Replacing The Normal Vacuum With A Robot Vacuum

Can A Robot Vacuum Replace A Normal Vacuum Cleaner?

A Robot Vacuum Cleaner is not going to replace your normal vacuum anytime soon.

It still has flaws and it just can get to all places as effectively, but it’s getting closer and closer and you’ll use your normal vacuum much less when you own a robot vacuum.

Living with a robot vacuum cleaner has literally changed me and my partners’ life.

I cannot complain that I have a busy day or a 60 hour work week with no time to clean.

But still, this robot vacuum that we’ve got has just made everything so much more comfortable in our apartment.

We just know that in general, the floor will be clean so this isn’t something we even think about when inviting people to our apartment or house.

When we get home from work, it’s just clean. If we spill little crumbs on the floor the next day, it’s just clean.

If we have a dog or a cat or a kid visiting the next day, it’s just clean.

And when the robot needs to be emptied we just get notified on our phones and we spend 30 seconds emptying the tray, and it’s just clean.

So a robot vacuum can really help out in many scenarios and if dirt is one of your or your partner’s stress factors, a robot vacuum will be a solid choice, even if it is just to keep the kitchen clean or the hallway clean, it can be a great help.

Our robot vacuum cleaner is cleaning the floor of the kitchen once a day because that is the place which collects the most dirt from making food and stuff.

The other rooms just clean once or twice a week. I’m actually thinking that this is saving some on the electricity bill as well, because beforehand we’ll start our large 1500 watts vacuum cleaner, just to collect some small crums, we could do this multiple times a day. So maybe even a greener solution?

Who Are Robot Vacuums For?

I think they are for everyone, but that is also a cop-out answer to give. I think everyone would appreciate a robot vacuum cleaner, but there are certain groups of people that’ll benefit more from robot vacuum than others.

For an elderly or a person with a disability for whom everyday cleaning is just harder maybe even impossible, a robot vacuum cleaner will be priceless.

All deserve a clean home and it’ll certainly make this group of people a lot happier.

Much like a robot lawnmower, it’s the same concept, when my granddad couldn’t walk and cut the grass anymore we got him a robot lawnmower to help him out, now he just takes the edges.

A robot vacuum cleaner is also a great idea for a family with kids and/or pets.

Nowadays both mom and dad in most cases need to work, this leaves little to no time at all on the weekdays to actually do some cleaning.

Meanwhile, kids and pets will drag in dirt from all around and just leave a huge pile of mess every day.

A robot vacuum will diminish the time needed for cleaning the house because it takes the dirt as it comes in every day.

It’s good for lazy people as well. Yes, I am one of those lazy people. Getting a robot vacuum has actually let me exercise more on the weekdays.

Not because I spend a whole lot of time vacuuming anyway, but because it relieves stress to have a clean home and you feel nicer, and that way I get more motivated to actually do something more productive.

How much can a Robot Vacuum Clean?

Can a robot vacuum clean everything and everywhere a regular vacuum can clean?

The answer is pretty much yes, except for stairs maybe. It can “just about” cover everything a normal vacuum cleaner can do.

This includes carpets, wooden floors, tiles and it can even take pet hair and long human hair pretty easily.

It’ll even clean places that you won’t get to as often, such as under the sofa or bed and it won’t ignore places that are harder to get to, it’ll just go everywhere it fits.

I actually have a place behind an electrical cabinet where I cannot reach myself and the robot only just fits within a centimeter, but it goes in there and backs out with ease.

I don’t know why I was surprised to see it, it seems pretty logical for it to go in there, but that is one of the nice things.

So this almost sounds too good to be true right?

Well, it ain’t. I’ve only told you about the upsides, there are downsides as well, as the suction power.

The suction power of a robot vacuum cleaner comes nowhere close to a good manual vacuum cleaner.

So if you suddenly need to clean a spot where there is a lot of dirt, it won’t take that easily. It won’t take corners 100% either, though most robot vacuums are getting better at corners it’s still not a 100%.

A robot vacuum will not take stairs either so that you’ll have to do it manually also.

The robot vacuum itself also needs to be cleaned once in a while, so you’ll end up spending some time cleaning the robot that cleans your floor.

