She Bought a Roomba What do I Need to know?

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linw

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#3101707 9-Jul-2023 16:06

These things are god's gift! But, yea, you have to keep 'em away from cables!

I tell people ours is more intelligent than some people I know.

We wouldn't be without ours.

jonathan18

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#3101718 9-Jul-2023 17:13

Clearly you don’t have a Roidmi cleaner as I sure hope there are no humans as dumb as our cleaner… just this afternoon I’ve decided it’s time to go with a model that’s not from the Xiaomi stable (our previous cleaner was a Roborock) as it’s software is SUCH a dog and it’s just so frustrating... As per the image below, it started re-drawing the lounge as a sofa was in a slightly different place, and if left to its devices will have to re-draw the whole house but at a cross angle. It would have been ok if I could just restore an old map, but there’s no ability to do that.

So looking for recommendations for a new robot cleaner -

not too expensive - ideally below $1,500
dust collecting base (couldn’t go away from this now)
LIDAR or similar, not just basic sensors
multiple maps, and ideally the ability to copy/restore etc
ability to draw rooms, ‘no go’ zones and barriers etc
quality app and interface
ideally GH/GA controlled
no interest in mopping functionality

On first glance, this Ecovacs seems decent value, but interested to hear if anyone has this or similar models.

Thanks for any suggestions.

mdf

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#3101733 9-Jul-2023 18:29

We had an Ecovacs Deebot T8 AIVI. I had very similar complaints about map management and restoring that you're describing. But after about 13 months it crapp3d itself and support was diabolical. Eventually ended up getting a refund from the retailer but took a significant amount of back and forth too. Needless to say, I would not personally recommend. The Consumer Guarantees Act sometimes seems to be an excuse to charge more but without, you know, any kind of consumer guarantee!

We got a Mi robot vacuum from PBTech and have been much happier with it. App is better and it runs *much* quieter. Was also about 40% of the price when on sale!

EDIT: Should say the retailer I had to fight with about the CGA *wasn't* JBHifi - I've usually found them good to deal with.

gregmcc

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#3101738 9-Jul-2023 19:23

mdf:

We had an Ecovacs Deebot T8 AIVI. I had very similar complaints about map management and restoring that you're describing. But after about 13 months it crapp3d itself and support was diabolical. Eventually ended up getting a refund from the retailer but took a significant amount of back and forth too. Needless to say, I would not personally recommend. The Consumer Guarantees Act sometimes seems to be an excuse to charge more but without, you know, any kind of consumer guarantee!

We got a Mi robot vacuum from PBTech and have been much happier with it. App is better and it runs *much* quieter. Was also about 40% of the price when on sale!

EDIT: Should say the retailer I had to fight with about the CGA *wasn't* JBHifi - I've usually found them good to deal with.

I had a MI robot vac, it worked really well.....for about a month. it got stuck everywhere, refused to re-map and spent all it's time playing the bump and crash in to everything. It went back for a full refund.

Anyway, just got a roborock S7 it is fantastic, the lidar stops it from bumping in to things, obstical avoidance is great, the cat stares it down and it goes around the cat....

MikeAqua

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#3102202 10-Jul-2023 15:13

Roomba is installed and named - Mr Suckitupagus. Mapped and vacuumed the house in about 9 hours including pit stops. Did a good job of vacuuming.

Fascinating to watch it work. It infers the existence of areas it can't get into and tries repeatedly to find a way into those areas. In my case this was an outside area between two rooms. It repeatedly explored the three walls that enclosed three sides of the external space. Also I noticed that once it finds the outside wall of a room it will go back to other rooms it partially explored, to see if they extend as far in the same direction.

It only needed help once, when it sucked up a stray string hanging out the side of a rug. Also, I was impressed that it was able to drive over a 18mm x 30mm box section (part of the leg frame of a desk).

Very happy. I'm going to try the mopping function tonight.

Also: this model has cable and 'obstacle' (i.e. turd) avoidance functions.

Mike

gregmcc

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#3102206 10-Jul-2023 15:20

MikeAqua:

Roomba is installed and named - Mr Suckitupagus. Mapped and vacuumed the house in about 9 hours including pit stops. Did a good job of vacuuming.

Fascinating to watch it work. It infers the existence of areas it can't get into and tries repeatedly to find a way into those areas. In my case this was an outside area between two rooms. It repeatedly explored the three walls that enclosed three sides of the external space. Also I noticed that once it finds the outside wall of a room it will go back to other rooms it partially explored, to see if they extend as far in the same direction.

It only needed help once, when it sucked up a stray string hanging out the side of a rug. Also, I was impressed that it was able to drive over a 18mm x 30mm box section (part of the leg frame of a desk).

Very happy. I'm going to try the mopping function tonight.

Also: this model has cable and 'obstacle' (i.e. turd) avoidance functions.

I found it interesting that when ours got to the ranch slider, it mapped the area using lidar on the deck (it looked thru the glass) but then decided it couldn't get there, bit like "I know there is something on the other side but can't get there"

It done a similar thing with the small gap beside the fridge, stove, dishwasher and washing machine.

MikeAqua

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#3102212 10-Jul-2023 15:36

gregmcc:

I found it interesting that when ours got to the ranch slider, it mapped the area using lidar on the deck (it looked thru the glass) but then decided it couldn't get there, bit like "I know there is something on the other side but can't get there"

It done a similar thing with the small gap beside the fridge, stove, dishwasher and washing machine.

Ours was obsessed with the area under our bed. It couldn't get under there (too low). The bed is against up to a wall with a walk-in-wardrobe on the other side. It spent an hour in there seemingly trying to find a way into the space occupied by the bed.

Mike

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mdf

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#3102259 10-Jul-2023 15:49

MikeAqua:

<snip>

Also: this model has cable and 'obstacle' (i.e. turd) avoidance functions.

Keen to hear your plan for testing 'obstacle' avoidance 😁.

Silvrav

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#3102260 10-Jul-2023 15:50

If you have any inside animals, ensure they are house trained and can get out. Had a mate whos roomba tried to roomba up his new puppies mess.... it took the mess and smeared it all over the house

cddt

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#3102280 10-Jul-2023 15:52

I am keen to get one but think I'll wait until the kids are a bit older. Right now they are at an age where when I'm tidying up, by the time I've got to the other end of the house the room I started with has crap all over it again.

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