Robovacs good or not?
Discussion
I got a Eufy 15C Max and these are my initial thoughts. Originally posted on FB.
Rise of the robots! Coming to take your job soon. Ok maybe not all jobs, but eventually a lot certainly.
Now you won't remember my momentous hoovering and cleaning session from a week or so ago that nearly saw the end of the world as we know it due to it's cataclysmic impact as I didn't mention it on here.
Well I obviously can't be arsed to do that again anytime soon. So looking for the lazy single bloke soft option I sought guidance on the best RoboVac from fellow nerds on the PistonHeads car enthusiasts website. After as much as twenty minutes due diligence and researching I settled on an 'Eufy 15C Max' £200 robotic vacuum cleaner. I've named her 'Tracy' for now in honour of my real friend and cleaner, who's sadly still in lockdown for a few more weeks. Don't worry it's not taking her job as it can't do much apart from tootle round the floor bumping into things. Besides the warm blooded real 'Tracy' works miracles on my humble bachelor abode, is a good laugh, and friend into the bargain.
Suffice to say Amazon duly cut a few rainforests down and paid the poor delivery driver 50p to ensure Robo 'Tracy' arrived within a day. She is internet linked and can activated by remote control and by Google/Alexa commands. She can also be programmed to do stuff at set times. When she gets knackered and low on juice she creeps back to the docking station to wolf down some electrons and recharge before carrying on.
If 'Tracy' gets stuck, trapped, falls off a cliff or otherwise incapacitated, she mournfully beeps for helps, pings the phone app, and waits like a child with its head stuck through the banisters on the stairs to be rescued. She even has a 'Find my robot command' as presumably if you lived in a National Trust mansion she might be ten rooms away wedged under the Chippendale chairs, banging the French polish off the Chaise longue mahogany feet, or trying to eat the crumbling Georgian silk curtains.
After the first hour's actual bimbling around cleaning 'Tracy' signalled she had filled the dust collection box. Being a smartarse and know-all, I thought 'yeah right', with all the sucking power of an asthmatic gerbil I'll be amazed if it's picked up as much as a piece of lint or a crushed strategically placed test peanut.
Oh dear! Time to eat a big slice of humble pie again Peter, good job i'm getting a taste for it. The dust box was rammed with so much packed stratified archeological debris and crud it looked like Howard Carter's first dig in ancient Egypt.
I could identify at least 4 distinct and dateable layers that must have formed as it passed over the carpets and floors several times in that first hour. I'm assuming 'Tracy' was pondering on the crap she was ingesting and thinking something like....
'Why me? Why did it have to be a scruffy nutty bloke who hates cleaning? Why couldn't it have been that nice sensible obsessive compulsive lady with the immaculate house he used to work with.'
After the analysis of the muck 'Tracy' found....
Layer 1. Pre-History. When did you last bloody hoover?
Layer 2. First Civilisations. You've been eating pasties and crisps by the skipload sat on the sofa!
Layer 3. The Renaissance. This isn't your pubic hair!
Layer 4. Industrial Revolution. Man fluff. Don't look closely.
'Tracy' is a clever bugger and doesn't sound like a jet engine or Dyson hand-drier on steroids which is nice. She just does her vacuuming job efficiently without fuss. Some caveats, if you have a house full of priceless antiques with spindly legs like one of those weird spiders 'Tracy' might not be best when banging into the finest rosewood veneers. But if you have MFI junk, charity shop rejects, and Ikea 'Billy Bookcase' like me just go for it and save yourself the ballache of doing it yourself.
Enjoy the two videos and gruesome picture for now.
https://youtu.be/2QMb-25qbhI
https://youtu.be/CbXCcuTMsG8
Rise of the robots! Coming to take your job soon. Ok maybe not all jobs, but eventually a lot certainly.
Now you won't remember my momentous hoovering and cleaning session from a week or so ago that nearly saw the end of the world as we know it due to it's cataclysmic impact as I didn't mention it on here.
