Hello,
I wanted to reach out to this community to ask about robo vac/mops before I purchase. I really trust the folks here and I’m not sure which way to go. I’d love for the unit(s) purchased to work with my ST hub, if possible.
We live in an 850sf apartment and deal with some health issues so we need a robo vac. We’ve had a few different models in the past from an older Roomba to a Neato (which was a disappointment all around). So, I’m looking for something that not get stuck all the time, have virtual barriers/no-go lines, and hopefully is quiet enough that it’s not incredibly annoying to run while we’re here (which is most of the time, especially during this unusual CV19 situation). I’m not expecting full out carpet deep cleaning but want something that will get all the dust, crumbs, and pet hair.
I also want to have mopping functionality and I feel like it’s something we’ll use often. What I’m not sure about is which way to go. Something like the Roborock S6 MaxV with vac/mop and some advanced mapping/camera features or going for a lower range vac like maybe the Roborock S4 (or a similar one by Eufy, Shark or ?) and getting a separate mopping setup like the Braava (maybe the M6?). Has anyone used any of these and which would you recommend and why? My other concern is the dust bin size of all of these. I’m not sure I have the space for a self emptying option like what Roomba has in the high end models or even the Shark self-empty option but on our Neato, which admittedly has a fairly large dustbin, we are emptying a lot (we have two dogs that even though the are both low/non shed, still do some hair shedding, etc).
I’d love to hear any thoughts and experience that have. Thanks so much in advance!
We use the little tiny robot mop from Irobot, the older model Braava. It’s basically a robot swiffer.
It works really well for what I need it for, which is times when either I spilled some thing or the dog comes in with muddy feet. It’s small enough that I can fill it with water and put it on the floor and start it. Then I just leave it alone and it will do the room.
Not my dog, but I definitely recognize the scenario.
We haven’t integrated it with anything else, but haven’t seen any reason to. We’re just using it for spot cleaning. And it’s been perfect for that, just because it is so simple.
Similarly, we have a very basic Eufy robot vacuum, which we got on some big sale, and works fine for spot cleaning. Again, we don’t integrate it with any routines and haven’t felt the need to. It’s very low profile, so it’s never gotten stuck, which would be the big issue for me. It also does a good job of switching between the laminate and the carpet.
It has a handheld remote which I activate with a SwitchBot just to start single room cleaning.
We also have a Bissell spotbot which does an amazing job of cleaning deep spots on carpet. We’ve had it for about eight years. I can’t use that one by myself because it’s too heavy for me, but it’s very easy for my housemates to use. I know it seems like it’s expensive for what it does (it doesn’t move itself, it just cleans one dinner plate size spot), but it’s lasted forever and it’s been great for things like somebody knocking over a Coke can during a football game that otherwise it takes you 45 minutes to clean up. So if you find yourself buying a lot of cans of Resolve and cursing every time you have to use one, this is a really nice convenience machine. again, not integrated with anything else, but again, we’re only using it for spot cleaning.
But all I wanted were devices that I could activate when needed for spot cleaning. My housemates do all the heavy cleaning with regular dumb equipment.
I know there are people who have much more complicated set ups with regular routines to do the whole house and hopefully some of them will chime in. For us it was just a matter of meeting the minimum spot cleaning requirements.
I can 100% say not to get the Samsung Powerbot R7040. I’ve owned mine for 3 years and it’s been a mechanical nightmare. After some research, a Roborock S4 is arriving on Sunday to replace it. Roborock in general seems to get great online and professional reviews. The S5 Max seems to get great reviews if you want mopping. I just couldn’t justify $500+ for it.
Agreed. We went with the E35 because we wanted mopping but couldn’t justify spending over $500. I will say that we’ve been very happy with it and it runs at least once a day. I use Alexa as a man in the middle and have a virtual switch in ST to control it. When we leave for the day, it runs. If we come right back home, it turns off. We got it on sale for $269 on Amazon.
I’m developing a new integration for roomba but it’s not ready yet and I may delay it even further to deploy in AWS lambda. We’ll get it working with braava too.
The original Braava Models don’t have WiFi And aren’t programmable. You just push the on button.
There is a newer, much more expensive model which does have Wi-Fi and Alexa control. But the older models are still being sold in part because of the price point.
So you should probably specify the model numbers so people don’t get confused on that one.
I use the R7070 for over a year with no problems at all. It integrates with SmartThings with the new App. I also have 2 iRobots and they don’t integrate with SmartThings but they work great as well.
Maybe the higher models have better hardware and mapping features. On my R7040 over 3 years I’ve had to replace both drive wheels motor, the battery, the bearing on the brush at least once a year and finally the brush drive gave out. On top of that, SmartThings disabled using it in automations and scenes at some point last year.
