3 Reasons I WILL NEVER Go Back to A Regular Vacuum!

[@bazanime]

My small apartment has done fine with my little Eufy 15c robovac for over a year. It's not a smart lidar or camera system, but it's just fine for my small footprint of carpet floors. It's on a simple every 2-day schedule, so my floor is always debris free. Maintenance only takes me 10 minutes at the end of the week, emptying it bin, cleaning out the filter, and general brush defluffing. Always gives me a smile when I get a ping on my smartwatch that is started cleaning and when I get back from work to see a good job done. I look forward to getting the smart self empty and self clean version when I move into a big house.

[@simga5372]

If you have animals, the compression bag will fill very fast. I will wait for when they add the self emptying feature.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Yeah and you can use the compartment they give you with it, but you'd still be emptying a lot.

[@bradkrekelberg8624]

I've been holding off considering a premium robot vacuum for a while seeing them still having many shortcomings for years. It's really good to hear they've come a long way and can mostly be relied on to do what they promise.

[@AutomateYourLife]

This year, you're getting some great choices Brad. Keep a look out :)

[@hrdcpy]

How funny. Last night I watched Vacuum Wars CES recap and that included new products from Narwal. Nice inclusion of the time budgeting. It really adds up.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Nice timing then! Thanks!

[@HughD]

Nice review, Brian and you make some good points. I currently have a fairly recent Roborock and love it. It has a lot of the same features as the Narwall and that makes it very nice to have. I do have a couple of comments. First, I never see anyone talking about the height of these units. That is important to me. I want, for example the vacuum to fit under beds and I had a Roomba a couple of years ago that couldn't get there and a couple of other places in the house. My current vacuum works because I made sure it does. As for a schedule, after several years of ownership I've decided that for me, the only place that gets scheduled is the kitchen and that is at 1 am every night after we've gone to bed. As for the other rooms, there's all to often a chair or pillow or some other piece of furniture or clothing that has been moved and that sometimes even blocks a route causing missed areas. I prefer to take a look as I'm leaving , and then turn it loose. We also have bar stools in the house and at times I want to move them totally out of the way so the vacuum/mop can clean thoroughly in those areas. Some of the issues will never get fixed, but what they do these days, they do well. I'll resist saying that you're channel now sucks!!! Because it doesn't in every way that matters.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Hey Hugh! Just about everyone I know says Roborock has the same set of features and that they love them. Up until this last unit from Narwal and maybe one of the ones last year, I hadn't found myself willing to just let the schedule send the vacuum and mop out. Like you said, blocked routes or things in the way can just stop things from getting clean. However, I have yet to see this one make a mistake that would be detrimental...so worst case it can't get through somewhere and we miss a bit. I'm just not going to think about vacuuming and mopping ever again (I hope)! But yeah...heights. You're right, I didn't even talk about it! :) Take care sir!

[@ecoheliguy]

@@AutomateYourLife I think too many people put to much emphasis on 100% coverage. The beauty of these Vacuums and mops is that they can be sent out more than 100% as often as a home owner would do the same tasks. It doesn’t matter if it misses a corner once a week, or misses a bedroom 2/3rds of the days. It’s the repeat coverage that keeps the place clean and tidy. I have my robot quickly clean the entrance after we leave the house (because after we leave it’s usually dry vs after we arrive). I also have the mod do a quick pass under my kitchen cabinet in the evening after we are done in the kitchen to catch all the water drops from washing dishes, loading the dish washer, and cleaning up. With bedrooms on the top floor, run the cleaning cycle in the middle of the night on the main floor. Run the upstairs bedroom and bathroom midday on weekdays as everyone is usually away. One a week we lift the dinning room chairs and the dust bins, cloths hampers, ect, off the floor so the robot team has a clear run, doesn’t need to be all the same rooms on the same day. The kids know that if they leave their door open, the floors will be vacuumed, so their door is a simple on/off switch they control. The biggest thing we watch for is not running the robots in hallways when people sleep, and to make sure the vacuum doesn’t run at times the floors could have moisture (after showers, dishes, arriving home with wet gear). Also we turn off the notifications to our phones when away from home using Apples Focus settings, we honestly don’t care if the process stopped while we are out.

