Robot vacuum cleaners

Primrose

Has anybody got one?
Am becoming rather disabled and wonder if having one would make vacuuming easier for me
can anybody recommend a specific model?  A specific list of pros and cons pros would be really helpful.
Thanks. 

goldfinches

I haven't any experience with these but you mentioned a list of pros and cons which made me think that this Good Housekeeping roundup would be helpful to you Best robot vacuum cleaners - top robot vacuum cleaners UK (goodhousekeeping.com) although the prices are a bit eye watering.

deannagone

I have to be honest, I have one, a good one, but its often more trouble than its worth as I have dogs and they shed (bin needs emptying twice doing the lounge).  I also have too much furniture it can get trapped in.  But if you have a fairly clear room and no dogs its probably a good idea.  But although I have some health problems that can make vacuuming painful and make me breathless, I prefer to spend five minutes with the vacuum cleaner than 20 minutes anxiously watching the robot.  Our robot is banned to my younger son's room.  Even he doesn't use it much lol.  If you have thicker carpet, the bot can be quite noisy.  I find I have to run it twice to pick up grit on laminate floor properly.  Just more trouble than its worth for me. Its a bit of an entertaining gizmo that wears thin quite quickly.

Rosa_Damascena

A friend has one and it seems to work well on his laminate. But then so does my £7 silicone broom and I get a strange joy from seeing how much dust I can rake up from a hard floor that is otherwise invisible to the naked eye.

I can understand why they are attractive to people but the current price point means they're a niche product. 

ispookie666

Have had the roomba 780 since 2015, used to be the work horse in our old house. Nowadays not so much! Still works, a few battery changes and other consumables.
You have to have your house planned out, not many floor obstructions, no cables or stringy things, no clothes - all these get tangled.  
The tech has advanced a lot, some even empty the dust collected.

YBR

We were given a Roomba a few years ago. It's not as effective as the upright vacuum cleaner but does the job well enough.
As PPs said it's good for "Sweeping" hard floors, but we have to lift chairs onto tables or into another room so that might not help depending on your disability. In the living room it can get itself stuck round furniture.
It also needs its brushes cleaning more frequently than the upright (hair and suchlike), but this is not difficult to do.

OTOH it's light to lift upstairs and won't fall downstairs (detects steps). It's easy for the kids to use as part of their chores where the upright is too big and heavy. The cat doesn't mind the robot but hates the upright.

We don't often get the upright out now, except for doing the stairs carpet.

Sistergold

I have a Bagotte BG600. It is good as it helps keep floors “clean” in between proper vacuuming. You need to “clear the floor” otherwise it can not do a good job. So to have best results floor always needs to
be clutter free which is a stress in itself I find with children, furniture needs to have higher clearance so that it does not get stuck in places, no codes whatsoever on floor otherwise it gets stuck. Because it can easily find itself in a pickle initially you have to be saving it from sticky situations! Once you get the hang of what needs clearing from the floor it is a useful device which you can use and maybe you can then get a clearer once in a while to do deep clean since you said you are having health challenges. 

A broom does seem quicker at times, but I do use it when my floor is clutter free which is mostly when my children are away. I mostly use it in my bedroom as it’s easy to let it clean in there. 

Primrose

Many thanks for all your helpful comments.  Keeping our light coloured downstairs carpets clean this time of year is particularly troublesome when the patio door is often open and outside grit from the garden is inevitably carried in on shoes.  It seems a robot cleaner might well help with this day-to-day cleaning problem. 

NeilAFawcett

Primrose said:

Has anybody got one?
Am becoming rather disabled and wonder if having one would make vacuuming easier for me
can anybody recommend a specific model?  A specific list of pros and cons pros would be really helpful.
Thanks. 

I have an old Xiaomi Mi one from years ago. They're on Amazon now. Search for "Xiaomi Robot Vacuum Cleaner Mi Robot White (17061)". There's far more advanced ones now from multiple companies.

We love it. Does a reasonable job across the entire ground floor, and if we make a mess say in the kitchen, you can use the phone app to draw a rectangle around just a single area, and out it comes, cleans it, and goes away and docks.

Probably better on hard floors than carpet, but we have a mixture of both, and works well.

Things to note:-

1) And deep carpet/rugs it will not be happy with. It can go up and down say a rise/lip of 1cm.

2) You can have wires and stuff in the way. eg: Lamp leads with a fair amount of play might get caught in it.

3) Bar stools (say in kitchens) with the round rising bases are it's enemy. It gets beached on them.

4) You need to empty it after each big vacuum.

5) You'll need to do the odd bit of maintenance to it. eg: Change brush one a year. Check brush isn't getting wrapped up with loads of stuff like hair ever month or so.

6) You'll need to have a place reserved for it's little docking/charging station. I've placed ours in a playroom under a raised couch, so can't be seen.

FreeBear

Robot vacuum cleaners, nice idea, but....

When you have a puppy in the house - https://!!!!!!.com/28mx5fd3

When they get depressed and suicidal - https://www.electronicproducts.com/robot-depression-cleaning-robot-commits-suicide-by-throwing-itself-on-stove/

And a collection of fails to keep you amused - https://www.boredpanda.com/funny-vacuum-cleaning-fails/

Doc_N

We had poor experiences of a cheap one a few years back, but tried again last year after a lot of research. Eufy RoboVac (part of the Anker group) achieved good write-ups, and we chose this one: 

RoboVac 30C MAX  (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eufy-Super-Thin-Boundary-Self-Charging-Medium-Pile/dp/B07XXXKBL9/)

£200 or so, and it's been absolutely fantastic. My wife is a huge fan and it even has a pet name!  She loves it.  It does a great job and I'd happily buy another.