Robovacs good or not?
Discussion
Another Neato user here - one of the earlier Botvac Connected models. Cleans my flat quite effectively - means I only have to get the real vacuum out for the top of skirting boards and other dust off the floor. It does get stuck from time to time - as I have the model without the online geofence capability - usually under bookcases, in trailing cables, or when I've left the built in wardrobe door open, but apart from that I've found it to be a great addition.
Named mine Henry...
Named mine Henry...
peterperkins said:
Do these work with Google home as well?
Yep: https://support.neatorobotics.com/hc/en-us/article...Were you a Betamax user too?
tokyo_mb said:
Another Neato user here - one of the earlier Botvac Connected models. Cleans my flat quite effectively - means I only have to get the real vacuum out for the top of skirting boards and other dust off the floor. It does get stuck from time to time - as I have the model without the online geofence capability - usually under bookcases, in trailing cables, or when I've left the built in wardrobe door open, but apart from that I've found it to be a great addition.
Named mine Henry...
Yeah you do have to be careful of cables, mine chewed up an almost new iphone cable and stripped some of the rubber sheath off the end! Still works although sometimes needs to be wiggled to get the connection... Now I make sure its tucked away properly!Named mine Henry...
seyre1972 said:
Xiaomi Model does similar re mapping the floor layout.
Bunny ears on photo below are where the LIDAR has mapped part of the downstairs kitchen (old Victorian house where kitchen is half a floor/6 steps down). I will say I was bricking it 1st time it went out into the hall, and headed towards the steps. But detected the edge and cleans right up to it with no issues. (Floors a mixture of floorboards/carpet)
Lines represent the route she has taken while cleaning.
And yes “she” is called Hermione the Hoover .....
. Always fun to tell “Alexa - start hoovering”
You will need two unless you live in a bungalow ! Actually we need a third but ...Bunny ears on photo below are where the LIDAR has mapped part of the downstairs kitchen (old Victorian house where kitchen is half a floor/6 steps down). I will say I was bricking it 1st time it went out into the hall, and headed towards the steps. But detected the edge and cleans right up to it with no issues. (Floors a mixture of floorboards/carpet)
Lines represent the route she has taken while cleaning.
And yes “she” is called Hermione the Hoover .....
. Always fun to tell “Alexa - start hoovering”
Mapping is good.
David A said:
Ideally yes - one for each floor would be ideal, but this would mean 5 needed (with kitchen/1st floor bathroom all being offset by half a floor). I do let her have a wander around the kitchen/breakfast room every weekend ....As it was my Mrs wasn’t too impressed when Hermione was 1st delivered - but has grown to accept that if done daily we Hardly ever have to vacuum by hand.
Another vote for Neato, they're seriously good - our upright vac hasn't been out since we got it and I was expecting for at least a monthly blase with a "proper" hoover to get the job done. We've got a dust devil type thing for the stairs and that's it.
Not only is the Vac pretty handy, but their support is fantastic too. I bought my first one about a year ago from an authorised refurb seller on eBay, I think it was the "Botvac Connected", a fairly base one.
That broke about 4 months ago (worryingly, perhaps) so I raised a ticket and it got sent off fairly promptly. Despite it being a refurb, they replaced it with a brand new Botvac D7 Connected which was a couple of rungs up the model ladder with all brand new accessories - was well impressed.
This is my ground floor floorplan, the dark bits are the parts it can't get to. It's stuff like fireplace hearth, sofa, coffee table etc. The room in the bottom right is the dining room and you can sort of make out all of the chair legs/table legs (it's an 8-seater job) - you can see it gets almost full coverage despite that. All we do is on alternate vacuum jobs is pull the chairs out or push them back in again.
The D7 model (and maybe others) also has rooms defined, so I can tell it to "only" do the kitchen. Very useful as we're bloody messy chefs in this house
Not only is the Vac pretty handy, but their support is fantastic too. I bought my first one about a year ago from an authorised refurb seller on eBay, I think it was the "Botvac Connected", a fairly base one.
That broke about 4 months ago (worryingly, perhaps) so I raised a ticket and it got sent off fairly promptly. Despite it being a refurb, they replaced it with a brand new Botvac D7 Connected which was a couple of rungs up the model ladder with all brand new accessories - was well impressed.
This is my ground floor floorplan, the dark bits are the parts it can't get to. It's stuff like fireplace hearth, sofa, coffee table etc. The room in the bottom right is the dining room and you can sort of make out all of the chair legs/table legs (it's an 8-seater job) - you can see it gets almost full coverage despite that. All we do is on alternate vacuum jobs is pull the chairs out or push them back in again.
The D7 model (and maybe others) also has rooms defined, so I can tell it to "only" do the kitchen. Very useful as we're bloody messy chefs in this house
Puggit said:
Our Neato is called Roberta (first one was Robbie).
Annoyingly you can't tell Alexa to tell Roberta to hoover, you must tell Neato. And then Alexa answers that she is starting Roberta up - pffffffff.
I can tell Google to "Tell Horatio to start cleaning". Damn that betamax I've invested into Annoyingly you can't tell Alexa to tell Roberta to hoover, you must tell Neato. And then Alexa answers that she is starting Roberta up - pffffffff.
We bought a Eufy RoboVac 11 a year ago (Amazon) and it has been an absolute godsend, but not maintenance free. House with hard floors throughout on the ground floor.
