Anyone got a dog and a robot vacuum cleaner, do they get along?

Community Playground General Discussions
#1

Thinking about buying a robot vacuum cleaner, any recommendations? Ideas for Vera integrations?

Also worried if our dog will freak out, he’s a little crazy Dachshund.

I know when I get the regular vacuum cleaner I have out and start using it, he just runs off out of the way, as he doesn’t like it.

He might attack a robot one, if he’s feeling brave enough LOL.

#2

I have had a robotic vacuum for a little while now. I’ve had a few models from Neato, and ever since my Doberman has been a pup hes had no issues with it. I’ve trained him to go into his crate (his safe zone) whenever the vacuum is on.

However being that yours is still a pup I’d recommend looking into getting an AI robot so that it will hopefully avoid any accidents left by your dog and not smear everything everywhere :joy:

The best advice I can give is get your dog familiar with the robot on and off, and they won’t even notice it after a few days of use! Good luck :relaxed:

Oh also as for recommendations, I like the Neato brand a lot but their support is horrible and they don’t care to fix existing bugs. Look into the new Roborocks, I have heard amazing things about them. VacuumWars on YouTube does awesome reviews.

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#3

I’ll second this. Also, Neatos have terrible battery charging discipline (and maybe also discharging discipline) and many people find the batteries have a short life. If you’re techie/handy, it’s pretty easy to isolate the bad cell and replace it in the pack, though ($4-6 + your time). Good full replacements used to be expensive, but now cost around $25 from Bezos’ Online Emporium, and are available in higher capacities than factory.

We have a lot of modern furniture with, for lack of a better description, “flat” feet… like strips of wood or metal that lay flat on the floor, rising 1/2" or so above the carpet. The Neato high-sides itself routinely on these and will stall and chirp until you rescue it. We also have two Roombas, and they do not exhibit this problem. And we have yet to replace a battery on the Roombas. The Neatos do a good job, in general, but the battery and stalling issues make it second-rate compared to the Roombas, and my wife thinks the Roombas clean better.

We have a cat. Although “accidents” aren’t a problem, hairballs are, so I think all pet and robovac owners can relate to the challenges of their vac gleefully painting a room an inappropriate color. You get to clean the inside of the vac, too. The struggle is real.

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#4

Surprisingly I have had very good experiences with battery. On my botvac 85 I had it for 5 years and ran it daily and the battery finally crapped the bed after 5 years of use. It used around 50%-60% per run so maybe that’s why I didn’t have any issues in the long term. On my newer Neatos (D5 and D7) the D7 is on roughly 500 charge cycles and no issues there either. The D7 does the full house and almost drains the whole battery each run.

#5

I’ve heard that, too. If you look at reviews on Google and Amazon, you’ll see a lot of people have the problem of the unit telling you to move the battery switch to the “on” position, when it already is, and the unit will do nothing else. Replacement of the battery is the solution. Testing such a battery, you find that either the pack voltage is typically low by 2-3 volts, or it’s right around 12.6 but under load (1A), drops from about 12.6 volts to around 10 volts within a few seconds. This can usually be traced to a single cell in the pack, which contains 10. The packs seem well made. The NiMh cells look clean, are well assembled, and there’s both a temperature sensor (the yellow wires on the cable) and a mid-circuit temperature cut-off device. Really no signs of quality issues in the build.

The problem seems spread over a sufficient number of reports/reviews and wide range of time that a bad manufacturing run or other cell-supplier problem seems unlikely. That kind of leaves discharge and charge profiles, in my mind. Now, I have a pretty thick carpet in about half of the house, and it does seem to strain getting through it (the Roombas do not, however). But I’ve also seen too many… um… off-shore… devices with horrible charging disciplines that cook batteries. You said you ran yours every day for five years. We would run ours only two days a week, so maybe it’s an overcharging problem (again, we run our Roombas on that same schedule and have not replaced a battery yet). NiMh is known for losing capacity when overcharged, so maybe that’s it.

Our one remaining Neato D80 died last year and sat on a shelf until I dusted it off a few weeks ago. It is now running in our basement, which has mostly hard floors, and an aftermarket 4500mAh battery pack currently. So far, so good, but time will tell…

#6

Had a roomba years ago, kept having problems, numerous DIY fixes via youtube, replacing sensors, etc. Found it was more trouble than it was worth. Newer models may be more reliable.

#7

I have two Roombas, old school (so, no wifi). The wife’s favorite is an old Roomba 920. It’s approaching 10 years (!) and, after 3 batteries and a flat tire, it’s still running daily on our upper floor. I’ll eventually get a new one, with room based cleaning, when it’ll die.

#8

Old-fashion Karcher RC-3000. (цith the function of dumping trash into a large base)
Live together with 2 hairy dogs (wolfspitz, mittelspitz) and mid-haired cat (abissinian cat).
Sometimes cat rode on the robovac :smile:
Dogs - do nothing, while robot don’t try to eat his tails :slight_smile:

About 3 times pet week. 6 hour per one run.
Wheels and brush changed
Batteries changed (by alternative supplier, 10 times cheaper, then original)
Fibaro Implant (Z-Wave) integrated (just for fun)

#9

I did a lot of research as I have 2 German Shepherds. The Roborock S6 MaxV is what I chose. I am very happy with it. It also is intelligent enough to avoid doggie landmines and shoes.