Are Robot Vacuums Worth It?

Wouldn’t it be great if you can clean every nuke and corner of your house without getting your hands dirty? The emergence of futuristic technology like AI and robotics has brought about revolutionary changes in our lives, and robot vacuums are exemplary bots in cleaning.

Since their inception a few decades back, robot vacs have evolved significantly over time. Nowadays, these bots come equipped with several intelligent features and serve as a futuristic solution for flawless and exceptional cleaning performances.

While you may be awe-struck over the smartness of robot vacuums and tempted to bring them home, many such robots are still expensive, and some have various issues and limitations.

In this article, we explore the various pros and cons of your robot vacuums so that you can decide, “are robot vacuums worth it?”

What to Consider When Getting Yourself a Robot Vacuum

If you think that you only need to press the clean button on the robot vac to get all the cleaning done without any hassles, you may be in for unwelcome surprises.

Even though getting a bot to clean your floor is easier than sweeping the floor yourself, it does require careful handling to get the work done. Otherwise, your bot may get stuck somewhere under furniture and won’t reach back to home base.

Let’s discuss the things you need to keep in mind before bringing your favourite bots home.

Robot Vacuums May Get Stuck

Robot vacuums are equipped with optical sensors, and they are programmed to navigate their way across your home and avoid various obstacles on the way, such as furniture, shoes, etc. However, even the advanced models of robot vacs may get stuck sometimes.

Some expensive robot vacuums are programmed to create floor plans and map your house plan to avoid trouble spots. Some models feature accessories that enable you to create a virtual fence for limiting your bot’s movements.

To avoid your robot vac from getting stuck, you should follow its movements for the first few cleanings and identify the common trouble spots. Then, fix these spots before you begin to clean your house.

Thus, it requires you to invest time and effort initially to ensure your robot vacuums’ smooth performance.

Robot Vacuums Need to be Emptied

If you are used to emptying the dust bags of your regular vacuum cleaner, you may not find it troublesome to empty your robot vacuums. Even though the robot vacs are programmed for automated cleaning, these require emptying regularly.

However, if you can shell out big bucks, you can get yourself a self-emptying robot vacuum that automatically dumps dirt and debris into a bin in its home base.

Robot Vacuums Require a Dedicated and Noticeable Place for Keeping the Home Base

Before you bring your cleaning bot home, decide on a dedicated and prominent place for keeping the home base of your robot vacuum. The home base of a robot vacuum serves as a charging station or base station.

Ideally, you should keep the home base against a flat wall. Ensure to keep the four feet clearance in the front and approximately 1.5 feet of free space on both sides. You should keep it in an open space and reasonably near to a power outlet for convenient charging.

Also, refer to specific guidelines in your user manual on placing the home base as the different make and models of robot vacuums may have different placement requirements.

Robot Vacuums Require You to Clean Their Brushes

Robot vacuums come with cleaning brushes that need to be cleaned regularly. These brushes may accumulate dirt, debris, and hair that get wrapped on their bristles. Therefore, you need to clean them manually. It requires only a few minutes to clean your bot’s brushes.

Ensure to clean the brushes regularly and avoid skipping them as it may result in hair builds up in your robot that can damage your bot permanently.

Robot Vacuums May Mess Up with Power Cords, Speaker Cables or Shoelaces

While performing cleaning operations, a robot vacuum may get tangled power cords, shoelaces, or speaker cables lying loosely on the floor. Thus, before starting your cleaning cycle with bots, ensure to lift any extension cords and loose cables off the floor.

Robot Vacuums Can Be Noisy

If you are looking for calm and quiet cleaning operations, ensure to pick a robot vacuum that makes minimal noise. Some robot vacuums are very noisy while zipping around your rooms and striking against the furniture or walls.

Thus, if you prefer to clean your floors while watching a movie or taking a power nap, go for the quietest models.

Pros and Cons of Robot Vacuum

Like any other electronic gadget, your robot vacuum comes with its own set of pros and cons. Let’s discuss these in detail and find out if it is worth buying robot vacuums.

