5 things I learned about owning a Robovac

Dust management in my home is kind of important to me. I live in a densely urban part of West London and there are traffic and building work particles in the air that we breathe indoors as much as outside.

Even with windows and doors closed, dust finds it’s way in, and (without being too gross) human beings also create it.

Added to which I am slightly on the cusp of OCD about cleanliness generally.

Being a time-starved and permanently exhausted professional, the idea of having a little robotic character living with me to hoover up whenever I so wish was hugely appealing and I spent many hours dipping in and out of review sites and Youtubes working out whether or not owning one was a worthy investment.

No surprises then that I went for it. And here is what I learned about being a robovac owner in case you are in a similar quandary.

1. You get what you pay for

The price range is surprisingly wide: £200-£1200+. I was finding it hard to justify the sort of money you need to spend on a model at the top end of that range, and realised that there would be compromises to make by buying at the lower end.

I’m not here to re-write all the reviews, there are plenty of places to find those online. But in short, below about £500 and your robovac will be pretty, well, stupid. Even if the marketing hypes up features like ‘iQboost’ and ‘intelligent xyz’. It is not a butler with a brain. It is a miniature hoover with a rechargeable battery and maybe a Wi-Fi connection (more on that later).

I’m quite fond of the way mine bumps into things, and bangs repeatedly against the closed bedroom door as if wanting to be let out. It amuses me that it struggles to find it’s way home to its docking station and spins in circles when it doesn’t know what to do.

But if you were expecting a logically planned cleaning route around your home that it remembers the next time it comes out, you won’t find that at the budget end of the options.

2. It needs somewhere to live

The amount of accommodation space my robovac plus docking station needs was larger than I expected. The machine itself is the size of a large dinner plate, and the docking station about half as much again.

In a relatively small apartment there are very few unused floor spaces of that size available away from passing feet, close to a power socket. I tried 2 places before settling on the perfect position under the sofa. Caveat: not too close to the sofa legs, because numpty robo can’t easily figure out how to negotiate them to go to bed at the end of his shift.

Making space for it was definitely not something that had featured into my thinking before buying my robo.

Oh and it emits a bright light to show you it is ready 24/7, which you may not want near you when you sleep.

3. Connecting to Wi-Fi can be tricky

The one feature I felt would make all the difference and was worth paying a little extra for was a model with WiFi capability.

This means I can use a phone app to start or stop the machine whether at home or away from home, and I have a record of how long it cleaned for and a rudimentary map of where it went.

However be warned that many models aren’t compatible with dual-band home networks which are really common. We had to connect it to a separate 2.4 network.

Luckily for me, I live with a home tech guru who was able to work all of this out and resolve the issues. Even then it took him a few goes and a chat session with a helpline. Had it been left to me, my robovac would have been returned to the retailer unused.

4. You’ll spend some time tidying up

It’s probably reasonable to assume that no matter your usual hoovering routine, a certain amount of furniture is moved around, and random items are picked up off the floor.

The same is true before you start a robovac session, only more so. In order to give the little fella maximum freedom and reduce the number of obstacles in its way (remembering that it isn’t the cleverest at working out how to go around them) I spend a bit of time putting dining chairs on top of the dining table, putting the footstool and pouffe on top of the sofa, and lifting anything long and drapey out of the way.

I stop short at picking up all the shoes, but I do look out for trailing cables that robo could be tangled up in, and also create mini barricades for small spaces it could find itself trapped in or under.

Is it worth the effort? Just about.

5. It hoovers pretty well

So this is probably the thing that scores robo-boy the most points, and allows me to tolerate all its foibles.

He actually does a great job of picking up. When you arrive home after he has been around, you can absolutely see the difference. Even when there are big gritty bits or clumpy dust piles, he takes it all in his stride.

(Note to self: this is an inanimate object we are talking about.)

Best of all, his low head height means he glides without a care under the bed and the sofa and reaches spaces under all the big items of furniture that even the most flexible of hoover heads can’t reach.

So as a dust removal freak, this to me is the biggest joy of ownership.

And I know he is doing a fine job because when he is done, I empty his dust compartment, and it is stuffed chock full of the stuff. Even if it has only been a few days since the place was last vacuumed.

So in conclusion, on balance: I’m happy with my purchase, even with the misgivings. It’s great to know that at any given moment, even when I’m not at home (and especially when I’m not at home) I can start my robovac and know it is beetling away all by itself cleaning up after me and I don’t have to feel guilty about it.