The robot vacuum cleaner market has been gaining a lot of momentum over the past few years. In fact, it’s expected to reach $50.65 billion by the year 2028! So, it’s clearly justified why you’re thinking about spending money on a robot vacuum cleaner.
Is it worth it, though? Should you buy a robot vacuum cleaner? You’ll find all the information you need to make that decision in this article, so stick around.
Pros and Cons of a Robot Vacuum Cleaner
Before you spend your hard-earned money on a robot vacuum cleaner, you need to weigh up all the positives and the negatives first.
Here are the pros and cons of getting a robot vacuum cleaner:
Positives of Buying a Robot Vacuum Cleaner
Unlike traditional vacuums, robot vacuum cleaners are compact and easy to manoeuvre. This is especially helpful for older people and people with injuries or disabilities.
Besides, you don’t have to manually vacuum your floor. Your robot vacuum will do this job for you. You only need to give it the order to clean or even set a cleaning schedule for it on its app.
On top of all that you don’t have to worry about its battery running out. These vacuums return to their charging docks after finishing their cleaning cycle. Some models stop during the cleaning cycle to return to their charging docks if a low battery is detected.
When it comes to emptying the dust bag, some models can do it automatically via the charging dock. Others will notify you when it’s time to empty the dust bag.
While with a traditional vacuum you have to move some furniture to clean underneath it, robot vacuums eliminate this inconvenience.
Because they’re small in size, they can fit under the bed or couches. They can also get to those corners that you can’t reach. Some models can even climb up smooth surfaces!
Robot vacuums can be used on multiple types of surfaces. You don’t need to adjust its settings like you have to do with traditional vacuum cleaners. They do that on their own with the aid of specialized sensors.
Negatives of Buying a Robot Vacuum Cleaner
Robot vacuum cleaners are quite expensive and they don’t seem that they’re getting cheaper any time soon. However, their higher prices are justified with all the high tech features you get. You can find cheaper models, but they won’t have a lot of features like the expensive ones.
Another strong drawback that needs some work is that these types of vacuum cleaners aren’t as effective on carpets as traditional vacuums. Robot vacuum cleaners don’t have high suction power. They can even damage some types of rugs like shag rugs.
While they’re great for hard-to-reach areas, they do get stuck a lot. This is expected, though. In the end, they’re still robots. This problem has a solution, though, as some models enable you to set virtual walls for them and determine their routes.
Also, some models can climb medium-height obstacles. Again, you need to adjust the settings in the app so the vacuum can be able to do that.
Robot vacuums require some pre-cleaning before running their cycle. You need to remove toys or other items that aren’t meant to be on the floor. This is similar to what you already do before vacuuming with a traditional vacuum.
Lastly, since robot vacuum cleaners are high-tech appliances, they’re quite expensive to fix.
Things to Consider Before Buying a Robot Vacuum Cleaner
Before buying a robot vacuum cleaner, you need to determine whether or not your home and lifestyle are compatible with having one.
Type of Flooring
Before getting a robot vacuum cleaner, you need to know whether or not it can actually clean your flooring well.
It matters a lot specifically if you have wall-to-wall carpeting, as robot vacuum cleaners aren’t the best for cleaning carpets, so you might need to think about different options.
Do you have a lot of high obstacles in the space you’re going to run the vacuum in? If yes, then, again, you might need to consider another option.
House Pets
If you have furry pets in your house that shed a lot, then a robot vacuum cleaner will be your best friend. You can easily set a daily schedule to clean that shedding hair and keep the floor looking nice.
However, you need to make sure that your little furry friend didn’t leave any poop on the floor. In this case, a vacuum cleaner will do more harm than good.
Tech-Savviness
Robot vacuums are high-tech appliances that have a ton of features. Even though they do most of their work automatically, you need to give it the order or adjust its settings to suit your house.
So, if you’re not very tech-savvy and aren’t good at dealing with high-tech appliances, it may be hard for you to fully take good advantage of your robot vacuum.
Should I Replace My Traditional Vacuum With a Robot One?
Even though robot vacuum cleaners are improving every day and boast a lot of cool and helpful features, they still can’t beat the traditional vacuum in terms of deep cleaning.
Traditional vacuum cleaners flaunt higher suction power than robot ones. Also, with a traditional vacuum, you can get to certain corners and areas that a robot vacuum can’t get to on its own.
On the other hand, robot vacuum cleaners are helpful for everyday cleaning without needing to exert any effort or waste any of your time.
So, while you need the traditional vacuum for deep cleaning, you also need your robot vacuum for convenience and ease of cleaning.
That said, it’s good to have them both, but you can’t really replace traditional vacuum cleaners with robot ones.
The Verdict
After taking the pros and cons of robot vacuum cleaners into consideration, we think that they’re extremely helpful for day-to-day cleaning.
Robot vacuum cleaners are also more helpful for people with disabilities and injuries that like to have something to take the effort of vacuuming off of their shoulders.
With all the amazing features robot vacuum cleaners have to offer, we believe they’re worth the investment. However, you shouldn’t consider them as a replacement for traditional vacuums as they tend to lack the suction power needed to clean rugs and carpets properly.