Well I obviously can't be arsed to do that again anytime soon. So looking for the lazy single bloke soft option I sought guidance on the best RoboVac from fellow nerds on the PistonHeads car enthusiasts website. After as much as twenty minutes due diligence and researching I settled on an 'Eufy 15C Max' £200 robotic vacuum cleaner. I've named her 'Tracy' for now in honour of my real friend and cleaner, who's sadly still in lockdown for a few more weeks. Don't worry it's not taking her job as it can't do much apart from tootle round the floor bumping into things. Besides the warm blooded real 'Tracy' works miracles on my humble bachelor abode, is a good laugh, and friend into the bargain.
Suffice to say Amazon duly cut a few rainforests down and paid the poor delivery driver 50p to ensure Robo 'Tracy' arrived within a day. She is internet linked and can activated by remote control and by Google/Alexa commands. She can also be programmed to do stuff at set times. When she gets knackered and low on juice she creeps back to the docking station to wolf down some electrons and recharge before carrying on.
If 'Tracy' gets stuck, trapped, falls off a cliff or otherwise incapacitated, she mournfully beeps for helps, pings the phone app, and waits like a child with its head stuck through the banisters on the stairs to be rescued. She even has a 'Find my robot command' as presumably if you lived in a National Trust mansion she might be ten rooms away wedged under the Chippendale chairs, banging the French polish off the Chaise longue mahogany feet, or trying to eat the crumbling Georgian silk curtains.
After the first hour's actual bimbling around cleaning 'Tracy' signalled she had filled the dust collection box. Being a smartarse and know-all, I thought 'yeah right', with all the sucking power of an asthmatic gerbil I'll be amazed if it's picked up as much as a piece of lint or a crushed strategically placed test peanut.
Oh dear! Time to eat a big slice of humble pie again Peter, good job i'm getting a taste for it. The dust box was rammed with so much packed stratified archeological debris and crud it looked like Howard Carter's first dig in ancient Egypt.
I could identify at least 4 distinct and dateable layers that must have formed as it passed over the carpets and floors several times in that first hour. I'm assuming 'Tracy' was pondering on the crap she was ingesting and thinking something like....
'Why me? Why did it have to be a scruffy nutty bloke who hates cleaning? Why couldn't it have been that nice sensible obsessive compulsive lady with the immaculate house he used to work with.'
After the analysis of the muck 'Tracy' found....
Layer 1. Pre-History. When did you last bloody hoover?
Layer 2. First Civilisations. You've been eating pasties and crisps by the skipload sat on the sofa!
Layer 3. The Renaissance. This isn't your pubic hair!
Layer 4. Industrial Revolution. Man fluff. Don't look closely.
'Tracy' is a clever bugger and doesn't sound like a jet engine or Dyson hand-drier on steroids which is nice. She just does her vacuuming job efficiently without fuss. Some caveats, if you have a house full of priceless antiques with spindly legs like one of those weird spiders 'Tracy' might not be best when banging into the finest rosewood veneers. But if you have MFI junk, charity shop rejects, and Ikea 'Billy Bookcase' like me just go for it and save yourself the ballache of doing it yourself.
Enjoy the two videos and gruesome picture for now.
https://youtu.be/2QMb-25qbhI
https://youtu.be/CbXCcuTMsG8
we've got an eufy max or something like that and its amazing how much they suck up. I just cant seem to train family to tidy up after themselves just enough that we could leave it do its thing everyday. Gets tangled on ipod cables left laying about. Great though, am going to get another for upstairs.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Xiaomi-Cleaner-Guidance-P...
I got one of these 2/3 years ago. Its very very impressive.
The laser scanning makes it properly work out the most efficient way to cover the entire room.
Highly recommended. Much better than a 'dumb' robot cleaner that does a random wall around the room, this follows the shape of the room perfectly, like how you would cut your grass in stripes.
I got one of these 2/3 years ago. Its very very impressive.
The laser scanning makes it properly work out the most efficient way to cover the entire room.
Highly recommended. Much better than a 'dumb' robot cleaner that does a random wall around the room, this follows the shape of the room perfectly, like how you would cut your grass in stripes.
bmwmike said:
we've got an eufy max or something like that and its amazing how much they suck up. I just cant seem to train family to tidy up after themselves just enough that we could leave it do its thing everyday. Gets tangled on ipod cables left laying about. Great though, am going to get another for upstairs.
