What a great feature!

Some things to think about when shopping for a robot vac.

How much area do you have to cover?

Some vacs are more suited to compact spaces and others can cover a larger home of up to a few thousand aquarium feet.  And also important is the height of the vac.  Just 1” can make the difference depending on your furniture.  Does the vac need to fit under dressers and tables and chairs?

What types of flooring do you have? 

Most robot vacs are able to clean carpets and hard wood floors with ease.  Most can also transition well between multiple flooring types but some are better than others for specific flooring types.

Do you have pets?

Many of the vacs out today are well suited to picking up cat and dog hair easily.  Many of these vacs also have HEPA filters to aid those who suffer from allergies.

Do you want to have WI-Fi connectivity for your vac?

There are many vacs that have the ability to be started remotely with and app.  Just enable the voice command system and say “start vacuuming.”  You vac will clean the floors and you won’t have to see or hear any of it.  You just get to come home to a clean house.

Are you worried about battery life?

Many of the vacs we tried out had roughly an hour and a half of battery life and this was adequate for our needs.  Some of the bigger and more expensive models have a 2 hours battery life.  Something to think about at purchase if you want the two hour run time.

What is your budget for your new vac?

Fortunately there are many robot vacuums with a variety of features available in all price ranges.  You will need to decide what features are must haves for you and proceeed from there.

For under three hundred you can get a low or mid level robot vac.  You may have to forgo some of the features such as room mapping and wi-if connectivity in this price range but you will still find decent robotics that will clean your home.  If you are willing to jump your budget up to $500 – $600 rangeyou cn get the room mapping feature along with the wi-if connectivity.  In this price range you can get self-cleaning brushes and rollers with traction as well.  If you are able to budget over $700 for your robot vacuum you will be able to get the longer battery life mentioned earlier and self emptying dust bins.

Whatever your price range you will find you get decent self cleaning capabilities.  Only you can decide how many bells and whistles your robovac needs to have so that it meets your needs.

Some Quick Tips for finding the right robovac for you:

• Decide on a rough budget – You can find robovac between the prices of $200 – $1000.  If you come up with an amount that is comfortable for you to allocate for your robo vac then you can look at what vac within your price range gives you the most of what you need.

• Take a survey of your home – What types of flooring do you have?  Do you have a lot of transitions between flooring types? Will your botvac need to clean up pet hair, cat litter or other heavier soil types?

• How important are apps to you? – do you want to have the voice activation and remote start?  For some people that is the biggest reason they are looking for a robo vac, so make sure you are getting the features that are most important to you.

• Size can matter – remember that some vacs have lower profiles and get under and around furniture easier.  Also some vacs move over small changes in flooring easier.

In Summary

With robot vacuums quickly becoming a common household tool you should consider purchasing one for your own home.  Today everyone is busy hustling around between jobs and dinners and sporting events, school confernces, work dinners and doctors appointments.  How can you be expected to find the time to keep a clean house.  Well, that’s the beauty of the robo vac.  You don’t even have to be home to get clean floors.  And all the hype about robot vacuum cleaners is warranted because they really do a decent job of cleaning all of the floors in your house.

Take the time to find the right robot vac for you and you may never have to vacuum again.  Think of the time you just found!