Pros 

Flawless Cleaning

Robot vacuums do flawless cleaning of your floors. They are equipped with cameras and optical sensors for scanning and cleaning your home. They operate on rechargeable batteries

and advanced models are easily controlled with a smartphone app.

If your robot vacuum lands in any trouble during cleaning operations, you receive error alerts on your app. Some advanced models also feature self-emptying functionality so that you need not get your hands dirty.

Some robot vacuums feature a mop function, while some have a webcam so that you can watch the cleaning activities remotely from your office. Thus, robot vacuums save you a lot of time and effort in cleaning your house.

Clean Hard-to-Reach Places

Robot vacuums are ideally suited for cleaning hard-to-reach places due to their low profile. These bots easily reach tricky areas as compared to the standard vacuum cleaner.

Thus, robot vacuums enable you to thoroughly clean areas like under the bed, sofa, bottom of the furniture, and other little nooks and crannies of the house.

Equipped With Smart Features Like Time Scheduling, App Control, and Many More

Robot vacuums are smart appliances that come with an impressive range of smart features for ensuring effortless, convenient, and exceptional cleaning.

Some advanced models can be controlled via a smartphone app so that you can clean your robot vacuum remotely from your office and program your cleaning times.

Moreover, you can track the cleaning progress, view a virtual map, create virtual walls, and set up cleaning zones through the smartphone app. In addition, this app allows you to browse the cleaning history of your robot vacuum.

The smart features of the robot vac enable you to divide your house into separate cleaning sections and bar your vac from entering into some areas. You can not only schedule your vacuums but also set your robot vac to silent or strong mode.

Works Great for Individuals With Injuries and Disabilities

The automated functionality of the robot vacuums works great for individuals with injuries and disabilities. If you find any difficulty to use a traditional vacuum cleaner or handheld vacuuming aggravates your hand and neck injuries, go for a robot vacuum.

Keeps Pet Hair Under Control

Robot vacuums are very effective in keeping pet hair under control. However, not every bot is designed to handle a hairball; therefore, carefully choose your robot vacuum. A robot vacuum comes very handy in cleaning your floors and collecting pet hair.

Cons

Robot Vacuums Don’t Clean Better Than Your Traditional Vacuum Cleaners

With its automated cleaning mechanism, the robot vacuum cleans like your standard vacuum cleaner. But it doesn’t give better results than a traditional vacuum.

It does not remove 100% debris and dust from your home. However, you can schedule your robot vacuum more often for more rigorous cleaning.

Also, robot vacuums give excellent cleaning results on hard floors, but they struggle with cleaning on carpeted floors. The robot vacuums possess small motors compared to standard vacuums, and hence they don’t pick up much pet hair or do deep carpet cleaning.

Robot Vacuums Get Stuck Frequently

Although the robot vac is equipped with smart sensors, it may get stuck during cleaning under thick rugs, furniture, or door thresholds. Moreover, it may get tangled with loose cords, shoelaces, phone charger cables, etc. It eats up lizards and results in choking hazards.

Thus, you may expect your robot vac to stop cleaning in their tracks and send you alerts to detangle them. This means that you can’t leave them running and go outside. It requires you to do a thorough floor check before starting cleaning.

Robot Vacuums are Harder to Fix

Robot vacuums are sophisticated and complex appliances equipped with sensors, AI, and app integration. Thus, they need careful maintenance regularly. In case a robot vacuum gets out of order, it gets harder to fix by yourself.

There is more likelihood of a breakdown as compared to a normal vacuum. This is because their complex design makes them more prone to go rogue and stop working altogether. Moreover, you may also need to resolve their battery and charging issues.

Robot Vacuums are Expensive

With all its automation and futuristic functionality, a robotic vacuum is costly compared to a traditional vacuum. Thus, you need to shelve out large sums of money for enjoying hands-free housekeeping.

Are robot vacuums worth it? Before jumping the bot bandwagon, consider various factors such as your budget, size and layout of the home, pros and cons of robot vacuums, and convenience of cleaning operations.

Preksha
 

Preksha is passionate about writing articles that will inspire readers to make better choices. You will find her eating desserts for lunch, dinner and any time of the day. Also, she is the chief playlist engineer for any road trip.

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