What simultaneously sucks and doesn't? This new robot vacuum cleaner If you've ever bought a phone charger or cable from Amazon, there's a decent chance it came from Anker, a fast-growing Chinese consumer electronics firm whose products regularly occupy the top-selling spots in their respective categories. Over the past few years, Anker has diversified into other categories, including household …
Given that battery energy is precious the bots are nowhere near as loud as mains powered vacuums. It is much more important how sensitive you are to noise. If you are not in the same room or even have a door to close between you and the bot, you should be fine with all models I have heard so far (admittedly just a handful).
designed to be as noisy as possible
We had one of those at work. (A normal mains one.) It had "1400W" emblazoned across it; I reckoned that worked out at about 1300W of noise and 100W of suction. It couldn't compete with my Miele one from home set to minimum power (300W).
I once quipped that, were it anything other than a vacuum cleaner, I'd say it sucked, but the problem was, it didn't.
I just program mine with a daily schedule. It wakes up and does its thing every day when I'm at work. No WiFi needed. I honestly don't understand the benefit of having these things connected to the internet.
Does the Anker bot require a Wifi or internet connection to work? If so, that's a dealbreaker.
I do that too, but get in to find mine stuck on the back door mat. It can happily drive itself onto the door mat but then it deems the drop back down to the ground too high to attempt coming down again. Eventually it gives up on finding a way down and goes to sleep. On the plus side the door mat is always wonderfully clean.
I have an Eufy vacuum robot and they aren't bad - flimsier build than a roomba, but do basically the same thing. The remote on mine has controls to configure timings, a spot clean button, an edge clean button, and a return to home button. I rarely use the remote though. Can't imagine I'd use WiFi or voice either.
I've had mine since the start of the year, and it's still going daily. My Roomba started to jam up after this length of time and I had to clean out and regrease the gearbox every month or so, but the Eufy costs half of what a similar Roomba does and it does keep things fairly clean.
The site acknowledging that you are signed in (oh look there's my username at the top & I can access my account) but then it demanding I sign in to read the comments because it suddenly thinks I'm not actually logged in yet. Either I am (points to my name at the top of the page) or I'm not (points to the log in demand a bit lower on the same page) but not both. That sucks dingo bollocks like a microsoft CEO.
"
Either I am (points to my name at the top of the page) or I'm not (points to the log in demand a bit lower on the same page) but not both.
"
Of course it can be both. The site is hosted on a quantum computer. Your logged-in status exists in a state of superposition.
Just basic facts and specifications (pascals? who knew), no javascript required, no annoying popups or popunders and no targeting specific to an individual other than a tech related website.
In fact, annoying ads that try and grab my attention away from what I was doing are put on my "do-not-purchase" list.
Take note Google and Facebook!
My Roomba broke down in around the same amount of time (although it was an easy repair). The problem compared to traditional vacuum cleaners is that these things just about roll around in the dust, and they run for a long time. It does mean they tend to jam up with dust relatively quickly once the seals start to wear out. Still worth it if you can find a good offer though.
I've been using Roombas for a long time now, and have two comments about their reliability.
First, the more recent models are MUCH more reliable than earlier ones. The older ones tended to suck hair into the gearbox and around the spindles, which cause tons of problems. This has largely (but not completely) been fixed.
Second, I've found that Roombas are very, very reliable as long as they are kept clean. When I had pets, that meant cleaning them every day -- not just emptying the collection bucket, but using tweezers to remove any debris from the gearboxes, spindle, and sockets. I don't have pet now, and have found that I only need to engage in that level of cleaning once per week.
The cleaning is a little hassle, but fairly minor. It takes me about 5-10 minutes.
Quote "The cleaning is a little hassle, but fairly minor. It takes me about 5-10 minutes"
So if you had to clean it daily when you had pets that's about an hour a week.
More time than it takes me to do my 3 bedroom, 1 cat house the old-fashioned way!
The cats would batter it remorselessly until it was trashed (they are skilled at pushing stuff down stairs (even surprisingly heavy objects) - and despite their aloof reputation will even work as a team. Thus our floors are very tidy as nothing cat pushable around - just heavy furniture. We also have a cat who loves being vacuumed (long haired cat and gets a lot of the deep seated skin dust out of its fur) and I reckon it would find a way to upend a robovac and sit on it for a grooming session.
Auto hoovers give me cause for concern, a meat based operative has the faculty to determine whether an object is to be sucked up or not. That all important missing pc screw or ear ring is cause to turn off suction mode temporarily to retrieve the errant item.
I'm fearful that although these are keenly priced, they could lead to the cats disappearance with that much suction.
How about minutes per square metre per 1-persian-cat-week per carpet fluffiness factor? If a miele can clean up all the fluff and dust from a 5m x 5m room which has two persian cats living in it, with a reasonably fluffy carpet in 20 minutes, then it sucks 100% more than a dyson that can do the same with 1 persian cat living in it that takes the same amount of time to hoover.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
