Casual things:
•We set Roy to clean every day at 2:00pm, for the first few weeks on the highest suction power, using the smarthings app you can review a map of where it’s been (but you can’t choose rooms like in previous iterations of the product, more about that later) - for almost 3 weeks straight, we’d come home to clean vacuumed lines that were paralel and perpendicular (with a few curves) which is great because previous vacs we’ve had did random chaos tracks, we’d empty the dust bin, and were AMAZED how many days it was FULL FULL FULL of dust-bunny and debris (we went a month without a vacuum cleaner since our last one died, but dang!)
• After a few weeks, we set Roy down to normal suction power, because the dust bin would just have a moderate sized dust-bunny in it taking up about 1/2 2/3 of the space. and that’s where we’ve left it.
• When we are home and on weekends, watching Roy rove around is …FUN… yes it’s fun, because it’s a freaking ROBOT vacuuming your house like Star Wars future right now. haha.
Tangible things:
• the powerbots have 2 things which were the reason we bought them - optical & infrared mapping based on sight of the ceiling, and EDGE cleaning.
• The edge cleaning is freaking amazing, check out videos on youtube to see what’s happening, I posted a video of Roy doing a quick edge clean - The pwoerbot has a flexible/rigid blade it extends from it’s front lip down into the crevice in front of it at the bottom of wall trim and other walls/edges, it sinks it down as far as it can, and pulls back, then pulls forward with a SUPER HIGH suction, to pick up any bits it just pulled out. I thought it would only matter for hardwood or linoleum/tile, but it works on Carpet too - I actually drilled some holes in a wall for a shelf and had drywall dust all over the floor and Roy got all of it in the carpet!!!!! (tip: if cleaning lots of powder things, be sure to *wash* the dust bin at some point to prevent it making little plaques in the corners of the dustbin)
• Bonus: REMOTE CONTROL: yes you can control it from your phone, that got old fast, our favorite thing to do, is grab the remote control and move Roy around like a remote control car, it’s very easy and we’ll move him to a place to do a spot clean all the time, like after I’m done making food in the kitchen, and after I’m finished clipping my toenails (I know, but this is a real thing, c’mon) you maneuver it over to the place (or just pick it up and place it) and press the ’Spot’ button on the remote: it’ll come alive and start making a square spiral from the center of where it’s at, the square goes to about 8-10 feet wide, and during this cleaning it’ll use the edge function and of course avoid obstacles and go around them.
•What if I want just one room? You can put it in any room, and then physicall block off an area loosely with chairs, or other barriers to keep it in one room, unfortunatley THIS model doesn’t work with the magnetic boundary tape (Samsung never says it does but it also does’nt say it ‘doesn’t’ but it doesn’t, this model isn’t listed on the models it works with, so don’t bother buying it.)
• Many review videos on youtube show you something incorrectly - these powerbot Dust Bins, you push a button in the top, it pops up, and you grab the bracket holding it’s innards, and pull out, then dump the contents. that’s it. For some reason, most review videos, show people taking apart the innards to get to the dust bin stuff? no idea why they are doing that. You CAN take apart the innards of the mechanism area - TO CLEAN IT but you do’nt take it apart to dump it. You should clean the stuff inside if it gets caked up with dust bunnies that won’t shake out or powders. You just RUN IT ALL UNDER WATER IN THE SINK! so great, let the pieces air dry or if you’re impatient like me, wipe clean all the plastic parts and hair-dryer the filter (or buy a second filter).
•RTFM read the frggin manual people, nearly all questions are answered in it and you’ll learn cool stuff it does that are too minute details to go into in reviews.
The best thing about having one of these, is COMING HOME TO A CLEAN FLOOR, the psychological instant gratification of the carpet being ‘mowed’ into these rows, can’t be ignored, it always puts a little smile on my face.
So far we’ve had a great experience with it, we’ve only had these tiny hiccups:
• twice, it went ‘home’ and the battery wasn’t charging, it chimed and shut off with the battery light blinking, which is strange because it always homes itself to the proper spot, and re-aligns itself as needed. The culprit? some food or shmoots had gotten on one of the charging contacts - clorox wipe and paper towel got it off and let it keep charging. not sure if it picked up the stuff and smeared it over the contact, but either way, it was an easy fix, just keep an eye if it’s charging, it’s pretty obvious but would make it hard to ‘hide’ the robot and charger somewhere under something - which is totally a thing you can do but you won’t be able to ’see’ it at a glance.
We know, someday Roy will break, and we’ll have to look at warranty options and such, but it’s been such a great experience, that it’s worth it to buy again. The chore of vacumming - DAILY is beyond most people’s responsibility level, and the price paid for this time of your LIFE back, is a bargain.