Are Roombas Worth It? Pros, Cons & Cost vs. Benefit

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Gained early experience with automation technology in the private and industrial sector, can turn his living room into a movie theater with one voice command and is the owner of this website. He is happy to share his accumulated experience with every new article.

Structure of a suction robot

A robot vacuum consists of five modules:

Charging station
Drive
Housing
Cleaning unit
Control

The actual robot consists of a flat housing with a maximum edge height of 10 cm. For most manufacturers, the housing is round. However, there are also some square variants. Roomba prefers the circular shape for its vacuum robots. The drive consists of three rubber rollers that are moved by electric motors.

These have the best grip on smooth floors like tile, laminate or parquet. However, a Roomba can also easily get over carpets and rugs. The cleaning unit consists of two rotating brushes and a suction head. The brushes rotate from the outside to the inside. This is how they guide the loose dirt to the suction head, which then picks up the dirt with suction air.

The dirt is collected in a container. A classic paper filter is not installed in a Roomba. The air that is sucked in and blown out goes through two separate filters. These filters and the rotating brushes are wearing parts. The user must replace them regularly.

The Roomba works purely electrically. The integrated batteries need to be recharged regularly. In theory, this is fully automatic. The robot remembers the position of the charger. When its cleaning service is finished or it detects that the capacity is running low, it drives to the charging station and docks. If the cleaning process is already finished, the device waits until the next suction interval.

But if the weakening battery has interrupted a cleaning cycle, then the Roomba automatically resumes the work after recharging the batteries. Finally, the heart of the Roomba is the controller. Modern devices automatically map the apartment during each cleaning cycle.

In this way, obstacles are detected and skilfully avoided during the next cycle. The control system also includes fall protection for stairs. Additional loops, as they used to be required for staircase fall protection, are no longer necessary. In addition, the smartphone has now replaced the classic remote controls for the robot vacuum. But the smart home functions don’t stop there, they only begin with this function.

How a suction and cleaning robot works

A vacuum robot and its upgrade, the cleaning robot, have a similar mode of operation across manufacturers. The device lingers in its charging station until the next cleaning cycle is reached. In its first run, the Roomba maps the home. This allows it to better organize itself for each cleaning cycle.

Obstacles are still detected. However, Roomba detects doors quite well, as well as stationary furniture or other household furnishings. The biggest enemy of a cleaning robot are open cables. These are real traps in which the devices can get hopelessly caught. No technical solution has yet proven to be suitable for this problem.

Loose paper such as newspapers and clothing lying on the floor can also be a challenge. It is always advisable to at least clear the floor of these obstacles for Roomba. The optimal condition for Roomba is when there are no obstacles on the floor.

This means shoes, clothes and toys should be in place or at least not lying around on the floor. The fewer obstacles Roomba has to navigate around, the longer its battery will last and the more thorough the cleaning will be.

Once the cleaning cycle is complete, the robot returns to its charging station. Depending on the model, the dirt container is emptied there. The collected dirt is transferred to a reservoir in the charging station. However, this feature is only offered by the higher-quality models.

Robot vacuum cleaner versus cleaning robot

The cleaning robots are a step more sophisticated than the vacuuming robots. Instead of just vacuuming the floor dry, they perform a wet cleaning process. This requires a constant exchange of the cleaning water. Basically, the cleaning robots are definitely more efficient than the vacuum cleaning robots. However, they are technically more complex and somewhat more demanding to handle.

What are the benefits of cleaning robots?

A cleaning robot has limited power due to its design limitations. Therefore, it cannot be compared with a manually operated and cable-bound vacuum cleaner in terms of suction power. The capacity of the dirt container is also severely limited.

If a normal floor vacuum cleaner has 4-5 litres available and wet vacuum cleaners quickly offer 20-30 litres, cleaning robots have a capacity of just 0.3 – 0.6 litres. To make matters worse, the housings of the devices continue to grow with increasing performance and dirt volume.

There are cleaning robots with interesting performance data. However, these are so high that they can no longer get under beds and sofas. This eliminates one of the most important advantages of these devices.

Therefore, before buying a cleaning robot, one must agree on the purpose for which it will serve. One thing is for sure, a Roomba can always be a complement to home cleaning equipment. However, it cannot completely replace it. With the currently established technical approach, this will never be the case. However, the Roomba can ensure a certain basic cleanliness for the floor.

The fact that it constantly makes its rounds means that no dust pools can form. They also pick up spilled cereal or spices with consistent reliability. This gives its owners a reassuring feeling of always returning to a reasonably clean house. For the weekly cleaning, however, the conventional vacuum cleaner and the cleaning bucket have to be used again.

