Which hoover?

[Beany]

Got a Shark NV602UK pet thingy (mostly cos I wanted the pet adapter for doing the stairs) and expected it to be weak sauce given the power restrictions on vacuum cleaners these days. I remember an old Hoover Turbopower we used to have and that thing would lift the carpet -. Surely modern vacuums, with limited power thanks to EU regs couldn't come close?

Er, it rather does I've got deep pile carpets in here that I wear my shoes on too often, and while they'll want a proper carpet washer, they've dragged up crap from there that I thought I'd need a drill brush for.

The wee vacuum powered pet adapter thing is also bloody good, and should be bob on for the stairs.

Serious impressed with modern vacuums

[McSwede]

We have a shark with one of those adapters. Brilliant!

[Beany]

I hooked that adapter up with the 'low suction' mode on. Then turned it to high suction.

[Swervin_Mervin]

I hooked that adapter up with the 'low suction' mode on. Then turned it to high suction.

Now there's an image I didn't need in my head

[Beany]

I hooked that adapter up with the 'low suction' mode on. Then turned it to high suction.

Now there's an image I didn't need in my head

It blew my.....

...mind at how good it was at cleaning the stairs

[mik]

Following the impressively middle-aged excitement expressed by a relative recently around the convenience offered by their new robot hoover, we picked up a TP-link (Tapo) RV30 Plus a week or so back.



We wanted one with a docking station that would both charge, and empty the on-board dust compartment. Check. This one also has a mopping function for hard floors, which I wasn't that bothered about. Reviews suggested it was a good performed on the hoovering front, and not awesome on the mopping front (rear actually) as it's a static as opposed to active mop head, but I struggle to imagine any of them are really good at the latter task...

So you control it via an app, and as you have to name the device - it's now "J.Edgar". You can set up various automated cleaning schedules & shizzle, but haven't really explored that yet.

So any good?
Yeah, it vacuums well, and relentlessly covers as much surface area as it can get to, managing to squeeze under couches, units, beds etc that you struggle to get to with a normal hoover. With Lidar tech it quickly gets a rough idea of the house (setup step 1 is a mapping run - it then hones the saved map during cleaning runs) but this tech allows it to move around without constantly crashing into everything. It does a good "98% job" - by which I mean it's clean, and it copes with dog hair etc, but if for some reason it fails to pick up <object> it'll just carry on, whereas a human would run the hoover over the area a 2nd time to do the job properly.

Self-emptying to the base station (bagged) is awesome, BUT it doesn't have a level sensor on the robot. Chateau mik is either too vast, or too filthy for it to hoover a whole floor of the house without filling the on-board - which you can get around by getting it to do individual rooms/zones and then returning for an empty, but obviously an on-board sensor would be better.

Multiple levels in your abode?
You can save upto 3 maps, so that should suit most needs. Lift the unit and base station to whichever level you want it to clean, and it recognises where it is in a few seconds, and gets on with it.

Throwing away your Meile then?
Well despite Daleks now being able to climb stairs, it's beyond the capability of J.Edgar, so you still need to do them with your existing hoovery device, and maybe also do a quick jjzuzzzch around some other areas to do a full clean, but this is obviously massively less arduous than a full clean would be.

Mopping function?
Bobbins, as expected.

[Jobbo]

We will never take the robot hoover risk after the Roomba dog poo story: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/st ... he#4ldqpgp

[dinny_g]

I was on a teams call a while back and one of the participants went "Sorry, my hoover's texting me - the dining room door's closed and it can't get to the kitchen".

Just about the most 2024 thing I've heard...

[Rich B]

I've got a fairly cheap eufy one that goes out every night. It's good for general crumbs and dirt from a 6 year old child, but not a thorough job. We have a cleaner once a week who does the proper job.

[mik]

I've got a fairly cheap eufy one that goes out every night.

But......

[Rich B]

I've got a fairly cheap eufy one that goes out every night.

But......

I read your quote and I thought it was going to be a joke about it going out every night...!


I didn't bloody know that Bosch made robot hoovers...

[Holley]

Following the impressively middle-aged excitement expressed by a relative recently around the convenience offered by their new robot hoover, we picked up a TP-link (Tapo) RV30 Plus a week or so back.



We wanted one with a docking station that would both charge, and empty the on-board dust compartment. Check. This one also has a mopping function for hard floors, which I wasn't that bothered about. Reviews suggested it was a good performed on the hoovering front, and not awesome on the mopping front (rear actually) as it's a static as opposed to active mop head, but I struggle to imagine any of them are really good at the latter task...

So you control it via an app, and as you have to name the device - it's now "J.Edgar". You can set up various automated cleaning schedules & shizzle, but haven't really explored that yet.

So any good?
Yeah, it vacuums well, and relentlessly covers as much surface area as it can get to, managing to squeeze under couches, units, beds etc that you struggle to get to with a normal hoover. With Lidar tech it quickly gets a rough idea of the house (setup step 1 is a mapping run - it then hones the saved map during cleaning runs) but this tech allows it to move around without constantly crashing into everything. It does a good "98% job" - by which I mean it's clean, and it copes with dog hair etc, but if for some reason it fails to pick up <object> it'll just carry on, whereas a human would run the hoover over the area a 2nd time to do the job properly.

