As technology takes over our lives, robot vacuums are appearing in more and more homes. They go around your home and handle things without you having to bend, crawl, or move items. How can this impact your floor cleaning?
Regular Cleaning
These vacuums allow you to have your floors cleaned on a regular, consistent schedule. While you may have previously vacuumed your home on a weekly or more infrequent basis, you can now have your floors cleaned daily, perhaps while you sleep. To make this system work, you will now have to empty and maintenance the robot vacuum cleaner every day or few days.
Hard to Reach Spots
Beyond the more consistent schedule, these vacuums are generally smaller and able to go into hard to reach spots. Think about the last time you vacuumed, did you actually lift your couch to clean underneath it?
Spot Cleaning
Some of these robot vacuums have a mode for handling a spill or mess in one area. This allows the vacuum to focus on that section of the home and clean it up, although not all the robot cleaners come with this setting.
Mop Replacement
While not all robot vacuums have it, a few of them have an option for it to mop or “wet clean” certain types of floors too. This is a nice feature but the technology is still evolving, and they have extremely limited scrubbing power. This is not at a level that should be used as a regular replacement to mopping just yet.
Technology Limitations
Some of these vacuums are now wifi-connected, so you can trigger it through an app on your phone or computer. Things are still a little behind though, as with the mop feature, much this technology is still evolving. The battery can be limited, the bin size maybe too small to handle more than one cleaning worth of dirt, or the device may fall down stairs, get stuck on area rugs, or have trouble finding its way back to the charging station.
Vacuum-Proof the Home
Having these devices doesn’t mean you can leave it and forget it. You need to clean up the surrounding areas as small toys, socks, or other small items could get stuck in it and break it.
In fact, this can be a big issue with pets, especially if they are not toilet trained. Recently, one of our clients had severe damage to the device and their flooring when the robot vacuum spread a puppy’s accident all over their home. We were able to completely clean and sanitize their flooring but the vacuum had tremendous damage.
Doesn’t Fully Replace Vacuuming
While this helps keep the house somewhat cleaner, these devices are not as powerful or effective as traditional vacuums. It is recommended that you still vacuum regularly and use a robotic vacuum for home maintenance in between more familiar methods of floor cleaning. A recent robot vacuum review found that the upright traditional vacuum is still far more effective that the best bots.
While robot vacuums promise to be one of the next wave of useful technologies, we still have a long ways to go. Regular vacuuming and even professional carpet, hardwood, or area rug cleaning are still essential. Please contact us with any questions or if you’d like to schedule your professional cleaning today.