Which robotic vacuum is the best?(Part 2)

To call ourselves "the robotic floor cleaner people", we used and tested almost all robotic vacuum cleaner that you can find in the market as well as many that never see the light of the day.

They were operated under varying conditions and challenges typically found in our part of the world; various floor types within the same level; print from sweaty feet; warm and humid weather; odd-shaped layout conforming to 'feng shui' practices; insect droppings and dead bodies; split-level floors; area rug(some just call it “carpet”); precious antique furniture; pets indoor, etc, etc.

Most of them clean relatively well when operating on trouble-free space.

However, in real life test under typical home setting, the difference between moderate, good and great machine become apparent.

As users ourselves, we are looking at:

Effectiveness – when cleaning up dust, dead skin cells, dander, hair, fur, lint is the order of the day, vacuuming robot is the runaway winner. If sweeping is what you prefer, ‘sweeper-vac’ would do the trick. Depending on the design, all robots would pick up varying amount of dust considering all things equal.

Efficiency  - everyone likes a truly smart robot that know where and how to clean the most efficient way. Instead of moving randomly for 3 hours passing through the same spot repeatedly while missing out others, we expect the robot to clean methodically without missing a spot, finish cleaning less than half the time. Sweeping randomly like when we are being blindfolded, disoriented and keep knocking into obstacles should be a thing of the past.  

Reliability and durability  - mainstream branded machine brand owners are naturally eager to upkeep their hard earned reputation. Product quality, engineering designs, relentless research, development and testing are major parts of their operation to ensure high reliability and durability.
Imagine the trouble if you have to bring in a machine to service multiple times within a few months of normal use.

After sales support – not only do the brand owners have to be strong, the local flag bearers/distributors have to earn their reputation of providing good after sales support. After all, these machines are not meant to be user serviceable.

Price – a product is considered expensive when it scored lowly on the listed 4 criteria. That is, benefit/cost index of a machine must be as high as possible to be termed “cost effective” and worth investing in.

It is absolutely fine when people bought low cost machines so long as they understand what they have paid for and do not hold too high expectation for such machine. They just need to know that there are better robots that works a lot better should they feel disillusioned with these machine.

We hope you making the smartest choice to best help with your floor cleaning chore.

Wishing you a clean floor day!