[@Pabz2030]

When people say "I dont need a robovac I can sweep the floors myself" I ask them why they have a dishwasher, washing machine, microwave, car etc etc

[@AutomateYourLife]

It's a huge time saver today!😃

[@Bellatheenglishbulldog21]

I just ordered one, arriving Monday. I had an Ecovacs omni 1 for almost 2 years and it wasn’t moping anymore. Thank God I had insurance from Amazon. Anyways, ecovacs was good but hair was getting stock on its wheels and brush. We have 3 ladies and 4 english bulldogs in this house, which means that there is a lot of long hair and tiny hair on the floor which is pretty annoying to lift even with a brush. I hope the suction power works for me. Also, ecovacs was not only disconnecting all the time, hair was getting stock everywhere, but the cleaning of the bottom part of the unit was a pain and as you can imagine, I had to go thru it a lot due to the circumstances of my house, but this robots are built for that, I guess. At the end, the unit wasn’t sucking the dirty water and return it was the right decision. I hope I have good luck with this one.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Good luck! It's been great but...I don't have that many hair-losers in my place 😃🤣

[@garyhenderson9303]

2024 is the year I will be taking the plunge now that the standard Models have all of the premium features I was not prepared to pay so much for in previous premium versions. Great to see that this version can be set to clean when the house is in away mode as this was a key need for me. Not sure if it will ever be an option but I do not want any Vac driving around when I am Hungover and suffering :) What I love is the time saving these Vacs offer, but also the fact that they clean even on those days where I could not be bothered to do a manual clean meaning home stays clean regardless of my lazy level. One thing that has always put me off is the Investment in a Brand I do not know. Most of the good Brands are Brands I have previously never heard of so investing in something so expensive (more than 10 times the cost of a standard manual Vac) with a brand I have never used and not knowing will it last for years like my manual Vac (currently 10+ years) has, has been putting me off slightly. I tend to be a Fanboy on things like my power tools, My Kitchen appliances, My TVs etc constantly coming back to brands I trust and know. But reviews like this have helped make me ready for the plunge into the most expensive piece of Smart Home tech I have invested in.

[@AutomateYourLife]

LOL nobody wants it driving around when they're hungover. That is 100% the truth! Just watch because that Alexa routine is the only way to do this. No Google or Siri method. In Alexa, You'd need to set the home to away mode if multiple people had left in your own way. That routine is only based off one person leaving. I'd use a button ;)

[@joshwallettravels]

We have 2 iRobot vacuums and 2 iRobot mops. We are hooked on robots keeping the house clean! Narwal looks like a great option!

[@AutomateYourLife]

Sounds so fun to watch!

[@MrHarmer19]

This is all like a new hobby for me, I've had several robot vacuum cleaners to buy and sell on a popular site 😊.. Irobot roombas started with a roomba 530 and learned abit how they function, then got to know about lidar navigation.. What a game changer that is.. Love the 360 s8 botslab... Some are more easier than others when if comes to maintainence and changing the battery, the roombas are very easy to charge the battery,, unfortunately not the case with the botslab 360, certainly not for the faint hearted 😅

[@AutomateYourLife]

I don't imagine it's an easy thing to do!

[@Yama_1291]

Going by the color of the wastewater, your robot seems to be washing out the stain from the hardwood floor at your place. You might want to consider reducing mopping intensity to preserve it.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Thanks!

[@karasummers7286]

Great review. Will you review the Roborock with the plumbing set up?

[@AutomateYourLife]

I would love to Kara! I want to do a comparison review of a few this year too

[@rdy4trvl]

Second that question. A review of the Roborock would be neat.

[@ivan-j4l9x]

I currently have a brava jet but have to change the pad everyday(first world problems). I like the idea of these self cleaning mop.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Lots of brands do it today, but this is the best I've seen for mopping

[@ivan-j4l9x]

@AutomateYourLife best part is that it cleans the floor without winging.

[@LebDusty]

thx for the video. how long battery last? what about charging stats?

[@AutomateYourLife]

I don't have an exact measurement for you on the battery, but I've had this thing running for an hour and only had it draw down about 30%. It'll go a while

[@ronm6585]

Thanks Brian. Looks like a great vacuum.

[@AutomateYourLife]

You bet! Thank you sir

[@BrandonDoyleMN]

I’ve been pretty impressed with the new Narwal so far! It seems to do well with picking up corgi hair and mopping

[@AutomateYourLife]

Super good on this version. It's those big improvements in design

[@BrandonDoyleMN]

@@AutomateYourLife yes, it even does really well with edges where previous mops couldn’t reach

[@ivan-j4l9x]

I saw som reviews saying poor performance on low pile carpets

[@AutomateYourLife]

That's where turning up the suction power as part of your schedule really helps

[@stevephipps9305]

With the different water settings on this vac, does the company say that the mopping feature is safe to use on composite floors that are not waterproof? Love your video's.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Ooooh I don't know that one. I'll ask

[@Darthwein]

Any idea what the cost for the compression bags are? Trying to decide the true cost of use for this. I have had a few robot vacs, but always on the liw cost low function side of things. This would be a huge leap forward in cost and quality. Just trying to measure those things properly.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Good news, you get a compartment that works just the same and then you empty it the same :)

[@AutomateYourLife]

So you don't have to buy the bags is what I'm saying

[@simplypositiveme]

How often do you have change the detergent?

