Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Summary: I read a LOT of reviews about a LOT of products of a similar nature before I leapt in to buy this, my first robot. Overall, this product was good SOLID value for the money. I have now owned it for for OVER a year now, used daily and this analysis is based on close observations during that period. NOT one of those folks who buy it an write a review five minutes after they pull something out of the box. Here are the key points you should consider when buying a Robot to sweep your floors. 1. Price - Look...Price was definitely a consideration at buy in. I studied many models before I bought this one. These kinds of robots overall cost money. $$$. Of course, I am old school. These days some folks buy a Cell phone that cost $500 dollars to $1000 and think nothing of it. To me that is WAY too much. Ditto many models of similar robots. At the time I bought it the robot was on sale so I got a price that was $100 cheaper than competitors whose reviews read about the same as this one did. So the buy in pricewise was a good solid deal that was in what I consider the medium to upper low cost affordability range. Perhaps you would think nothing of spending $850 on a robot. Not me. Like goldilocks, this one was just right. SECRET Costs you may not think about: Some reviews address this, but consider these things as being costs IN ADDITION to buy in: Filters: This thing has a filter. I recall one review whining that filters cost too much. Let me be clear. If you want a new HEPA filter for it every week or two, they will cost you. Me? The filter does not seem to me to very critical since I do not really plan on the robot cleaning my air. It gets dirty and dusty. As a result, I pull it every other use and wash it out under a faucet in my kitchen (a two minute job), let it dry a bit and then put it right back in the machine (Which is super easy to do...no tools or anything - just pull out - click in.) After reading one alarmist review prior to buying, I bought one spare filter at the same time I bought the robot thinking I might find it was true. So far, after a year or more of use, I STILL have not replaced the filter. Just keep using the original. Think about it. Brushes - I bought a kit with spare brushes when I bought the robot. Glad I did. Buy at least one set just to you have them around when you need them. The brushes twirl around and shove cat hair into the maw of the thing as it races around. Somewhere. Somehow, as it toodled about around the six month mark, it threw a brush. (They snap on and off easily) Like a horse throwing a shoe, this is to be expected. This thing runs all over on its own so I could not find where it lost it. To this day I STILL have not found the missing brush. No problem. I just grabbed a spare, snapped it on and it kept on going. Tools - The kit I bought early came with a little cleaning/maintenance tool. See my section on Maintenance below about tools. 2. Utility - Utility to me means ease of use. Based on a year of hard use for my robot you should consider the following lessons learned about utility: CLEANING FLOORS a. Does is really sweep ALL the floor? Read a lot of reviews and looked at a variety of designs. Some reviews that I recall said "This thing finds a LOT of dirt. Where does it get it all?" After a year of emptying it (You DO need to empty its evening sweep into your trash, usually every day - VERY easy to do - again click out- click in) I totally agree! This thing finds a TON of dirt and dust that is NOT obvious to the naked eye. Frankly, that is its job and I need to make clear here that it does its job really really well. VERY SATISFIED b. To be utter clear however... I have a three story house. To define that though that is two stories with WOODEN and some tile Floors and a third floor that is mixed wood, carpet and concrete. PRO: I cheat. One robot for three floors of my house! Every day or two I pick it up from its charger, move it from floor to floor to let it clean a different floor whenever the mood strikes me. Works great! More, this thing cleans almost all of those floors flawlessly - especially the wood, tile and concrete bits. It sneaks into lots and lots of corners, under furniture and stuff and it never, ever runs off the edge of stairs. Completely satisfied. I admit I may be so satisfied because wood, tile and concrete are 92% of my floors and it is flawless on those types of floors. CON: This is a real review, not a feel good propaganda babble. If there is a con to this robot it is carpets. Specifically, it WILL work across modern carpet. That is carpet that is tight, laid level with the rest of the floor and has nothing to hang it up on. However, it struggles to go over edges, so if there is an edge to your carpet, a strip that it has to ride up over OR (Like me) you have a carpet or two that are Persian Style rugs with tassels at the end, just be advised that it WILL choke as it tries to cross these barriers. You can still do these surfaces, but you will have to stay nearby and bail it out when/if it hangs up... which feels time wasting. This should not make you hesitate to buy based on this review UNLESS you have a lot of these carpet barrier things about your house, in which case you will be annoyed by this robot. To be fair however, you may be annoyed by ANY robot under those conditions. Just think about it before you buy. ******** Utility NOTE! This is a final note on utility. The REAL Nemesis of any robot is WIRES/Cords. Once you own one, you will figure this out pretty quick. You will