Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Well after a few weeks with Robert the Roomba, we've gotten to know him and his quirks. It really is like training a new pet - lots of work at first, and then you'll still have accidents and ongoing training forever. Plus there are some bugs in the system to be worked on iRobot's side. I'll summarize our findings: -Make sure to give him wide open clearance space in front. We started with him in a 4' wide hallway that our Eufy had no problem with, but Robert couldn't find his way around. - For some reason, Robert won't save a map after he runs. This means that if you start a new job, it's like he's learning your house from scratch again. If you want him to be smart, you have to set him out on a "Smart Map" run, which is just like a normal run except with no suctioning. There, he'll go around your house like a blind idiot bumping into things and eventually come out with a cool map that you can divide up into rooms and he'll follow from then on. But why this requires a separate run and can't be saved after a regular run I don't know. - Speaking of the Smart Map run, this may take you 3-4 (or 8) times before you get it. Because he wanders around like a more basic, unintelligent robovac during the smart run, it means he misses a lot, gets stuck a lot, and generally causes you frustration. Each smart run will return a map of what he covered, and if you're like us, he'll often miss entire rooms or sections of the house. We had to run it several times before he came back with an adequate coverage map. And I say adequate because it only loosely resembles our actual floor plan, but it's close enough. Oh, and make sure to pick up everything off your floor - slippers and cat toys will screw him up. - Once you get a map you're happy with though, the app is pretty neat in how it lets you draw rooms. He'll suggest rooms for you too, but those didn't make any sense. It's a little quirky drawing lines in the app to section off your house (e.g. sometimes lines go all the way across your house, sometimes they'll stop at a room), but the experience is cool and rewarding. - Once you have your smart map drawn, then the cool part happens: you can create a bunch of different schedules to vacuum different parts of your house. For example, our entryway gets vacuumed every day because of foot traffic, but the bedrooms only need 3 times a week. This feature alone is a HUGE benefit and way cooler than our previous Eufy 11s Robovac. Almost worth the cost of the device itself. - Once you have your map, the vacuum experience is pretty good. He'll follow your map but still bump into a lot of stuff (I assume the "edges" of the objects he mapped are pretty fuzzy). It is cool to see him go down a straight line, bump into the wall, and turn around down another straight line. Gives you a feeling of pride that you trained him well. The suction power is good too - picks up all the litter my 4 cats leave scattered around - better than the Eufy. And it's neat to watch him stop in the middle of job, go to the bathroom (or go for a battery charge) and then come right back where he left off. - Keep in mind this is all relative. He still moves like a half-blind old dog. Bumps into things. Stops and stands still for 30 seconds at a time like he's lost. Spins around in circles going nowhere. He gets stuck on weird things - will chirp at me that he's stuck on a cliff when he can't find his way off of a thick rug. Bumps into or rolls over everything you left on the floor. But like an old dog, he mostly knows his way around and can make it back to his bed and take a dump by himself. - Speaking of... you've heard other reviewers say he's pretty loud when he goes to the toilet. But you don't understand. When I say loud, I mean LOUD. Like a jet engine in your house going off for 20 seconds. And sometimes one flush isn't enough. I'll regularly hear 3 jet engines taking off in a row. During his normal vacuum run he's not exactly quiet either - much louder than my Eufy and too loud to hold a conversation near. Like a normal upright vacuum. - The app is really nice to use. Friendly, designed well, drawing maps and scheduling jobs is easy. Get lots of notifications on Robert's status (successful job, stuck, problems with the toilet, etc) which is neat. Robert likes to talk. Probably the highlight of the product. I also really like that you can specify if you want him to cover a room twice instead of once, for when you're extra dirty. All that said, there are still bugs: - Since day 1, Robert tells me that the dust bag is full nearly every day. Which is a lie. Robert is a liar. Not only is that impossible after one day, but it forces me to go check the bag and I can visually see it's still mostly empty. Usually this just means taking the bag out and putting it right back in, which thankfully is easy, but required because he won't clear that error until you do. - I've also gotten a few complaints that the pipes are clogged. I know Robert takes big dumps, but this is a lie too. Unclogging involves getting out a screw driver and taking the base apart. Three times I've done this and each time there was absolutely nothing in the pipes. I don't know what that's about. Overall: I think this is a very nice upgrade over the Eufy 11s. We genuinely feel like we don't need to vacuum as much, which we didn't always feel with the Eufy. Works greats on litter and cat hair on bare floors - carpets are iffy. Robert can be a pain sometimes but at least he makes the experience fun, just like an old pet. The promise of a hands-off experience though doesn't get met - I have to help Robert along almost daily. DEFINITELY not worth $500-600, but if you can get it on a black Friday-like sale, then go for it.