Robot vacuums are a trendy way to automate an unappealing chore and keep your floors cleaner than ever. But there are so many options on the market, at so many price points, and with so many different features, to boot. Do you want a robot that will both vacuum and mop your floors? Do WiFi connectivity and voice control matter to you? Would you prefer a quiet model?
When it comes to choosing a robot vacuum, there are several factors to consider. Your lifestyle is important because you’ll place different demands on the vacuum depending on whether you have kids or pets. You’ll also need to consider what kind of floors you have, and the size of your home. Finally, robot vacuums come with a range of different features, but only some of them may actually be useful.
Consider Your Lifestyle
With so many robot vacuums available on the market, you need to consider what challenges yours will face when you bring it into your home. If your home is child-free and pet-free, you’ll probably be fine with most models of robot vacuum.
But if you have pets at home, you’ll need to buy a model designed to contend with pet fur. If you have kids, the best robot vacuums are the more robust models that have been tested and found capable of dealing with concentrated messes and higher levels of general dirtiness. In general, look for a robot vacuum that has at least 15 watts of suction. Look for models with more suction power if you know it will need to handle bigger messes.
Choose a Model that Can Handle Your Floor Coverings
All robot vacuums are capable of handling hardwood, tile, laminate, linoleum, and other hard floor coverings, but carpeting is a different beast. Robot vacuums can’t handle high-pile shag carpets, but most models will be able to clean low-pile and Berber-style carpets easily. If you have medium-pile carpets, look for a robot vacuum with greater suction power it’s a good idea to buy the most suction you can afford for medium-pile carpets.
If you have only hard floors, you may be tempted by a robot vacuum with a mopping feature. If the surface is flat and even, such as with linoleum or hardwood, a model that uses cleaning wipes should be sufficient to vacuum and wet clean your floors. If you have more uneven surfaces, such as tile with grout, however, you should buy a model that features a rotating mop head.
To Map or Not to Map?
Robot vacuums vary pretty widely in their navigation and sensor features, which are what determine how efficiently and effectively the vacuum is able to clean a large space, multiple rooms, or even multiple floors of your home. Some models are able to map a space as they clean it, which enables them to efficiently clean multiple rooms. They’ll start by taking a 360-degree scan of the area, clean the perimeter, and then clean the rest of the room in a back-and-forth pattern before moving on to the next room. If they run out of battery power before finishing the job, they can store the map in their memory, dock and recharge, and then move on to the next room to complete the cleaning cycle.
Simpler models don’t use a map but simply go back and forth across a room at random for a specified amount of time. Such a model might be fine if you only need to clean one large room or a small apartment they can usually manage to clean two or three small rooms before the battery dies. You may be able to clean multiple rooms by moving the robot and/or its docking station from room to room yourself. However, simple models may require occasional rescue, especially in rooms with lots of furniture, where they can get stuck or lose track of the docking station.
Pick the Right Features
You’ll find a plethora of features available on most models, ranging from remote control via a smartphone app to scheduled cleanings, fall sensors, and visible or invisible barriers. Prescheduled cleanings may not be a great idea if you have pets since you’ll want to scan the area for pet bathroom accidents before running the vacuum. However, many users like the ability to schedule cleanings.
But fall sensors are a good feature to have, especially if you plan to run the vacuum on multiple floors and there’s a chance the robot could tumble down the stairs without them. Barriers, whether visible or invisible, are also a good idea because they allow you to cordon off sections of a room, such as where pet food bowls or shoes are kept, and can even be used to keep the robot vacuum out of specific rooms altogether. The ability to recharge and resume cleaning if the battery gets low mid-cycle is also a useful feature.
Robot vacuums are an easy way to take twice-weekly vacuuming off the schedule and still have clean floors, but you need to shop carefully to choose the right one for your needs. Once your robot vacuum is running on a schedule, you can turn your attention to more interesting things.
You can check a comparison of the two best robotic vacuum in the market at Roomba s9 vs i7 to get a best one.
I’m a 20-something stay-at-home mother and wife. I have an amazing husband, a beautiful daughter, two loving dogs, and a lazy cat. I wouldn’t change my life for anything! I love to read, listen to music, cook and blog!
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