Before making any purchase, it is important to always weigh the pros and cons associated with buying and owning a particular item. This holds true for most products that would be considered luxuries, including robotic vacuum cleaners.
If you are currently shopping for a robotic cleaning unit, or are in the process of deciding whether or not such an item is right for you, learning the advantages and disadvantages associated with robotic vacuum cleaners is a great place to start.
Advantages
Automatic: Do you enjoy maneuvering a bulky, heavy, and noisy traditional vacuum cleaner around the house or would you rather do something else? With a robotic vacuum cleaner, you are free to pursue other activities—you just turn it on, or set it to a schedule so that you do not have to turn it on, and let it go about its work. Most models will even put themselves away after they have finished, returning to the docking station to recharge.
Cheaper than a maid, more socially acceptable than child labor: After a long day either at work or running errands, the last activity in which people want to engage is cleaning. After all, who enjoys coming home from a job only to immediately start on another one? Maid services can be quite expensive, and there is always the paranoia that comes along with letting a stranger into your home. Child labor, though cheap, is unadvisable as well, as the police generally do not take kindly to adults propositioning children on the street with promises of money. Plus, it’s illegal and today’s children have had “stranger danger” hammered into them since birth. A robotic vacuum cleaner, however, is a great third option. They range in price from tens to thousands of dollars, but as long as you do not overspend, you will find that purchasing a cleaning unit is cheaper in the end.
Easy to store: Robotic cleaning units are incredibly compact, unlike their traditional counterparts, whose bulk can easily take up half of a small closet. The robotic cleaner is generally no more than twelve inches in diameter and can be stored almost anywhere.
Cleans hard to reach places: What was the last time you cleaned underneath the heaviest pieces of furniture in your house? Is it an annual thing or have you taken to swiping a broom underneath it every once in a while? Whatever your method, using a robotic vacuum cleaner is much easier. You do not have to bend, move furniture, sweep, or really do anything at all: just let the unit run its course and make sure it goes underneath the furniture.
Disadvantages
You need to pre-clean before using it. Unlike a human doing the vacuuming, a robotic cleaning unit will not know when to pass over an item and when to suck it up. This means that if there are things like Legos or hamsters on your floor, there is a good chance that your new robot friend will try to eat them in the name of cleanliness. Therefore, if you want to ensure that you do not break your vacuum cleaner, you have to do a pre-vacuum pickup around the house.
Replacement parts can be costly. While most models do come with some kind of warranty, they typically do not cover wear-and-tear that results from repeated use. Repairing a worn out or broken robotic cleaning unit can be very expensive.
Cleanliness can largely depend on how much money you spend. The old adage “you get what you pay for” seems to hold true in almost all circumstances and robotic vacuum cleaners are no exception. Generally, if you buy a cheap machine, you won’t get the results of a higher-end model. Therefore, if you are really serious about using a robotic vacuum cleaner, you should not be afraid to spend a little money.
Does not give the results of a manual clean. If you have done any kind of research at all on robotic vacuum cleaners, then you have probably already seen countless comments or reviews about how the unit cleans well, but not as well as a human using a traditional vacuum cleaner. This is true, but it is one of the things you forfeit when you opt for greater convenience.
Is a robotic vacuum cleaner the right choice for you? Only research and an evaluation of your specific needs will give you that answer.
