Robot vacuum?

[Ronald Blue]

I've a buddy with 4 of the roborocks (2 houses, 2 levels, not sure which model) and he raves about them. Seems like everyone he shows them to goes out and buys one. I have one on my list, once all the remodeling is finished.

I'm a little concerned about how my dog will react to it, but I figure we can always let it run at night when the dog's in our bedroom. Those of you with dogs, how do they react to it?

Our dog eyes it warily. Sometimes he has to leap to his feet before it gobbles him up. (No chance of it because he's an 80 lb Bernedoodle) He generally just steers clear and all is well. He's a major reason we have it. But he gives us smiles and is faithfully by us whenever in the house.

[Stan Calow]

Our dog barked at first and then got used to it. Same thing with the regular vac.

[Lee DeRaud]

(Just ordered a 'renewed' Shark IQ from Amazon...mostly for downstairs, so it doesn't freak out the cat, but ya never know.)

An update: it showed up yesterday. A very well-constructed widget, seems to work as designed, snarfed up an amazing amount of dog hair in its first pass. (The mapping seems to be a "work in progress", as the map that displays on the phone app looks more like a QR code than anything resembling my floor plan. It really doesn't like the dining room: managed to trap itself underneath the table and wedge itself on the chair legs trying to escape.)

But I think it's going back. The main issue (which I should have foreseen) is that, short of going full-Kondo, my house is just too cluttered for the machine to deal with without me doing a bunch of stuff-shuffling before and after. And that's the part of vacuuming I hate...actually pushing the Dyson around is kind of zen. If I had a big open-plan house with minimalist decor, no problem, but that's not gonna happen in this life.

Note, in case it matters to someone else, that it's a bit fussy in two areas: (1) they want you to put the base unit against a wall with nothing within 3' on either side and 5' in front, and (2) if you have dual-band WIFI, they want you to have different SSIDs on the two bands (it only works on 2.4GHz). I don't know if either of these is a real-world problem...I had the base unit in a partial corner and it redocked several times with no problem, and I either lucked out or it found the 2.4GHz network on the first try. YMMV.

[Jim Becker]

Note, in case it matters to someone else, that it's a bit fussy in two areas: (1) they want you to put the base unit against a wall with nothing within 3' on either side and 5' in front, and (2) if you have dual-band WIFI, they want you to have different SSIDs on the two bands (it only works on 2.4GHz). I don't know if either of these is a real-world problem...I had the base unit in a partial corner and it redocked several times with no problem, and I either lucked out or it found the 2.4GHz network on the first try. YMMV.

Ours is against a wall, but right next to a sideboard. No issues. If we don't move a dining chair at the table in front of it, there is less than 5' in front, but it's handled it fine. I run dual-band WiFi with the same SSID for both bands (EERO WiFi 6 Pro) with zero issues. The unit lives on the 2.4ghz band along with a few other devices that prefer it including alarm components.

BTW, I agree that the mapping leaves a little to be desired when it comes to details, but it's been relatively fine with at least understanding the room boundaries that Professor Dr. SMWBO established for "quick jobs".

Finally...yea...decluttering is kinda important. But it can be a good thing if you can manage the initial operation. We had to do some "fencing" until we got fully unpacked after our move!

[Lee DeRaud]

I run dual-band WiFi with the same SSID for both bands (EERO WiFi 6 Pro) with zero issues.

Upon further review, I don't think it's the vacuum that has a problem with dual-band, it's the phone that the app is installed on. During the initial setup, the phone and the vacuum set up a peer-to-peer WIFI so the app can tell the vacuum what SSID and password to use. So if the phone is using the 5GHz band, it won't detect the vacuum. But I suspect that, once the vacuum can connect to the router by itself, it doesn't matter what band the phone is on. (I'm not sure which band my phone normally uses because the WIFI option screen doesn't display it...typical Samsung non-standard Android. But apparently it was using 2.4GHz that day in that room, because it worked.)

