Please recommend a robot vacuum for my Mum

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Please recommend a robot vacuum for my Mum

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timmmay

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#2620840 13-Dec-2020 10:50

I'll have a look at the Deetbot thanks. A bit more control may be good, some of the cheap Chinese brands have good hardware and really terrible, buggy software. Suspect the xiaomi is the budget model and good enough for most things that most people want. I read it does rooms but not sure how well, if you can select individual rooms to clean.

Does the xiaomi get under tables and go between chair legs?

timmmay

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#2620856 13-Dec-2020 12:00

@robjg63 any comments on how well the 1C does virtual rooms? Can you tell it to clean just one room easily? Can you easily schedule cleaning specific rooms on specific days, or is it just "clean the whole house?".

robjg63

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#2620862 13-Dec-2020 12:13

timmmay:

@robjg63 any comments on how well the 1C does virtual rooms? Can you tell it to clean just one room easily? Can you easily schedule cleaning specific rooms on specific days, or is it just "clean the whole house?".

Not too sure about the virtual rooms. I saw that the software introduced it and then withdrew it because of some bugs. I can see a 'Manage Rooms' in the app - but the app is a 'Xiaomi Home' app that other products also use - lights, automation etc - so wouldnt swear that part is for the vacuum.

It does build a good map in the app and you can just mark an area on that map for a one-off cleanup if you want - that works ok.

It supports a cleaning schedule if you want to set that up. I saw somewhere it needs light to be able to work though. This model does not have LIDAR - just cameras and sensors. Lidar works in complete darkness (also consumes a lot of battery I gather), which explains why this model doesnt have a huge battery but has a pretty good cleaning time anyway.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

timmmay

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#2620864 13-Dec-2020 12:33

Great thanks Rob. I don't think it's important to us or to my Mum to make it really easy to schedule precise cleaning of individual rooms, and sounds like it's currently ok and likely to improve over time. We can just close doors anyway. I think the $400 one should do the job :)

timmmay

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#2621028 13-Dec-2020 20:27

Xiaomi Mi Smart Robot 1C purchased by us and my Mum. Thanks all for your advice, especially robjg63 with the helpful review :)

Delphinus

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#2628383 31-Dec-2020 10:23

I also picked up the Xiaomi 1C a couple of weeks ago after reading this thread. Thanks for all the comments and feedback.

Really love it, and would recommend. I have mainly wooden floors with some carpet. Room mapping works well, and being able to clean a certain area is great. Mopping function - I'm not sure how much it actually cleans OFF the floors, but I guess it'll help future dust/grime settling? Great that it does areas systematically (rather than just randomly like a friends old Roomba does).

Love having the floors cleaned daily (because I definitely wasn't doing a manual vacuum every day previously!).

Mi store (which appears to be just a brand of PBTech - a payment error which wasn't an error told me to contact PBTech) shipped very promptly. Their special is over but PBTech special now have it for around the same price ($399)

timmmay

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#2628395 31-Dec-2020 10:50

We're happy with ours as well. The suction obviously nowhere near as much as a large vacuum, but it picks up most of the debris that our 4 year old creates on the top of the carpet well. It's fairly stupid, and often has trouble finding its way back to the charging base, but hopefully it improves with time.

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linw

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#2628593 31-Dec-2020 15:26

Odd that ot has trouble finding its base. Ours always finds its base. Could it be a wifi issue???

timmmay

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#2628598 31-Dec-2020 15:57

I think the problem was it was repositioned due to tangling for the early cleans, later it seems better once its map improved.

linw

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#2628830 1-Jan-2021 09:16

Yep, you do have to do a pre-vac routine where you pick up tasselled mats and block paths to elec cables etc!! But a little effort there is still a lot better than doing a manual vac.

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