If you, like me, have found cleaning your home to be less of a necessary chore these days and more of a welcome work-from-home distraction, perhaps you’ve been considering the state of your vacuum. Before my apartment became my life, my old upright vacuum did the trick for my weekly Sunday morning cleaning ritual, and I barely gave it any thought after half-heartedly tying up the vacuum’s cord and shoving it in a closet. Now, not only is my house messier, but I notice that mess on every single Zoom call. I’ve started to truly consider my cleaning tools.
With that in mind, I turned to my coworkers to test out a variety of vacuums. And I took the opportunity to play vacuum matchmaker: I heard their needs and wants and number of pets and tried to pair them up with the new and interesting vacuums on the market, which they tested for a number of weeks before deciding if my personalized selection was worth the price. While you won’t find head-to-head competition for every vacuum type, I hope you’ll walk away with a greater sense of the pros and cons of all the creatures out there in the great vacuum sea, and can choose the one that is right for you, your floors, your rug, and every crack and crevice in your home.
The best thing about this vacuum: I’ve never owned a robot vacuum before and wrongly assumed that it just wouldn’t provide as deep of a clean as a manual vacuum. I’m very glad I was wrong! It “learned” the contours of my apartment very quickly, and my floors feel cleaner and dog-hair-freer than ever; plus, I didn’t have to lug a heavy contraption around my apartment for hours.
The frustrating thing about this vacuum: So, I have two primary frustrations with the Deebot. The first was another incorrect assumption on my part, but I definitely thought it’d be quieter, especially since you can schedule it to clean every day. It definitely outputs more noise than I’d like to encourage on a regular basis, especially for such a small machine! The second is that it seems completely stumped by the thicker pile Moroccan rug I have in my living room. Tied for second is that my dog is fully terrified of it.
Is it worth the price: The $600 price tag is pretty steep and, because I’m not convinced that its mopping capabilities are, in fact, strong enough to replace a conventional mop, I might consider looking at one of Deebot’s more accessibly priced options that skip the mopping functionality.
First impressions: When I first opened the box, I had a moment of “UGH there are too many parts this is going to be too complicated.” But it turned out to be incredibly easy to put together—the first three pieces I pulled out of the box clicked together in minutes. It also gave me a thrilling five minutes of vacuuming right off the bat, no initial charging.