With more normal levels of cat hair, cigar offcuts and other detritus on wooden floors, the NaviBot made a much better job of things. But you’ll really need to move light objects out of the way first - it proved surprisingly adept at capturing cables or the laces of trainers, and even the almost empty recycling box got pushed around the kitchen.
The business end
My bedroom has presented a challenge to many, and the NaviBot was no exception. It took a few attempts before realising that it should go around the barber’s chair, rather than grounding itself on the base – lower obstacles, like the strips between rooms, presented no obstacle. And, even after two Max cleaning cycles, there was still plenty of ingrained dirt for the Dyson to deal with.
That said, most people don’t have rooms as messy as mine. On carpet, with an ordinary level of dirt, the results were certainly acceptable.
Verdict
If you have hard floors, and not too much clutter, then the NaviBot can certainly save you a lot of time – but it’s also pretty pricey. It cleans up the mess on carpets too, but it’s not really going to help if you’re pathologically messy - there’s just not enough suction to remove really ingrained dirt.
Gadget lovers will love it, and minimalists won’t have any problems with it. But if you’re somewhere in between, the need to make sure there’s space for the NaviBot to get around unobstructed, the cost, and the need for another vacuum to do the really dirty work, mean it’s hard to wholeheartedly recommend, adorable though it is. ®
More Gagdet Reviews |
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 iRobot
Roomba 560 |
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Navigator |
Samsung NaviBot robot cleaner
COMMENTS
Good God, man!
Testing that robot in your apartment is like running a Citroen C1 in the Paris-Dakar rally. I was going to say that you needed to clean, but I've revised my judgment - you need to -move-. Just give up on your deposit, take only things that plug into the wall, and leave. Please.
Take off and nuke the apartment from orbit
If those pictures are anything to go by, its the only way to be sure
I must say...
That if I ever visit your house, I mustn't forget to wipe my feet on the way OUT...
Robb
Get Kim and Aggie in there
Looks like there's enough for a 30 minute episode.
+1 for the Roomba
We've been running an iRobot Roomba at home for nearly a year, and despite my initial sceptiscism it's turned out to be worth the money. We've got laminate downstairs, and on hard surfaces you really notice the tiniest bit of dirt or grit, so scheduling it to run every other day ensures that the floor is always spotless. Once a week I set it off upstairs as well, which is carpeted, and it does an excellent job on that too.
I think the key thing with robots like these, though, is that they don't need to be as good as a Dyson - they're meant for regular, scheduled cleaning, not a once-a-fortnight deep clean. If you schedule the robot to clean at, say, 9am every day, or every other day if you don't have kids/more than two people in the house, then dust and dirt won't have a chance to build up - it'll only ever be cleaning up light amounts of dirt, which it will do quite happily.
They're not cheap, but like an e-reader, the convenience factor will make them worthwhile to some people - now if they'd just make one that will do the stairs as well...!