[Jim Becker]

When you go into the phone to connect to the private WiFi for setup, it "shouldn't" have an issue connecting to a 2.4ghz network, especially if the network only supports that band. But sometimes there are weird things with specific devices, revisions of OS and, um..."the alterations" that some device manufacturers and carriers make to said OS...which only really applies to Android at this point since it's pretty much the only remaining choice other than iOS. The latter doesn't allow for mods.

[Lee DeRaud]

When you go into the phone to connect to the private WiFi for setup, it "shouldn't" have an issue connecting to a 2.4ghz network, especially if the network only supports that band.

I hear ya, but they spent a full page (separate from the manual) whining about dual-band. Makes me wonder if they've had a bunch of them returned because people couldn't get their phones to talk to it.

[Leigh Betsch]

I'd really like to try one of these in my new shop. I have an epoxy floor that I sweep every evening before I leave the shop then I dust mop it in the morning before I start work. I'm thinking maybe the robot could do a final sweep at night and 'I wouldn't need to do the dust mopping in the morning. I suppose the only way to know would be to buy one and try it out. SWMBO is dead set against a "gadget" for the house, or I would buy on for the house and then give it a try in the shop. If anyone does give it a go for the shop please let me know how it works.

[Jim Becker]

Leigh, you'd want one of the "heavy duty" versions for that, but if you are getting the big stuff up, I see no reason why such a device wouldn't be able to help with the fine material that settles on the floor which would reduce tracking it into the house. (If I recall, your shop is attached to the house)

[Alan Rutherford]

So many things to think about if you're looking for a robot to clean your floors. Here's another one:

"Amazon services down for thousands of users...services including Amazon's Ring security cameras, mobile banking app Chime and robot vacuum cleaner maker iRobot were also facing issues according to their social media pages and Twitter."

Maybe it just needs a good talking-to by Alexa.

[Lee DeRaud]

As I mentioned, I returned the Shark IQ to Amazon, and instead went with a new(ish) Dyson cordless V10.

Oh my, does that suck! And in a good way: it's very close to being a viable replacement for one of my corded Dysons (an aging DC07). It's a couple models down from the top of the Dyson line, but the ones above it have a bad dose of "feature creep": things that look good in ads, but don't necessarily add to the basic functionality. About the same price as the mid-range Shark/iRobot 'Baby Dalek'.

[Bruce Page]

Resurrecting on old thread. I’ve been looking at robot vacuums and have settled on the iRobot Roomba S9+. I won’t move until next week’s black Friday hoping the price will drop some more. Does anyone have one of these? Opinions? Critiques? My wife and I share vacuuming duties and my lower back is starting to bark. My daughter has a Roomba J7+ and is quite happy with it.

https://www.amazon.com/iRobot-Roomba...7-eb60747b8daf

[Stephen Tashiro]

My thoughts based on using older model 600 series Roombas. Expect to get your hands dirty. Over the years I've used them daily and done many repairs on them. The most involved "repair" was disabling the cliff sensors. You can find YouTube videos about how to do this and other repairs.

They do the work of vacuuming fairly well, but you have to clean them after average use = use till the battery goes low. Cleaning them involves more than emptying the dust bin and cleaning the brushes. Pet hair also gets wrapped around the small guide wheel and the "side brush".

Batteries last longer if you don't recharge them till the battery is nearly discharged. The automatic docking feature is unreliable due to the flimsy nature of the dock.

Expect to some rearranging of your rooms to eliminate places where the robot gets stuck. The 600 series isn't smart enough to stop in a convenient place. It's a pain to retrieve it from under beds.

[Patty Hann]

Can't say how well their Roomba (10 years ago?) worked but friends had a small dog that did not like it at all.
She would hide while the thing was making its rounds in her "space".

[Jim Becker]

Bruce, iRobot remains the "industry leader" I believe and they've continued to add stuff to the machines. I'd consider one of the new higher level ones like you're looking at if and when our Sharks (we have two...one downstairs named Monk and one upstairs named Natalie ) decide to stop working. They are working harder now, however, because of Oliver the dog. Despite being a short hair boxer mix, he's competing pretty good with the birds for "stuff on the floor".

At any rate, buying on sale is the way to go, especially when there is opportunity for additional discounting. I'd never buy these things at "full price". (Which is kinda how I am with any kind of purchase)