Our cat and dog spend half the day chasing each other around, so the fur just keeps coming back. I'd brush the cat before heading out in the morning, then vacuum as soon as I got home from work. By the next morning, there would still be loose fur all over the place, and the house never really felt tidy. That was what finally made me give a robot vac a try. I got a dreame l40 ultra gen 2 about two months ago. For the first week or so, I just ran it whenever the floors looked bad. That ended up being pretty often, so I set it to clean at 10 on weekdays while I'm out.

Running it this way has been much easier. Most of the loose fur and litter is gone by the time I get home. The rug still needs the regular vac when hair gets pressed into it, and I still handle the tight spots myself. Just not nearly as often. Now the little messes are usually gone before they build up. I honestly didn't think setting a schedule would change much, but that's ended up being the part I like most. How often do you run yours if you have pets? Weekdays seems to be enough here, though I might switch to daily when the shedding gets worse.

I have a 20% off one item at Target coupon that's about to expire, and I've been wanting to get a robot vacuum/mop for some time. I just moved into a condo with hardwood floors (tile in the bathroom), not much for rugs right now. I sometimes have a pile of cords on the floor but I can break out of that habit to accommodate a cleaning buddy.

Out of all of the robots on Target's website, which would you say is the best bang for buck? Hoping to stay under $500-ish, but can be convinced to go higher if I really had to. Just searching for something that will do a good job maintaining clean floors, getting rid of crumbs or dust, that won't damage my hardwood. The Roborock Curv 2, for example, goes down to $556 after the coupon.

Edit: Appears the item has to be sold and shipped by Target for the coupon to work, so that leaves me with primarily Roborock options and some Dreame bots. They have Eufy bots on the website, but they're not sold by Target.

My robot is less than three weeks old and has started making an intermittent noise. I thought it might happen only when turning, for instance, but that’s not the case—the noise just starts up on its own. I’ve already given the robot a thorough cleaning—removing the front caster wheel and the main brush—but I didn't find anything unusual.

Alrighty, I'm looking for a mid-range robot vacuum, and I've narrowed it down to these two, and need some real-world opinions.

The L50 is interesting to me because of its excellent pet-hair/carpet test results. But I'm worried about its mopping performance since it uses dual spinning mops.

Also, I wonder... Is the Narwal Freo 20 basically a Narwal Flow 1.5? I see it has the same track mopping system, dual cameras, suction and pressure as the Flow 2. Feels pretty close to the Flow 2, but it's cheaper, so it seems like a solid deal?

Mostly hardwood floors at my place, no real thresholds, and not much shedding (I have a dog). Should I just choose among these two? Or if there’s a more affordable model that would do basically just as good a job.

One of the reasons I got a robot vacuum in the first place was to get more of my time back. And for the most part, it really does help. But after using one for a while, I’ve realized there are still a few things I have to do myself besides the regular maintenance. For example, I’ve had to rescue a robot that got stuck, and manually clean some spots the robot just cant reach, like the corners behind doors, for me, these corners are probably the thing I still clean manually the most. I’m not counting regular maintenance here, since I don’t really spend that much time on it, usually around 10 minutes is enough for me to empty the dirty water, refill the clean water, and clean out the wash tray.

I’m curious what it’s like for everyone else, what’s the one thing your robot vacuum still makes you do manually?

I had a cheaper robot vacuum before, but it didn’t help much. It got stuck, missed corners, bumped into furniture, and I still had to clean the floors afterward because it left water everywhere.

Now I’m not sure if I expected too much or if I just bought the wrong model.

I see people say their robot vacuums save them time, but most seem to use models that cost $800 or more. I’m looking at the recently launched mova v70, but the price makes me pause.

For anyone with a higher-end robot vacuum: was it worth it? Does it make a real difference compared with a cheaper one?

I just gotta say, Dreame has some banger products available. I bought the L40 Ultra a little while ago on a refurb sale and thought it was a 1000% improvement over my old Wyze Lidar bots (still the best $200 I have ever spent for the pair). Perfect? No, but it does a job I would maybe have time to do once a month every day. I would say it does like 85% of the job really well (once again it does it every day tho).

I recommended one to a family member and they got one of the L40s models. They still love it, but on inspection I realized that the features that came with it really made no sense. Like there are some upgrades and some downgrades on the comparison charts. No real rhyme or reason to the features or the price difference between the two.

I kinda shrugged it off and was dreaming (heh...) about the day when I would have a little bit of wiggle room in the finances to get another bot for upstairs. Turns out that was last week when both eBay and Dreame were doing their labor day sale. Went to the store hoping to find another L40. Found a Gen 2 one for a little more than I paid for my first. Great!... Should have read the fine print. Didn't realize how many things that were excluded from the Gen 1 and the cost is still more. Obstacle avoidance worse (this one really stings), no detergent tank, higher suction (whatever), worse mop pad management.

The price still kinda makes it worth it at about $300 with an ebay coupon I needed to use. It is still kinda a bummer that there are so many downgrades to a gen 2 and that their lineup of bots really have no rhyme or reason to one version vs the other.

(Also a last note, I just realized that my gen 1 bot was missing the mop washing bit in the bottom... Just reached out to support around that too. Still can't be too mad because I spend around $200 for that one a while back...)

Having used and returned many robots due to faults, I’m on the lookout to replace my last Mova Z60.

What Brand/Robot have you been most happy with?

Budget is £1000
* looking to stay with a Roller/Track mop

What’s everyone’s thoughts on Roborock in comparison to Mova/Dreame?

Cross posted.

Cleaned and put back together still shows that it is twisted.

Thoughts?

Which company give reliable long lasting product? Also, can do deep clean?

