Bobsweep Robotic Vacuum Cleaner

I have wanted a robotic vacuum for a long time, so I was excited last year when I saw a deal on Groupon for a robotic vacuum called Bobsweep. I hadn't heard of the company and had always planned on getting a Roomba, but the price was right and the reviews seemed decent. I have no had my Bobsweep for about a year and it has caused more stress than relief. I had to send it in for repairs after only a few months and it came back working better, but shortly all of its flaws became apparent again.

Why I bought a Bobsweep Pethair:

1. Larger dustbin- I thought this would increase its convenience as I don't have to empty the dustbin as often. I think the large dustbin may contribute to its other flaws, however.

2. Mop attachment - I thought this would be great for my hardwood floors, but the mop attachment cannot go over any kind of obstacle, making it pretty much useless. When the mop attachment is on, the Bob gets stuck on transitions between rooms and gives an error signal almost immediately.

3. UV Light to kill bacteria - the light is on and it seems to work.

4. Both side and under-brushes - these seem to work as advertised

5. Pethair model - is supposed to handle pet hair and more readily detect and avoid pets and small children - I don't know how well the normal model's sensors work, but Pethair model has no problem chasing down my daughter and easily gets bogged down with human hair.

Why I dislike my Bobsweep Pethair:

1. Bottom sensors cannot detect dark spots - The first thing I noticed was that the Bob would give me an error message whenever it tried to vacuum our area rug. I tried to figure this out for weeks and finally realized that it was because dark spots on the area rug made it think that it was going over an edge and try to turn around. Unfortunately, because my rug has a pattern it confused the Bob and it couldn't handle it. Bob comes with blindfold stickers that blindfold these sensors, making them useless but making it so that he'll go over darker colored areas of your floor/carpet.

2. Bob can't find his way home - I can have Bob run out of battery life within 15 feet of his docking station and start looking for home and it won't find the docking station. At first I thought it might just need to learn my home and was smart enough to figure things out, but this is not the case. I have had him for nearly a year and sent him in for warranty repairs once. In more than 300 days of cleaning, he has made it back to his docking station on his own two times. Even when set immediately in front of the docking station, and within ten feet of it, he will often approach it and then turn around still searching for his home.

3. Bob can't get over the hump - we have small wooden transitions between some of our rooms. These are tiny, maybe 1 cm off the ground. Bob struggles immensely to get past these and often gets stuck.

4. Bob can't transition - We have mostly hardwood floors with some runners and area rugs throughout the house. Bob does fine on the hardwood floors and helps eliminate dust and dirt in areas we just don't clean that often. However, he can't get over the lip of my rugs half of the time. Because he works in different patterns, he will often waste all of his battery life attempting to get from the hardwood floor onto a simple carpet. Then, once he gets onto the carpet his battery life drains 10x as fast as on the hardwood. I have purposefully set Bob, fully charged on the carpets because they needed the most cleaning. He will often run out of battery life within 5 minutes when I do this and almost never finishes cleaning a single area rug.

5. Bob wanders aimlessly - I understand that robotic vacuums work on algorithms and do not take the normal course I would while vacuuming. Bob, however, seems to wander completely aimlessly. Some days he'll stay in the same room all day and never leave, cleaning the same corner over and over again. I know that he supposedly has sensors that let him know that an area is dirtier and he may stay on that area longer if needed, but often times he just wants to clean a very clean area of my house a lot. He never seems to make it back to his home base and just goes to the strangest places where he decides to spend all of his battery life before running out and trying to dock, despite his eternal struggle to find his home.

6. Bob is loud - At first, I thought I might have Bob run downstairs while I slept. Nope, way too loud. And he gets louder the longer I have him. With each passing day he seems to have less suction and more noise. I have run all the diagnostics and he's passed. I've sent him in for repairs and he returns with the same problems. I can only assume this is how he's supposed to work. It's not very effective.

Finally, I don't hate everything about Bob. I just really really wish that he worked like he was supposed to. Things I like:

1. It does cleaning that we often don't find the time for.

2. It has a large dustbin.

3. It has a fun name.

Our friends with a Roomba say that the Roomba always returns to its dock. I've listened to it, it is much quieter. It seems to know where it's going and to find its way home. I've watched it easily get onto an area rug and off. It's battery seems to last. Bob? He gets lost a lot. He gets stuck a lot. He never finds his way home. And he's pretty loud. Every day he runs it stresses my wife out. He was supposed to make life easier, instead on a weekly basis I'm checking error codes and running diagnostics that tell me everything is okay. Watching Bob work, I see why a robotic vacuum can be so helpful. Owning Bob has made me want a Roomba even more. Anybody want my Bob? Maybe I can get some of my investment back and start saving up for a decent robotic vacuum...

well made, however I wanted it to do a large room, and it only did the perimeter of the room or the areas against furniture. It did not do the center areas of the room. Also, it does not transition from carpet to floor and vice versa if there is a transition strip. I had to follow it around to keep it going. I did as much as if I was vacuuming. Not worth the price. I sent it back