Yeah, this is a challenge.....we are getting better, but due to the Eufy 30c getting a bit stuck in bright sunshine on tiled floors, we run J.Edgar from 07:30hrs.....and sometimes I find he has got stuck for some reason. The majority of the time he is fine!Another satisfied Neato user here.
Botvac D6 downstairs - three rooms + hall, mix of carpet and tiles.
Does it all in one go. Only me and two short haired dogs so I run it twice a week which usually gives a bin full of hairy dust.
I've had it for 18 months and, apart from an early swap out failure, it's been reliable.
Sunny days can confuse the LIDAR but closing a curtain cures!
Purchased in one of the many Amazon sales at £300
I own a proper vacuum cleaner as well but only use it if guests are imminent - which is a rare occurrence!
Upstairs, I have the D5's predecessor, a Botvac 75 which runs when I remember to push the button - maybe once a fortnight.
This one is five years old and still on original battery.
Screenshot of the D6 map attached.
Botvac D6 downstairs - three rooms + hall, mix of carpet and tiles.
Does it all in one go. Only me and two short haired dogs so I run it twice a week which usually gives a bin full of hairy dust.
I've had it for 18 months and, apart from an early swap out failure, it's been reliable.
Sunny days can confuse the LIDAR but closing a curtain cures!
Purchased in one of the many Amazon sales at £300
I own a proper vacuum cleaner as well but only use it if guests are imminent - which is a rare occurrence!
Upstairs, I have the D5's predecessor, a Botvac 75 which runs when I remember to push the button - maybe once a fortnight.
This one is five years old and still on original battery.
Screenshot of the D6 map attached.
AJB88 said:
Same as Eufy direct site. https://www.eufylife.com/uk/products/variant/robov...Although not sure the additional £40 off from a referral can be added...
I'm hoping to see some reductions for Black Friday on a Robot Vac.
I only want to use it downstairs, it's all one level, but it's a bit convoluted.
The vac would live in the kitchen / diner - off in one direction is the utility which it'd need to cover, then off in another direction is the hallway, which i'd want it to visit and then off the hall is the lounge, again which i'd want it to visit.
My thinking is that a bump around version isn't going to find it's way around everything and through the doorways etc before having to go back and charge so won't cover everything.
So does it need mapping? some sort of navigation - gyro? lidar?
So what is entry level with mapping?
I have no plan to spend £350+ on one, I'm hoping for something around the £250 mark? Is this doable?
Or is a bump around one now good enough to find it's way everywhere?!
I only want to use it downstairs, it's all one level, but it's a bit convoluted.
The vac would live in the kitchen / diner - off in one direction is the utility which it'd need to cover, then off in another direction is the hallway, which i'd want it to visit and then off the hall is the lounge, again which i'd want it to visit.
My thinking is that a bump around version isn't going to find it's way around everything and through the doorways etc before having to go back and charge so won't cover everything.
So does it need mapping? some sort of navigation - gyro? lidar?
So what is entry level with mapping?
I have no plan to spend £350+ on one, I'm hoping for something around the £250 mark? Is this doable?
Or is a bump around one now good enough to find it's way everywhere?!
My €120 Eufy 11 is doing great. cleans the entire downstairs of the house in one go, as long as you do it every day. Sometimes I make it do the sitting room of an evening too, we have a wood burner and the ash gets everywhere. Stripped it down fully twice so far (cat present incidents) and stripped, cleaned everything, and cleaned and greased the gearboxes. Regular service maybe every 3 months now to keep it good. Was going to buy another one, a wifi mappable one but no real need as our house isn't big enough to warrant it, just set it going twice a day if you have to. The full charge time is 6 hours.
Our Eufy 15c (named Rex!) is always getting stuck on the barstools at the kitchen island - I now just put them up on the dining room chairs when I set him off because it's noisy and annoying. Other than that he does a great job of keeping the ground floor relatively crumb and hair free. Would definitely get another when he dies!
Anyone took a punt on a weird one from ali express or ebay?
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001104950975.html
it's a Xiaomi so not completly unknoww brand, seems to do propoer mapping etc £170 ish...
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001104950975.html
it's a Xiaomi so not completly unknoww brand, seems to do propoer mapping etc £170 ish...
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