Control of a Roomba

The programmable movement characterizes a robot. In a cleaning robot, this control is not direct or rigid, but dynamic. Manual intervention in the movement sequence of Roombas should only take place in an emergency. This is necessary, for example, if the robot gets stuck deep under a sofa.

The owner can then manually navigate the device out again without having to move the heavy piece of furniture to the side. However, vacuum robots are only partially programmed by humans. Even the earliest models offered their owners certain movement patterns with which they travel through the rooms. The patrol mode has proven its worth to this day. Here, the robot traverses the room in overlapping paths. This ensures that every square centimeter of the floor is at least covered and traversed by the device.

The basic pattern of movement is independently updated by Roomba to the existing conditions. The more often the device cleans an apartment, the better it can navigate it. With previous models, all that was needed now was to set the cleaning interval. This has improved significantly with the connection of Roomba and Smart Home.

Roomba application in the Smart Home

Robot vacuum cleaners are particularly suitable for connection with smart homes. However, the manufacturers of the devices have only recently jumped on this bandwagon. The latest generation of Roombas can be ordered with smart home functions. This is especially true for controlling the robot with a smartphone. However, as an intermediate step, add-on devices are available from a third-party manufacturer that can also make older Roombas smart-home capable.

These are ring modules that are mounted on the lid of the vacuum. These enable advanced controls via the smartphone. These modules build up only a few millimeters. The ability to drive under obstacles is thus hardly affected.

The smartphone is much more than a simple replacement for the remote control for the Roomba. Rather, it is the integrated tracking function that influences the control of the floor vacuum. With the commands “Clean when I leave the house” or “Clean when I’m on my way home”, Roomba’s control can gain significant momentum.

The device “tracks” the location and movement pattern of the smartphone. For example, if the phone is 100 meters away from the house, Roomba determines that the owner is not in the house. Now it knows to start a cleaning cycle. Likewise, this is true on the way home from work.

The functions can be programmed to a high level of detail. Even high conditions can be set. This includes, for example, that the Roomba should return to the charging station as soon as the owner approaches the house again. In addition, the robot always provides its user with relevant information. This way, the owner always knows exactly when to empty the dirt bin.

Roomba Control with Voice Assistant

Control your robot vacuum cleaner with Alexa Skills

The Alexa voice assistant is specially optimised for controlling Roombas with the “iRobot Home Alexa Skill” module. The prerequisite is that the iRobot Roomba model is Wi-Fi enabled. Together with Alexa Skill, the vacuum cleaner can then be controlled by voice command – from anywhere.

Reacting remotely

The cat throws cereal can. Then she runs several times through the dry oatmeal, nuts and dried fruit. In the process, she spreads everything all over the apartment. What in the past would not have excited the owner much when opening the door, can now be done conveniently on the go. This requires the following:

video surveillance of the home
a language assistant
a wi-fi enabled robot vacuum cleaner.

Voice assistants are integrated into every smartphone today. All you have to do is activate them. The connection with the robot is simple. As soon as the devices can communicate, the cleaning can be started by voice command. So when the surveillance camera reports the mess in the kitchen to its owner, he can prevent the worst by a simple voice command.

The Roomba cleans the floor and the cat can no longer spread the cereal all over the apartment. This shows that it makes a lot of sense to follow a Smart Home approach consistently to the end. Without video surveillance, the Roomba makes its rounds “blindly”. The owner cannot intervene remotely. Together with surveillance, voice assistant and Roomba, however, such situations can be managed well.

This also defines a target audience for robot vacuum cleaners: Owners of pets are strongly recommended to purchase such a device. Likewise, for owners of dogs and cats, the surveillance cameras with intercoms are a sensible investment.

Also useful at home

Voice control for the Roomba Robot Vacuum Cleaner is also useful at home. You don’t always have your smartphone at hand. Entering commands via the screen is also much more time-consuming than speaking a simple voice command. So if the owner himself has a mishap, it is enough to say “Alexa, tell Roomba clean kitchen”. Precisely set up and trained, all devices know what to do in the aftermath. Amazon Echo and Sonos One offer similar services for the Roomba.

Devices suitable for voice commands

In order for a Roomba to communicate with Alexa, a Wi-Fi connection is required. It follows that the robot vacuum must have this function integrated or at least installed as an upgrade. The models of the S and J series offer these functions. Voice control is not yet integrated in the entry-level models. Control via your own smartphone, on the other hand, has become standard for all Roomba vacuum cleaner robots. The separate remote control is no longer included in the scope of delivery.

The most common commands to Alexa for the Roomba

Voice control of floor vacuums has been offered in the combination of Alexa and Roomba since 2018. It is recommended to always use the command sequence “Alexa, say Roomba…”. It would be possible for other word combinations to work as well. However, these have been proven to work and are specified that way by the manufacturer. In order for the floor vacuum to work optimally, you should first make all settings in the app as precisely and thoroughly as possible. This includes, for example, the definition of all rooms.