Self-emptying to the base station (bagged) is awesome, BUT it doesn't have a level sensor on the robot. Chateau mik is either too vast, or too filthy for it to hoover a whole floor of the house without filling the on-board - which you can get around by getting it to do individual rooms/zones and then returning for an empty, but obviously an on-board sensor would be better.

Multiple levels in your abode?
You can save upto 3 maps, so that should suit most needs. Lift the unit and base station to whichever level you want it to clean, and it recognises where it is in a few seconds, and gets on with it.

Throwing away your Meile then?
Well despite Daleks now being able to climb stairs, it's beyond the capability of J.Edgar, so you still need to do them with your existing hoovery device, and maybe also do a quick jjzuzzzch around some other areas to do a full clean, but this is obviously massively less arduous than a full clean would be.

Mopping function?
Bobbins, as expected.

Nice review Mik. What made you decide to pick this one out of the other brands out of interest?

[mik]

Nice review Mik. What made you decide to pick this one out of the other brands out of interest?

https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/in ... 49451.html

We'd kinda narrowed it down to the Roomba J7+ or this one. The former seems to have stronger object detection (actively claiming to be able to avoid the concern Jobbo raised) and has better mopping capability - the Tapo has stronger suction, longer run-time and a larger collector capacity on the base unit (4l vs 2.5).

We were able to get a better deal on the Tapo so went for that.

(Note: It claims 5hrs run time, which may be true on the lowest power mode, but setting the suction to a more realistic level probably halves that.)

[Holley]

Nice review Mik. What made you decide to pick this one out of the other brands out of interest?

https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/in ... 49451.html

We'd kinda narrowed it down to the Roomba J7+ or this one. The former seems to have stronger object detection (actively claiming to be able to avoid the concern Jobbo raised) and has better mopping capability - the Tapo has stronger suction, longer run-time and a larger collector capacity on the base unit (4l vs 2.5).

We were able to get a better deal on the Tapo so went for that.

(Note: It claims 5hrs run time, which may be true on the lowest power mode, but setting the suction to a more realistic level probably halves that.)

Thanks Mik, not thought about getting one before. But with a dog, 2 cats and hard wooden floors it has got me thinking.

[Jobbo]

stronger object detection (actively claiming to be able to avoid the concern Jobbo raised)

Does the detection include pools of liquid as well as objects, I wonder?

[mik]

Following the impressively middle-aged excitement expressed by a relative recently around the convenience offered by their new robot hoover, we picked up a TP-link (Tapo) RV30 Plus a week or so back.

Quick updates.

1. I discovered that if you ask it in advance to do a double-run around a room, it "chequerboards" - the second vaccuuming runs being at 90 degrees to the first. This seems to be more effective than asking it to do the room, and then sending it back out to do the same room again (whereby it follows the same path as the original).

2. I was on a call yesterday and had sent it out to hoover the kitchen. Checked it's progress on the app and was totally confused by the route it was taking - all over the place with very few straight lines. I assumed "something" must be stuck, so as soon as my call finished I went down to clear the obstruction.... but nothing was stuck. Set it going again and watched - it was a really sunny day (yes, in Scotland, yes really) and the Lidar was somehow picking up the shadows from the frames of the patio doors on the light-coloured tiles as obstructions. It still hoovered the whole surface, but took the route of a drunk teenager to do so.

[Holley]

Nice review Mik. What made you decide to pick this one out of the other brands out of interest?

https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/in ... 49451.html

We'd kinda narrowed it down to the Roomba J7+ or this one. The former seems to have stronger object detection (actively claiming to be able to avoid the concern Jobbo raised) and has better mopping capability - the Tapo has stronger suction, longer run-time and a larger collector capacity on the base unit (4l vs 2.5).

We were able to get a better deal on the Tapo so went for that.

(Note: It claims 5hrs run time, which may be true on the lowest power mode, but setting the suction to a more realistic level probably halves that.)

Thanks Mik, not thought about getting one before. But with a dog, 2 cats and hard wooden floors it has got me thinking.

Thanks to Mik's thread, my Xmas present was a Roomba J9 from Mrs Holley (she said they were half price before Xmas). Mrs Holley must have had enough of me talking about it and not buying anything to just go ahead and buy it for me. Only used it several times so far and very much enjoying it. Surprised just how well it does vacuum and the mop function is pretty decent - enough that I don't have to do a proper job until the weekend rather than every day previously.

[mik]

[Explosive Newt]

Have been happily using a Shark for the last 18 months but I worry that the rubber blades on it are a bit "harsh" and are accelerating the wear on the deep pile.

[unzippy]

I've run Dobby (Deebot) for the last 2 years.

IMO capacity and suction strength aren't that important. Because it goes out every night, after the first couple if nights there's not an awful lot to do. It's a little and often type of service.