CONS
Doesn't like bright light in front of it reflected off shiney floors - retreats.
Will need stripping and cleaning every few months (we have 2x JRT's + 2x cats + 1x small person). Sensors sticking. Motor belt drive jamming.
No room scan and 'randomly' bounces around the room (uses a pre-programmed algorithm based on sensor input)
Don't leave it running if dogs could 'possibly' deficate on the floor!
PROS
Brilliant time saver and we run it often but as the house is split level I carry it to the floor level that needs attention.
Quiet
Did I mention brilliant and time saver?
When the belt drive system jammed up resulting in zero brush drive the Eufy email contact responded with 24 hrs. Once we showed them the problem a new Eufy was sent out FOC on next day delivery. In the meantime I had nothing to lose so I stripped down the original Eufy and managed to find the fault and repaired it. I now have a boxed 'spare' !
CONS
Doesn't like bright light in front of it reflected off shiney floors - retreats.
Will need stripping and cleaning every few months (we have 2x JRT's + 2x cats + 1x small person). Sensors sticking. Motor belt drive jamming.
No room scan and 'randomly' bounces around the room (uses a pre-programmed algorithm based on sensor input)
Don't leave it running if dogs could 'possibly' deficate on the floor!
PROS
Brilliant time saver and we run it often but as the house is split level I carry it to the floor level that needs attention.
Quiet
Did I mention brilliant and time saver?
When the belt drive system jammed up resulting in zero brush drive the Eufy email contact responded with 24 hrs. Once we showed them the problem a new Eufy was sent out FOC on next day delivery. In the meantime I had nothing to lose so I stripped down the original Eufy and managed to find the fault and repaired it. I now have a boxed 'spare' !
Edited by Marlin45 on Wednesday 17th July 11:38
Fonzey said:
Puggit said:
Our Neato is called Roberta (first one was Robbie).
Annoyingly you can't tell Alexa to tell Roberta to hoover, you must tell Neato. And then Alexa answers that she is starting Roberta up - pffffffff.
I can tell Google to "Tell Horatio to start cleaning". Damn that betamax I've invested into Annoyingly you can't tell Alexa to tell Roberta to hoover, you must tell Neato. And then Alexa answers that she is starting Roberta up - pffffffff.
On the beam you have to tell google to turn of Sonos TV Control Living Room.
With Alexa you just say turn the TV off and it does. Very odd.
Zoon said:
I noticed this as well, Google is better for robot vacs but worse for Sonos.
On the beam you have to tell google to turn of Sonos TV Control Living Room.
With Alexa you just say turn the TV off and it does. Very odd.
Generally you can make Google do anything by just setting up a routine, so you could make a routine which is "Turn off the TV" and have it action multiple steps, such as turning off the Sonos thing.On the beam you have to tell google to turn of Sonos TV Control Living Room.
With Alexa you just say turn the TV off and it does. Very odd.
Dan_1981 said:
I really want one.
But I want mapping as i'm concerned the bump around randomly won't cover kitchen / diner / lounge / hallway?
Or am I getting this wrong and it will bounce through doorways to get to the required areas?
I think most modern ones have mapping now, the "randomly bump about" ones are very old school.But I want mapping as i'm concerned the bump around randomly won't cover kitchen / diner / lounge / hallway?
Or am I getting this wrong and it will bounce through doorways to get to the required areas?
Fonzey said:
Dan_1981 said:
I really want one.
But I want mapping as i'm concerned the bump around randomly won't cover kitchen / diner / lounge / hallway?
Or am I getting this wrong and it will bounce through doorways to get to the required areas?
I think most modern ones have mapping now, the "randomly bump about" ones are very old school.But I want mapping as i'm concerned the bump around randomly won't cover kitchen / diner / lounge / hallway?
Or am I getting this wrong and it will bounce through doorways to get to the required areas?
All of the EUFY ones appear to be bump around at random
Fonzey said:
Puggit said:
Our Neato is called Roberta (first one was Robbie).
Annoyingly you can't tell Alexa to tell Roberta to hoover, you must tell Neato. And then Alexa answers that she is starting Roberta up - pffffffff.
I can tell Google to "Tell Horatio to start cleaning". Damn that betamax I've invested into Annoyingly you can't tell Alexa to tell Roberta to hoover, you must tell Neato. And then Alexa answers that she is starting Roberta up - pffffffff.
[quote=Dan_1981
But I want mapping as i'm concerned the bump around randomly won't cover kitchen / diner / lounge / hallway?
[/quote]
Another question - can they handle crossing thresholds between different flooring types - we have threshold pieces between the tiled floors of the kitchen etc and the carpeted floors in the dining room and living rooms.
Imagine a 15cm wide threshold piece roughly 1cm high.
Are they robust enough to cross things like this on their daily journey round a house or do they only really work with a perfect flooring join between all the rooms you want done?
But I want mapping as i'm concerned the bump around randomly won't cover kitchen / diner / lounge / hallway?
[/quote]
Another question - can they handle crossing thresholds between different flooring types - we have threshold pieces between the tiled floors of the kitchen etc and the carpeted floors in the dining room and living rooms.
Imagine a 15cm wide threshold piece roughly 1cm high.
Are they robust enough to cross things like this on their daily journey round a house or do they only really work with a perfect flooring join between all the rooms you want done?
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