[@AutomateYourLife]

I haven't yet! :)

[@loganfisher3138]

This is major progress over robot vacuums from just a few uears ago... but I'm still not sold. I want it to run fully locally. Get me a robot vacuum that connects directly to Home Assistant while having all of this functionality, and I'll be interested. Additionally, I wouldn't mind having the ability to manually drive it around my home with a camera view so I can check in on my pets or home alarm alerts.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Matter with cameras and with robot vacuums should get us pretty close to this Logan. We will see

[@ivan-j4l9x]

I can get the older Freo for less the half price of the ultra with 6 months warranty. Are the benefits of the ultra over its predecessor worth it?

[@AutomateYourLife]

I think so personally. But that's a heck of a deal

[@ivan-j4l9x]

@AutomateYourLife the improvements seem incremental, but better is better, right

[@AutomateYourLife]

@ivana6141 the navigation is what does it for me

[@simplypositiveme]

Someone mentioned the floors were sticky afterwards. Have you seen the noticed this?

[@AutomateYourLife]

No never. It's been so good...

[@waylinnelson]

I have yet to buy a vacuum until they support matter or work with Apple Home 🤞🏻

[@AutomateYourLife]

And that's fair!

[@ChrisRider]

I am adding this to my watch list. I current have an Roomba vacuum and the separate mop. More or less happy with the vacuum - it does a decent job and have not had many issues with it. The mop - oh boy, it is terrible. My first floor has carpet and hardwood. I've spent time trying to get it to stay off the carpet - it somehow always gets stuck on it. Anyway, I will just say it is a terrible product and I'm looking for an upgrade.

[@AutomateYourLife]

It's a good year to upgrade for sure!

[@FritsJanSmit]

Great. Is it compatible with apple homekit or apple shortcuts?

[@AutomateYourLife]

There is somewhere in here where I talk about it. Siri shortcuts, but no homekit!

[@stevenshircliff393]

Great video! Couple questions. How does it handle solid and liquid pet waste? Work with Hubitat?

[@AutomateYourLife]

Hey Steven, I didn't tell it to handle that stuff... Every liquid it's done well with. Solid? Well you saw it deal with m&ms. It'll avoid most solid waste but it's gonna depend on the size. And no on Hubitat. Narwal is pretty closed in compatibility. Just Amazon/Siri

[@stevenshircliff393]

@AutomateYourLife Thanks Brian!

[@michaelheasman9749]

It's basically a small version of the exchange ecovacs deebot

[@AutomateYourLife]

I've had a few deebots. Narwal has leapt those models in a few ways. :)

[@kwtay1746]

Why no robot vac/mop reviewers ever mentioned about the minimum headroom for the vac/mop? This is definitely one of the deal breakers for me. I don't want to go on my knees to clean under the beds and couch.

[@AutomateYourLife]

I'm sure the height is in the video

[@sherrygardiner1587]

My problem with my current robot vacuum is it doesn’t usually make it back to base and also when it does make it back to base or if I have to put it on the base it’s very difficult to get it set so that it will charge can you give me information on this vacuum related to making it back to base and lining itself up to charge properly?

[@AutomateYourLife]

I can! It's been flawless. Perfect every time I've used it

[@OntologicalQuandry]

This is all well and good but you mention nothing about maintenance. My first robot vacuum was an iRobot 565 and I replaced that only last year (after around a decade of service) with a j7+. The 565 stayed in service so long because I knew what to expect of it and I maintained it properly. I left a comment on a Paul Hibbert video to which he took exception because I berated him for one of those stupid 'extreeem' tests where he spilt sugar and water and other messes on the floor. Yes, some robots can deal with such mess but that is not their primary puropse. They are intended to keep the base level of dust and dirt under control so you need to dust less. HOWEVER, without adequate maintenance, the vacuum's performance will degrade and you will end up spending more are more on keeping it running. Learn to disassemble your vacuum and clean out the gears and wheels. Learn to put the mop attachment in the laundry from-time-to-time. You WILL need a normal vacuum to suck out the dust and dirt that accumulates where the robot can't clean itself. Hell, I have even taught myself how to disassemble and maintain my Dyson vacuum so as to keep that working in prime condition. The robot can be serviced once per year and the Dyson once every three years.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Ok but half the video is about maintenance. This thing is self cleaning for the most part and otherwise, maintenance timelines are set.