need to get your cords under control since the robots will find power cords on computers, lamps etcetera and choke up on them. 80% of the time when it does not return to its charger at after you program it to clean (Smart folks program that between 1AM and 3AM - unless you tell it to go manually for some reason) you will have to track it down to find it hung up on wires. Once again, to be fair, I think this is true of virtually all robots. They are not too bright about wires. The other 20% of hang-ups comes from some oddity in your furniture. I have particular chair in my study whose side supports are JUST a bit too short for the robot to go under, so it drive in there and wedges itself into the spot and cannot get free on its own. Just to you know, this is fair enough, robot makers cannot anticipate every single possible piece of odd furniture. Just figure it out through trial and error, but enjoy all the cleaning it does WITHOUT you paying the slightest attention. A small price to pay. *********Utility NOTE 2: The control - Comes with a remote. To be frank, I only use two or three features on the control. I tested them all at the beginning, but I've forgotten what the rest do. Most used? Manual use button. Because of how I use it on other floors, the automatic run feature is only good on one floor. Works flawlessly as far as I can see. I tote it to the second floor, put it down, hit the manual timed button and off it goes. I wander back up an hour two later, hit the off button and walk it back to its charger. Second most used? The recharge button - This tells it got back to recharge station manually. If you you do not want it to keep going you can interrupt its cycle and it will go back to its recharging. Usually use this when I am watching a show, it starts on its own and I find the noise distracts me from watching. Third most used feature? The manual steering controls. One review I read said this machine is really stupid. That is half true. It does fine most of the time, but if you want to steer it manually on occasion you can. I have a table I want to make sure it does under in a certain way, so I just point and click it to drive it into the bits when I want them to be cleaned. 3. Maintenance - Look. Old soldiers will tell you. Preventative maintenance will allow you to keep using your equipment day in and day out. This robot IS reliable IF you know you will need to maintain it! If you are lazy you will hate doing maintenance. I just make it part of day's routine and do not resent it. Thus I am very satisfied. My routine is to pick it up about 5 PM, sit and work on it for three to five minutes WHILE I watch TV. WHAT? You cry! Why so much work! The work is there because the robot does its job. All you are doing is making sure it keeps doing the job without hassle. Once again, whatever nonsense if advertised, I imagine ALL robots require this kind of looking after. PLAN on it. This one I suspect is no better or worse than any other. Do not go into it blind though. Here is what you need to know: a. You will need a little tool to do maintenance. If you buy the little kit with filters, brushes and a tool in it, know this. The tool is a hokey little plastic thing that CAN work... but takes a bit more time to use. Specifically it has a comb to clear tangle in your brushes. This works well. It has a little brush to brush dust off filters, off the inside of the dust/dirt collection box, etc. This works adequately. It ALSO has a little razor blade letter opener thing on one side intended to clear hair from rotors (Two types) This is a weak tool that works, but is time consuming and tedious to use. You are better off getting a little tool with steel blade or hook on it. Something you can use to really dig hair out of spots where it winds itself around a brush or rotor. Dig through your kitchen drawers, tool boxes or the $2.00 bins a the hardware store until you find something that works better for you. Maintenance: Enemy number one if long hairs. I have two women in the house. I am sure they do not mean to shed, but shed it they do somehow. This is what happens. As the little brushes turn they pick up hair and push some of it into the bin...BUT they also wind around and around the spinning brushes. Every other cleaning I find a wad of it around both brushes. There is also a rotor on the bottom the turns and does the sweeping up.. It ALSO picks up long hairs. Some will wind around the rotor proper and must be cut off or pulled off. This is the easy part. The hard part is that some will wind around at the ends where the bristles stop. This is where the recommended tool I mentioned will pay for itself as the hair tends to knot up tight in wind after wind. You will have to dig it out and cut it loose. You must also empty the bin at the same time. I also wash the bin out now and then along with the filter. Once a month or month and half the front wheel may also need to be tugged out (It pulls out and pushed back in easily) It ALSO gets hair down in there around its axle, though not nearly as fast as the rotors and brushes do. That is it. I will only close by saying I have NOT owned every robot in the world, but I imagine these periodic maintenance requirements will be very similar for ANY robot... NOT just this one, so if my maintenance picture here appear to be too gloomy, don't let it be. OVERALL: I am totally sold on having a slave machine keep my floors swept. Rather it than me! Call me lazy bones. A little maintenance now and then is well worth this machine. Go ahead and buy one. Jump in the water's fine.