I think I spend about 10-20 minutes a week cleaning the parts, this includes getting out the hairs, cleaning it 100% of dust, and making sure there is no dirt in the wheels.

I also make sure the wheels are properly lubricated in oil, the last thing I want is for a wheel to get stuck and scratch the wooden floor by dragging a wheel.

If you have an older model you could get stuck with a really hard-to-get filter.

All robot vacuums need filters in their dirt container and these filters were not standardized some years back, and not all sellers actually had the filters and only sold the robot vacuums.

This meant that you almost always had to find the right place on the internet to buy them.

If you have a newer model, I’d say 2018 and forward you’ll now run into this issue at all anymore if you choose to buy from one of the main brands like iRobot, Roborock, or Neato for example.

A lot of robot vacuums have bumpers which enable it to detect if it bumps into things and then reacts accordingly.

But sometimes these bumps get really hard and can actually knock stuff over or maybe even scratch stuff.

My own Neato D4 even has a safety option where it’ll try to be more cautious when hitting stuff. But frankly, this has never been an issue to me, my robot is just set to default and has never knocked things over or made a scratch.

People tend to say that these robots are expensive.

And I do agree to some extend. I would never buy a Roomba i7 or something even pricier.

Because beyond a point it just really isn’t worth it. And on the other hand, it’s not worth it to buy the cheapest models either, you’ll have to find a middle ground and choose whether it’s an affordable and a good choice for you.

I spend 320 dollars on my robot vacuum, and I even got it on a sale. I think this was a perfect fit for my needs and what I thought was affordable.

If you think that 2-300 dollars seem like too much, I don’t think it’ll be a wise choice for you to even consider it yet.

And if you don’t mind spending a thousand bucks or more, I hope you know that you aren’t getting any huge advantages in spending 500+ dollars more than you need to.

That is my honest opinion, but frankly, you should decide for yourself.

If you are in a situation where you absolutely need a robot vacuum, the price isn’t really that relevant, it’ll just come down to what you need the vacuum to do for you.

What should you get if you are new to robot vacuums?

If you haven’t tried it out yet and don’t know if it’ll be of any help to you. I think you should just reconsider the whole idea.

I can promise that the robot will be of help to you and will be able to clean most rooms and floors.

So it’ll just come down to, how much should the first one cost and what do you need it to do.

If you need specific rooms cleaned on a schedule I would recommend a Neato D4, it’s fairly priced with good suction power, a nice app, and very good control over the rooms in your apartment or house.

You could also easily go with a Roborock S5 Max or the newer S6, they have a longer battery life, which means they can clean larger areas and have even better suction power than a neato.

The Roborock also has a decent app with room functionality. I only chose the Neato D4 over the Roborock S6 because of the price, at the time I bought the Neato D4 it was on sale and I saved over 200 dollars on it relative to the Roborock.

If not on sale I would have gotten the Roborock S5 Max or S6.

A lot of people choose the iRobot Roomba 600 series. Frankly, I’m not sure why they think it’s better other than if you have pets.

If you have pets, definitely go for the Roomba, they have a patented rubber brush where hairs get dealt with really nice and it’s easy to clean.

If you don’t have pets, I see no reason for the Roomba series other than if you like the brand, which is also okay. One thing to note though is that the iRobot Roombas deal with the cleaning in another way.

They clean the room randomly and eventually reach everywhere, it sounds weird but it actually works.

Just know that you have to create a schedule for it, you cannot just decide to have the whole room cleaned in one take.

One huge advantage though is its dirt detection software. The Roomba can detect dirt and go straight for it and make sure it’s cleaned.

So in addition to the random cleaning, it’s definitely working.

The Neato and Roborock clean in another fashion.

The first time I turned on my Neato, it drove around the walls of my apartment and learned all the rooms, then started cleaning from one end to the other like you normally would when doing it yourself.

I think this practice fits me best because I can then tell it to only clean the kitchen, it’ll do it fast and go back to dock with no randomness involved. It has a system to it, which I appreciate.

Before you buy your new Robot Vacuum Cleaner, check out these helpful articles:

10 Useful Tips When Owning A Robot Vacuum Cleaner

How A Robot Vacuum Cleaner Works

Resources

https://patents.google.com/patent/US20060020369A1/en