Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsMy husband was right! This thing is AWESOME!
Reviewed in the United States on August 7, 2018
I have always been against the idea of a robot vacuum, laughing it off as some stupid gadget for bored rich people. Surely, a little disc of a machine would be no match for my two boys, who essentially manufacture crumbs, and my giant dog, who sheds enough fur to produce another large dog every other day. No, no, I’ll stick with my heavy duty Dyson, thank you. I need a real vacuum, not a toy. My husband tried to convince me otherwise on multiple occasions. He hated walking through the house in black socks, only to wind up with white fur “boots” by the time he reached his destination. Or walking barefoot and feeling the disgusting shards of last night’s dinner crumbling beneath his feet. As two full-time workers and parents, he understood that a human vacuuming every day was not in the realm of possibility and was convinced that a robot would solve our problems.
On Prime Day, I saw this vacuum as one of the deals, read the reviews, and thought, “WTH, why not?” I’d give it to my husband as a surprise so that he could finally see that it wouldn’t work and would quit bringing it up. He was happier than I have ever seen him. He described it as the “best gift ever,” even going so far as to say, “Remember that time you got me the collapsible picnic table? This totally makes up for it.” Umm, that picnic table was an awesome gift that we use all the time, but whatever, another story for a different day. He immediately set it up, got it charged, and tested it out.
Initially, its pattern seems rather erratic and inefficient, taking one random pass here and then rolling over to the other side of the house. But it somehow remembered where it had been and never took the same path twice. The floor ended up clean, but it took several hours. Over the last several weeks of using it, it has grown “smarter” and faster, much to my surprise. The only downside is that it doesn’t do carpets, but I knew that going in and it certainly tries if you accidently leave a door open.
We run it every other day, usually after our boys go to bed around 8:00pm and by 10:00 the floor is clean. Here were my concerns and how they have been addressed:
It will be too loud. It is quiet enough that we don’t have to worry about waking the boys up, much quieter than my beloved Dyson.
It will scare the dog. The dog does not even remotely care about the robot, even though he is rather skittish around the Dyson. The robot vacuum, who I now lovingly refer to as Geoffrey, regularly vacuums underneath the dog as he stands, or even uses his sensors to vacuum the floor around him as he sleeps. It’s astounding.
It will never be able to handle the amount of mess we produce. I don’t know how this is possible, but it does. We empty it right before we run it, which is very easy to do and it collects an amazing amount of fur and debris without any issues.
It will knick up the walls and furniture, or knock things over. It is so completely gentle, it does not do any damage at all. It also does not knock over the dog’s water dish, which was a related concern.
It will not get everything. Yes, it really does. It covers every single square inch of the downstairs and touches places I haven’t cleaned since we moved in.
It will suck up a toy or curtains that touch the floor. Again, those sensors are amazing, it does not suck up anything it isn’t supposed to, but somehow still collects stray cheerios, bits of grass and dog food.
It will get lost. Nope. it always finds the way back to its home.
It will run out of charge before finishing the job. It can go for a solid 3 hours at least without a charge. We have a large downstairs, it takes about two hours and it doesn’t ever lose steam.
It will turn against us and destroy us in our sleep. I’m relieved to say that, so far, this has not happened. Geoffrey seems to be really happy with us, and I believe he would do his best to resist a robot uprising.
And so, I stand corrected. My husband was right. We definitely needed one of these. Our floors are so clean, it looks like we actually have our sh*t together. Our floors are so clean, my mother-in-law can pop over unexpectedly any time she wants. Okay, well, let’s not get crazy, but seriously, Geoffrey is the best. I want to get a whole team of robots now.
