Robotic vacuums: a guide to choose the best

Few things surpass the pleasant feeling of coming home tired after a long day’s work and find it perfectly clean, especially if you own a pet. Given the increasing popularity that these very useful appliances are gaining, and also the little information scattered around them, I decided to examine some of them, highlighting their many merits and very few flaws.

Robotic Vacuums: Buying Guide

Let’s examine what are the different aspects, useful to consider when deciding to buy an automatic vacuum cleaner. Here is a list:

Type of floor you want to clean: some models recognize the type of floor you intend to clean. More expensive models automatically adjust their settings when they switch between surface types, such as increasing or decreasing suction power or rotating the brushes differently. For this reason, if you have only one type of surface at home, you can choose a less advanced robot model, saving a lot of money;

Workspace: How big is your house? If you live in a modest apartment, you can obviously avoid buying an overly powerful model. This means money-saving, but also, energy-saving;

Construction quality: this is a very important factor and one that you shouldn’t skip on. The fairly obvious reason is that, if construction materials and the brushes are of poor quality, the product will break, and unless is still on warranty it costs a lot;

Container capacity: this factor also contributes to the price and depends on the size of the house/apartment. If you have a very large house a small container can be very uncomfortable because you will have to empty it very often;

Dimensions: it is very useful to consider the height of these appliances, to make sure they can pass under all the furniture you have in the house;

Noise: this is a very important factor if you get an unprogrammable model because the robot will have to work in your presence and if it’s very noisy it can prevent you from doing other things like watching TV or talking on the phone, for example.

The best robotic vacuums

By now the robotic vacuums have become fairly common objects and more and more are being sold every day. As a result, the market has been flooded with these devices. If you are researching for a robotic vacuum cleaner that can meet different needs and has a good value for money, I suggest you take a look at the products below:

1. iRobot Roomba 650
2. iLife V3s
3. iRobot Roomba 960
4. iLife A4s
5. iLife A6
6. iLife V5s Pro

Clicking on the links you can read my detailed review for each one. In fact, unless you know the details of the different robots on the market, it can be difficult to make an objective choice; for this reason, given the vastness and variety of models available today, I started doing a lot of research that finally led me to create this review list. I hope it can be helpful.

Robotic vacuums: how to use them best

As with any electronic product that uses advanced technology, even in the case of robotic vacuum cleaners is very useful to know some of the things you should look out for when you use them, so you can make the most out of them and make them last longer. Here is a short list of some tips based on my personal experience:

Free the house from obstacles: nowadays all models recognize and avoid obstacles, but for a better clean it is still preferable to remove obstacles as much as possible. For example, the model I own slaloms easily between the legs of the furniture but not those of the chairs because it isn’t small enough to do so. For this reason, I roll these four chairs over the table. Clearing the children’s bedroom floor from books and toys only takes a minute but it guarantees a much more thorough cleaning.

Pick up the most voluminous pieces: as with traditional vacuum cleaners, collecting the larger pieces from the floor is very useful to prevent the vacuum cleaner from clogging or breaking.

Clean one room at a time: I suggest you lock the robot in the room you want to clean. This way, your robotic vacuum will focus on this room. If you don’t have doors in all the rooms, you can solve the problem by buying a children’s gate and with it delimit the area to be cleaned.

Perform periodic maintenance: beyond the regular emptying of the dirt container, it is good practice to often clean the brushes so that they last longer. Most models of robotic vacuums allow you to disassemble and reassemble brushes easily and quickly.

Dust and crumbs

In general, all robotic vacuum models are capable of capturing dust, but not all are able to deal with crumbs and other leftovers.

As we all know, if they stay on the floor they can attract ants and other kinds of insects. Especially if you live in the countryside, I advise you to pay particular attention to this aspect and orient your purchase towards a product that specifies, among its characteristics, that of aspirating crumbs or other dirt residues larger than mere dust.

The same can be true for hair. Not all robotic vacuums are designed to remove hair especially long ones. Different brushes and different levels of suction power are needed for specific types of dirt. For this reason, I tend to read the features and check the accessories that are included.

It should also be noted that some models include a system that prevents hair or carpet fibers from getting stuck between the brushes. And believe me, you better spend a little extra to make sure that your robot doesn’t freeze every 5 minutes.

Robotic vacuums: price

How much does it cost to buy a robotic vacuum? Before answering, I have to highlight their main characteristics:

Rechargeable: a characteristic common to all models, some have a charging dock, some have it as an extra.

Equipped with a display: some robots can let you know if they have any problems such as blocked brushes or low battery;

Programmable: this option is really useful because it allows you to program the robot to clean when you’re away from home or while on vacation;

Equipped with remote control: this is very useful for people who cannot bend over to start the robot manually;

Specialized in animal hair removal: These models are usually more powerful;

Equipped with collision sensors: these recognize obstacles and avoid them. They can also recognize stairs; some models can even do stairs while most simple avoid them;

Smart: the first run maps the rooms, subsequent runs are more accurate and faster since the robot always knows the best route and doesn’t overlap;

Low clearance: these appliances are low enough to pass under many types of furniture; in any case, they can definitely clean under the beds.

There are also those that recognize the type of floors such as tiles, wood, carpets and those that identify the dirtiest areas and so on.

Being products with characteristics that can be so different from each other, it is also obvious that prices can vary greatly. Know that a higher price does not always mean higher quality. If you don’t need a model with remote control, you can spend less on a product that has all the other features.

For all these reasons, I suggest you go back, read the reviews of the six products that I consider to be the best, so you can choose the one that best suits your needs.