Home Improvement Thread

[LITT]

Co-sign

[Kane]

[LITT]

lol

[Beveridge]

Any recommendations for a robot vacuum (Roomba or other type)? No pets, but one toddler who makes more crumbs eating than should be possible.

[NTP66]

Any recommendations for a robot vacuum (Roomba or other type)? No pets, but one toddler who makes more crumbs eating than should be possible.

I have a Roborock S5 Max, and absolutely love it. We have four cats, and it does a hell of a job. Bought mine refurbished on eBay directly from Roborock, and would advise the same. It's going to be difficult to beat the price/performance, especially on this refurb unit.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/402868693979

The Roborock app is very good with only one drawback, IMO - there's no ability to change how many passes the vac does in each room/zone in a scheduled run. That would be nice to have because 2 passes is where the crosshatch pattern comes into play, as opposed to parallel vacuuming. You can easily section off areas you don't want vacuumed (I do this for my daughter's carpet at her desk, which you can see in the red square in the image below).

Outside of the app, it has plenty of power on both hardwood as well as deep pile carpet. You can map your entire house, including multiple floors, and the robot will be able to quickly figure out where it is based on the saved maps if you want to clean say your second floor. I'm sure I can tell you more if you're interested.



Edit: Forgot to mention, this particular model has mopping capability (water only in the reservoir), and it does a surprisingly good job. It won't clean any deep stains, but the difference is noticeable. It can regulate how much water is applied (via the app/settings), which lower priced models cannot do (gravity feed).

[Beveridge]

Excellent.

My wife wanted to get a 2nd one for mopping the laminate flooring, but I'm a big fan of 2 in 1 capability.

[NTP66]

Yeah, the mopping feature was a bonus for us. Didn't think we'd use it, but glad to have it. This model also uses Lidar, which was also a big selling point. I keep the reservoir mounted all the time, but keep the mop attachment off unless we want it to mop. If it detects the mop attachment, that will activate the functionality, so you don't need a separate schedule for mopping routines.

[count2infinity]

Hmmmmm.... thanks. Might have to check this out.

[count2infinity]

NTP, you may or may not have an idea... I have an older dog that either can't or won't (out of spite) hold it the whole day. He tends to go to roughly the same spot in the dining room every day, tinkle, and it's left for us to find when we get home. Would this thing 1) notice the puddle and avoid it or 2) be able to clean up a spill like that. I'd imagine you wouldn't want a full puddle of dog urine going into that thing regularly.

[NTP66]

NTP, you may or may not have an idea... I have an older dog that either can't or won't (out of spite) hold it the whole day. He tends to go to roughly the same spot in the dining room every day, tinkle, and it's left for us to find when we get home. Would this thing 1) notice the puddle and avoid it or 2) be able to clean up a spill like that. I'd imagine you wouldn't want a full puddle of dog urine going into that thing regularly.

I don't think it can avoid spills on the floor - same goes for puke/poo. I say this because ours has dragged cat toys along for the ride in the past. However, if it's always in the same spot, you can create a restricted zone around it so that the vac completely avoided it. I wouldn't want it going over it at all because it vacuums and mops at the same time, so it'd definitely be getting onto the roller bar and side brush.

[DigitalGypsy66]

These things mop now?

Might have to get one of those for the new house. Nice!

[count2infinity]

Yeah... that's the biggest hesitation I've had with getting one of these things. My dog sometimes also does #2 inside (he's largely stopped, but every so often...).

[NTP66]

I never really considered getting one until my wife made a few comments about pet hair. Found one at a great price, grabbed it, and now we run it 3 times a week. We still use our Dysons for deep cleaning when needed, but this now handles most of the work. With all of our cats, it can vacuum either floor without me having to dump the bin. Speaking of, the app also shows you the lifecycle of the consumable parts, like rollers, etc., so you'll get notified when you need to replace something.

[NTP66]

I did a quick search on r/roborock, and it sounds like a few people have had their vacs go over puddles. Simply allowing them to dry seemed to do the trick, so it sounds like an occasional0 accident wouldn't be the end of things.

[robbiestoupe]

With our new flooring this sounds like a possibility. Hefty price tag, though.

[NTP66]

I may have to buy stock in Roborock soon...

[meow]

Roomba has gateways that can keep it out of certain rooms. Does this company have them as well? That might be the fox c2i needs

[NTP66]

Dunno about physical devices, but there’s no need when you can literally draw out your own zones in the map itself.

[skullman80]

The roomba we have has some cliff detection so if it goes near steps or whatever it knows not to tumble. There are also some gateways like meow mentioned, but most of the models have a mapping thing that makes them not needed.

[robbiestoupe]

Couldn't find any info on whether these robot vacuums are any good on LVP flooring. So may hold off a bit on pulling the trigger on one.

[skullman80]

I believe we have LVP and the roomba works fine on it. We def have laminate and not real hardwood...not sure how super luxury it is lol. People who flipped this house installed it.

[skullman80]

We actually have an irobot but I think that and roomba are the same thing.

[NTP66]

LVP should be no problem for Roborock. Not sure I can think of any flooring type that wouldn’t be fine, really.

[scb147]

I have a Roborock S7, don't have the self emptying dock (yet).... Love that thing, like NTP66 said, I hate not being able to 2x/3x a schedule though. I use this on my main floor since it's a combo carpet/fake hardwood floor. Only minor issue I've had with it is the hinge for the bin door broke, but Roborock sent me a new one.

I also have a refurbished Roomba i7+, got it for my 2nd floor which is mostly carpet. I read that Roombas do better on carpet over other robot vacuums because of their patent on the dual rollers. It has the self emptying bin. This uses a camera versus the Roborock lidar, the lidar is way better. I also think that the Roborock app is better.

[NTP66]

The 2x schedule thing has to be coming. It’s such a simple change.