Pros and cons of a Robot Vacuum Cleaner

We recently had a new addition to the family. His name is Neato and he is (so far) the perfect fit for our little family. We’ve only had him for a few weeks, but he has already proven his worth!

Neato is a robot vacuum and much more efficient than I’ve dare hope for. I most admit that before getting it I thought that robot vacuums were kind of a fun novelty rather than an actual help. Something to train your cat to sit on so you could make youtube videos and become internet famous. But I’m glad to say I was wrong. Sure, it’s not 100 percent perfect, but it is a big help in keeping our floor Eva-friendly. I don’t believe that a sterile environment is good for babies. Some dirt and dust will do a kid good. But that being said we do drag a whole lot of dirt into the apartement, especially since we use her pram on our balcony as well as outside and I don’t want Eva to pick up all the different things we drag in and eat it. And like most babies she will try.

Pros and cons so far

We’ve only had Neato for a few weeks, which isn’t really that long of a trial period. I can’t say a lot about battery life and whether or not it is economical vice to invest in the long run, but I can tell you about some of the pros and cons we’ve experienced so far.

Pros

1. It actually does a pretty good job. When I clean the filter I’m amazed by all the dirt, dust and little pieces it finds and sucks up. And the floor looks clean as well.
2. There have never been so little dust under the bed and sofa. And no more lying on my stomach trying to reach that one annoying spot under the bed and under the sofa. The robot will vacuum these places for us each and every time. Ahh. No more feeling guily when Eva crawls under the bed in a white onesie only to emerge in a grayish onesie.
3. Neato is pretty darn smart. It does a great job getting under the bed and sofa and manouvering around our table and chair legs as well as vacuuming over the different cords without getting stuck. 
4. The apartment is vacuumed more frequently  and thus keeps a whole lot of bits and pieces away from Eva’s mouth. After Eva’s started crawling I’ve suddenly noticed how much dirt we drag into the apartment. I’m not fanatical in any way, but I do like to keep small rocks away from her teeth and throat.
5. It saves us time. By not having to vacuum as frequently as we had to before we can do other things instead and not feel guilty about it. Like playing with Eva on the floor.
6. We are forced to tidy up. If we want the robot to do a decent job, we’ll have to tidy the place up beforehand. And for some reason it is much easier to get myself motivated to move those toys and fold that laundry when I know it means that I don’t have to vacuum. As an added bonus it means that when we have unexpected visitors the likelyhood that our home will now look somewhat decent has definitely increased.

Cons

1. We are forced to tidy up. As much as this is a pro it is also a con. Sometimes you just want that floor vacuumed without having to put every toy away.
2. Despite it doing an overall good job it still misses a few spots and doesn’t clean the panels, so we do have to vacuum once in a while with a regular vacuumer. Despite the fact that our vacuuming days are not over it is still a huge time saver as we now have to vacuum maybe every one or two weeks instead of every two or three days!
3. It sometimes get stuck so we have to robot proof the apartment. It’s not really a big deal if we’re home when it’s cleaning, but I can imagine getting quite annoyed if it gets stuck when we’re both away and expect to come home to a newly vacuumed apartement. The solution seems to robot proof our home, that is blocking the places we don’t want it to go like under a specific radiator where it seems not to be able to find it’s way out or over a certain chair where it suddenly finds itself not being able to get down again.
4. It is a rather expensive one time expense, but it will probably last for a few years so I think it’ll end up being well worth the money. We did go with one of the more expensive models, but when researching online it seemed that you do really get what you pay for.
5. Neato is a rather noisy vacuum cleaner. I don’t think it makes more noise than a regular vacuum, but we’re used to a low noise vacuumer, so it stands out. But if we are not home, who cares? If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, right?

Robot proofing the apartment using state of the art appliances (or whatever we had lying around)

Despite there being quite a few cons the pros still outweigh the cons by far and I would definitely recommend getting a robot vacuum to everyone – unless of course you actually enjoy vacuuming (I won’t judge you if you do – well, maybe a little bit). The fact that we don’t constantly debate whether or not to vacuum instead of doing the dishes or spending time with Eva is so worth it. It saves us some precious time that can be spend much more wisely. For some reason it seems there is much less time in a day since Eva arrived and I just want to spend whatever little there is enjoying Eva and our little family.

On a endnote I’m not yet sure how Eva feels about the new addition to the family. We’ve only either turned Neato on while she was asleep or just had her in the other end of the apartement. One day I guess she’ll have to meet Neato, but I’m trying to postpone it. I’m not sure whether or not it can be dangerous, but I don’t feel like finding out by trial and error.

This is not a sponsored post. No affiliation with Neato.