Neither Alexa nor Roomba know what is the kitchen and what is the living room. This determination must be made by the owner, otherwise the commands will run into the void. Basic commands like “…start/stop/continue/stop and recharge cleaning” are of course independent of this. Once the robot has oriented itself in the home, it can perform these basic functions on its own. It is also possible to give the vacuum robot its own name. This makes sense if several Roombas are used in the household.

Since the devices can not yet climb stairs, the consideration is to place one on each floor. The naming is arbitrary and left to the creativity of the owner. In order to optimise the ease of use, it would make sense to name the device after the place of use. Even if it sounds funny, there is nothing against naming the Roombas “sleeping area”, “living area” and “guest area”.

For whom is the robot vacuum cleaner worthwhile?

This question is quite idle in view of the comfort that the devices offer. One would rather have to consider for whom the purchase of a Roomba would not make sense. Basically, IRobot is the market leader with its Roomba family and defends this position quite successfully.

There are some devices from other brand manufacturers that are basically not worse. However, there are many imitators and cheap derivatives that can not compete in terms of comfort and reliability. But if this is not given, the whole idea of the cleaning robot quickly becomes invalid.

If the robot constantly gets stuck due to a faulty design or it can no longer find the charging station, then its operation is simply no longer fun. That’s why you should always go for a branded device, even if it means a higher investment.

For pet owners, especially owners of dogs, cats and rabbits, a Roomba is always a good choice. iRobot even offers some models that are specifically designed to get rid of pet hair. This is something other manufacturers cannot offer.

Working people are significantly relieved by a vacuum robot. Psychologically, too, it is simply reassuring to have the certainty of always returning to a pre-cleaned apartment.

The same applies to disabled persons or persons in need of care. They can particularly benefit from a voice-controlled vacuum robot. Instead of waiting for the care service, a simple voice command is all that is needed to clean up spills.

What other cleaning devices are useful besides the Roomba?

When it comes to cleaning the household, it also depends on your own standards. The conventional cleaning buckets with soap suds have been in use for centuries with good reason. Nevertheless, today there are solutions that can, for example, reduce the use of environmentally harmful chemicals to a minimum. These include superheated steam cleaners.

These do not require any soap suds at all. The over 100 °C hot steam reliably kills all bacteria. Stubborn dirt is also reliably removed with these devices. With a brush attachment, the steam cleaners are also very good at getting into corners that are difficult to access.

These include, for example, the places where the supply and drain pipes for heaters disappear into the floor. In addition, steam vacuums are ideal for cleaning carpets, rugs and sofas. Combinations of steam vacuums and robots are already available. However, they are very expensive and so far only intended for large-scale use in industrial and commercial buildings.

But there are also Roombas that can clean carpets very well!

Summary: Is a Roomba worth it for every household?

Vacuuming the home daily also relieves the burden on someone who is constantly in the house. For example, you can iron the laundry at the same time as Roomba makes its rounds. For all those who are on the road during the day, however, the Roomba is a real blessing. In terms of comfort and handling, the devices are now practically mature.

Dirt transfer in the Base Station also keeps this effort to a minimum. However, you should always clean Roomba and the dirt bin after picking up moisture. Bacteria and mold can quickly form.

Buying a Roomba is always an investment. However, every euro more brings a significant increase in comfort and performance. All devices are equally reliable. However, the owner of a long-hair dachshund and a high-floor carpet needs a much more powerful device than a pet-free household with smooth floors. We recommend going straight for the WLAN models. These simply offer the highest level of comfort.

The installation and setup of the device is kept as simple “as possible” by the manufacturer. Nevertheless, the connection with the smartphone, voice assistant and WLAN can be too much of a challenge for laymen and beginners. Here, a service provider can help to set up the devices to such an extent that the user can use them without any problems.

A Roomba is only as efficient as the floor it travels over is tidy. It can’t clean up a messy apartment. Shoes, clothes, toys and any other loose items should be put away before the Roomba makes its rounds. Likewise, there should be no loose cables lying around. There are cable ducts for this purpose or you can tape them to the floor with wide adhesive tape. Removing these tripping hazards is also a good contribution to safety throughout the house.

Conclusion: Roomba is worth it!

Given the advantages that a Roomba offers, everyone should think about the purchase. Especially in combination with a mop vacuum, the permanent cleanliness of the apartment is maintained to a satisfactory degree. This not only relieves singles.

It also frees couples and families from many tedious daily tasks, allowing them to focus on other things. All in all, the Roomba becomes an important contribution to a better quality of life and well-being.

Attention: When installing electronic equipment, please be sure to observe the manufacturer’s safety instructions. You have to take care of your own safety. The information on this site only helps you to learn.
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