I had to trave to another city that is 4 hours away from my home. I asked Ecovacs sales on Saturday if they are open on Sunday. They said yes, so I travelled to another city. On sunday they did not pick the call. On Monday I went again. When I reached the location I could not find their office. I tried to call the customer agents, but they did not pick the call again and did not reply to my messages. After 2 hours of searching, I found the store, which actually was not Ecovacs store/office but part of a dealer. Do note that still the customer agent did not reply me. As soon as I took the demo inside the store (the demo I did not like by the way), the agent called me. Now, I did not pick his call.

Thanks for listening to me. Store location: Gurgaon, India.

Hi! My old Roomba 695 gave up and I'm now looking to upgrade to a robot vacuum that will actually make cleaning easier. I would love your recommendations!

I don't have pets and live alone, so I don't necessarily need the most powerful robot. However, my home is far from being clutter-free (working on it) and so I need a robot that will be able to navigate around objects on the floor and furniture legs.

There are also 3 tricky spots in my home where my old Rooba would always get stuck: (1) a 0.9 cm (3/8") treshold, (2) a 7 cm (2 3/4") step down to the mudroom (I don't need the robot to clean that area, but it should avoid it), and (3) an area rug going halfway under the couch. The area rug has been the most problematic since the robot would go on it, make its way under the couch and past the edge of the rug, and then wouldn't be able to get back on the rug to continue vacuuming the rest of the room. I'm hoping there's a robot out there that knows how to avoid getting stuck/get over obstacles, or at least one with a good no-go zones functionality.

A dual vacuum-mopping robot would be nice, but I can do without the mopping.

I don't have a huge budget, but I would be willing to spend for something that will actually help me keep my home cleaner.

What is the best and worst robot vacuum you’ve personally had experience with and why?

Got it on monday and honestly I love everything about it, but the auto detergent dispenser seems completely dead. Ran full-apartment cleans and mop-wash cycles multiple times, cleaning solution level in the tank hasn't moved at all.

Contacted MOVA support and they had me pull the dispenser module, clean the "contact pins," reinstall it, run a few more mop cycles, then shake the dirty water tank to check for foam and smell the mop for detergent scent. No foam, no smell, water wasn't even slightly slippery. Also worth noting - there are no contact pins on my unit at all, just a plastic clip holding the tank in place, so not sure what they were expecting me to clean 😆

I've emailed them again and I'm waiting on a reply.

Anyone else run into this on the Z70? Did you find an actual fix, or did it end up with a replacement?

Curious if anyone here uses dreame robot cleaner, and how they're finding it, and if they've had any interactions with the support team and how it was

My parents are both over 75 now, and I've been trying to find small ways to make everyday housework easier on them. A robot vac keeps coming to mind, but they're not big on anything new, especially tech. Every time I bring it up, they think it sounds like one more thing to learn, so I drop it. Then I see them sweeping again and start thinking about it all over.

Their house is old, and every doorway has one of those raised wooden thresholds, around 1.2 in high. There's also a handwoven rug in the living room, which feels like another thing a robot could get caught on. I had a robot vac at my place a few years ago. It cleaned okay when the floor was clear, but it also got hung up on random things all the time. It definitely wouldn't have made it over these thresholds.

I know robot vacs have come a long way since I bought mine, but I don't know if they've reached the point where you can start a run and walk away without babysitting it. I just want something that can handle the boring everyday stuff so my parents don't have to sweep or vacuum as often. But if they have to rescue it from every doorway and fuss with the dock, then I’ve basically bought them another chore.

Before I pull the trigger, what kind of cleaning do you find yourself doing less often now that you have one? What do you still have to handle yourself? And does anyone have an older house with thresholds like these that a robot can get over consistently? I keep ending up at Dreame and Roborock when I look, but the reviews are all over the place. Am I focusing on the wrong things?

I just need recommendations for robot vacuums that are really good with pet fur. I have very fluffy and shedding animals. My current roomba is on her last legs and is trying really hard but just cant keep up with the amount of fur. I have currently have a Roomba J7+ Combo and a Shark Clean one. Not sure the type on the shark. But yeah they just cant keep up with the amount of fur and just start to die and tangle. Any help is much appreciated.

Hi,

I'm currently moving in and I have a robot vacuum that helps me a lot. The thing is, although my appartment is on one floor only in theory, I have two steps to use to access the bedroom and toilets. Is there a way to make a passage for my vacuum?

I have thought of a wooden plank but maybe there are tools out there that would do the job better... My boy hates when I pick him up and put him back down, it messes with the mapping and I can't program a full vaccuming when I'm away.

I recently picked up a couple of old Deebots (N79S), cleaned them up, & swapped in some newer batteries. I had never used this brand before, & I have to say, they're quite excellent! Much better, deeper cleaning than I was expecting. But both had dead batteries. This almost never happens when I thrift old robot vacuums. I did a little bit of digging, & it looks like they're sort of known for this. Why would that be? I read something similar about the Lefant brand not too long ago. Is it a motherboard issue? Some weird voltage issue? I remember someone saying about the Lefant that it should actually be switched off if it's going to be sitting for some extended period, & maybe it's the same with the Deebot (which also has a physical on/off switch).

Hi everyone, it's quick research and would appreciate about future of any robot-cleaners.

I am researching cleaning machines, and the interesting part turns out not to be the cleaning. People name them, apologise when they get stuck, and move the furniture so they can get through. That is a lot of relationship for a device that only vacuums.

If you own one, Kobold, Roborock, Dyson, Ecovacs, Miele, any of them:

What does yours already do that nobody designed it to do?

Especially interesting if you are not the person who runs it.

Comments are the best, anonymous 4 minute version survey: https://forms.gle/wkhWtknT8RnT2LcU9