Our household’s latest acquisition, a sophisticated robotic vacuum cleaner we’ve affectionately named ‘Edgar’, came at an opportune moment. With our usual vacuuming operatives committed to their newly-acquired summer job roles, domestic duties were left largely untouched, and needless to say, cleaning is not an addiction for anyone in our family. Leisure activities? They’re on top of it. Trails of crumbs you can follow? Abundant. Actual cleaning? Not so much.
I could spin a tale about how I instantly familiarised myself with the corresponding application, discovering every facet of this beautifully designed contraption. Truth be told, my way of handling it was letting one of the children take charge of setting it up, an easy task completed in a short enough time span that their attention wasn’t long diverted away from their mobile screens.
Following initial setup, Edgar embarks on a mission to map our living space before getting to down to work in earnest. My initial assumption was that Edgar would traverse the space methodically, making it easy to track what areas it’s already cleaned. But our robotic help likes to meander and choose its route seemingly randomly.
Your heart settles when you later see the territory Edgar’s covered on the layout map and the amount of grime it has dealt with – though the latter is more disconcerting than reassuring, in essence. It navigates seamlessly across various floor types, including wooden flooring, carpeted areas, and kitchen tiles.
Initially, there was a slight apprehension about how Edgar would coexist with our treasured family pet, Lexi – the royal highness of our home and a springer spaniel. An autonomous device oddly scurrying around, delving into every corner, was bound to rouse Lexi’s curiosity. However, once she realised Edgar wasn’t a threat or a competitor for her humans’ affection, she seemly disregarded it. Undeniably, one of Edgar’s prominent advantages is its competence in managing constant pet hair, regardless of Lexi’s opinion on it.
After several weeks with the 360 Vis Nav, I’m thoroughly impressed. To boost its productivity, it’s helpful to move chairs onto tables and push any furniture back, allowing it to easily go around the floor. It tries its best, but it doesn’t have the capacity to adequately move around chair and table legs, since it lacks the capability to morph its shape. But it does help manage the house chores, especially dog hair, during the week. I would suggest combining its use with a comprehensive traditional vacuum cleaning over the weekend.
The dust compartment gets full quite swiftly, but the machine’s smart design even makes emptying it quite enjoyable. With the MyDyson app now installed, it’s user-friendly and easy to use with settings like Automatic (where it learns dust accumulation and fine-tunes the suction in high traffic areas), Quick (for quick cleans); Quiet (noisier than anticipated but a favourable setting when we’re home); and Boost (for spot cleaning with boosted suction).
It allows for room zonation and lets you decide which rooms to clean. You can also set it to clean when you’re out of the house. There’s a certain joy in knowing that, while you’re out enjoying yourself, the machine, christened Edgar, is diligently cleaning at home.
“What’s the cat’s whereabouts?” I inquire from the youngest one, who’s lounging on the sofa in the living room.
“Let me see,” she responds, taking my mobile.
Moments later, the latest addition to our home, the robot, begins buzzing away in the kitchen. She uses the mobile to manually control the robot, guiding it around some chairs with the help of the video camera on the robot’s front, stopping it in front of our somewhat surprised cat.
“That’s not its purpose,” I gently rebuke, secretly taken aback by this newfound sloth.
For the previous few weeks, we’ve been utilising Samsung’s Jet Bot Combo AI+, a robotic mop and vacuum cleaner. Occasionally though, we have used it for purposes other than what it was intended for.
Our early investment in a robotic mop, an inexpensive spontaneous purchase years prior, wasn’t entirely devoid of reasoning. It cleans the floor much like an uninterested child given a mop and directed to keep busy, without an apparent system in place. It negligently moves over scraps of paper, dust, and tiny fragments of food. We fondly named it Max. Therefore, when the sleek new model from Samsung landed, we could only think of one moniker for it.
The distinction between Max and its superior counterpart, Super Max, is quite substantial.
Max doesn’t come with a built-in cleaning facility. Unfortunately, I am that feature – disassembling the whole thing post-operation, clearing out the compact dust compartment, cleansing the ‘mop’, and dealing with other attached elements to the robot. Typically, strands of hair are found entangled around the wheels.
Super Max has a feature known as “Steam Station Clean+” according to Samsung. Housed within the size of a mid-size kitchen dustbin, it accommodates a clean water reservoir, a waste water compartment, and a dustbin – definitely alleviating a lot of the pre and post-operation effort we had adjusted to.
Before utilising Max, my process was: Remove every item, big and small from the floor; brush the floor; mop the floor. Now, I simply activate the robot vacuum and mop.
Admittedly, it sounds absurd.
Super Max (alternatively Jet Bot Combo AI+) employs cameras to map the space, allowing it to identify and steer clear of small objects on the floor. Remarkably, it halted in front of a stray laptop cable and cleaned around it during one of its initial runs. I make no claims, but I’m confident it shook its head in disapproval. Max, contrastingly, would have recklessly collided with the cable causing the laptop to be yanked from the table. The truth is, while both robots can operate while the residents are away or sleeping, only one can be trusted without the supervision of an adult.
Super Max, after an initial mapping session of our household rooms, including the kitchen, commences its cleaning and mopping route at a relaxed speed. The process can span a few hours, during which it takes intermittent breaks to return to its base for a mop cleanse, utilising steam and water at high temperatures, and a dust bag emptying. It then hurries back to its last clean spot and resumes its task. We were initially skeptical of its performance, leading us to fiddle with the adjustable settings like water level and suction power. Afterwards, the machine performed outstandingly. It’s not the most economically priced gadget, Max; however, it clearly showcases its superior quality, unlike Max, in fact.
I find myself curious about my youngest’s activities on the app, “What are you currently doing on that application?” I enquire, observing over her shoulder. She retorts, “Since Echo seems lonely, I thought I’d play her some tunes. And before you remind me, it’s designed just for that purpose.” Upon checking, I notice a preinstalled pet music feature. The robot can be programmed to identify a pet’s noise and play calming music in response. Even our household feline seems impressed.
The Dyson Vacuum 360 Vis Nav is available for approximately €1,299, while Samsung’s Jet Bot Combo AI+ is a bit pricier, retailing at around €1,500. More affordable robotic vacuum selections include those from Lidl, priced at €170, and Harvey Norman’s Eufy Clean Pro, costing approximately €899.