[@AutomateYourLife]

FYI - I do get that you're talking about deeper maintenance. The point is that you shouldn't have to do that.

[@OntologicalQuandry]

@@AutomateYourLife my point is that the robot CAN'T maintain itself. Relying on its in-built cleannig routines is unreliable and incomplete. You WILL need a normal vacuum to keep the robot clean and you MUST schedule a proper maintenance for the device. I appreciate my j7 emptying itself but it doesn't deep-clean the robot, and the filters still have grot in them before the next clean (which I remove with the vacuum). I still need to wipe the sensors and camera to keep dust off.

[@OntologicalQuandry]

@@AutomateYourLife I get your point, and you are right insofar as that is what consumers want, but that statement reminds me of the "if 'ifs' and 'buts' were candy and nuts..." rhyme. Your video hints at needing to pay attention to keeping the robot in good condition, but people need to not let their desires for product function stop it from excelling. As I said, I kept an iRobot 565 running in very good condition for 10 years (until the cogs in the drive chain for the beater brushes wore out). These robot vacuums are a genius idea and truly save labour, but lack of maintenance means they became more expensive to run and need replacing sooner than they otherwise could be. In our current climate of needing to save money wherever possible, maintenance keeps investments returning for far longer.

[@Hansen710]

i found a hole in the marked, we need a sticky slinky for the stairs in homes with robot vacuum´s

[@AutomateYourLife]

Love it. Just sticky slink down eh

[@HansAramburo]

Do you need to have it create a map first before it can be used?

[@AutomateYourLife]

Yep!

[@fdb-you]

So is multiple maps possible or not?

[@AutomateYourLife]

Yes...

[@garethjones5068]

My Neato Botvac died last week, devastated

[@AutomateYourLife]

Oh no! Did you have that for as long as I think you did?

[@garethjones5068]

@@AutomateYourLifeYeah it was the one from the Smart Home tour vid we did, I’ve had a second one for upstairs for some time, but the OG is the one that has died 😔

[@garethjones5068]

The ability to schedule vacuums is a big part of why I use them 12:12

[@AutomateYourLife]

Set and forget man

[@garethjones5068]

@@AutomateYourLife exactly!

[@DoctorRevers]

I’d classify this under “not quite ready”.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Alrighty!

[@Blackcreekstudios]

I was not familiar with this brand. Now I am.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Something to consider! :)

[@boogermeats]

After it's mapped a room, what happens when it see a pet in it's path? Roomba would run into the pet.

[@AutomateYourLife]

So far it's been pretty good avoiding most people and animals. It's not perfect, so it's gonna depend on if the dog ran right in front of it just before it got somewhere

[@Joseph-ko2kl]

So while i really do enjoy your content I don't see the "greatness" of this vacuum. Biggest thing I have against this type is the mopping, it is very clear by your own video the nasty wet mop drags over your carpet. Now to be fair you seem to have a pretty thick pile carpet which I do not own so if I had one then maybe my Rooborock would do the same thing? That is a non-starter for me. As far as the other options most, not all, have been standard on Roborock for sometime now. It appears to me that all of the new players are really just playing catch up. I think the sucking the air out of the dustbag thing is novel but why have a dustbag? More stuff to buy and a ongoing cost for me, again that is a big No for me. Give me a permanent bin that I can just empty and put back in place.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Hey Joseph, All good! You don't have to love everything I do. But! Narwal lifts the mops quite high up. Higher than I've seen. My carpet gets a little wet just where it jumps onto the carpet and then it is dry for the rest of the time. The mops don't get that wet unless this vacuum is trying to put down the mops and do that task. On regular carpets, The mops are not touching them at all. As for the dust bag, Narwal also gives you a compartment that you can use instead. So you get three dust bags and then you get a compartment that you would never have to replace. 😃 You always have to replace the filters on these systems so that is still the case even with the compartment for debris.

[@BrandonDoyleMN]

You can also set it to vacuum and then mop

[@sheldrake1111]

I can’t help thinking of #Nardwuar when I hear Narwal 😂

[@AutomateYourLife]

Sounds dirty ;)

[@shawndasilva]

lol now I kind of want to get one and put a Nardwuar sticker on it

[@1Esteband]

Kind of lame trick here, pay for a coupon for a product that is not yet released and for an exorbitant price. Not cool.

[@AutomateYourLife]

Sorry, what's going on?

[@Voztec]

Thats a machine!

[@AutomateYourLife]

It's been impressive 😃

[@Freeway7]

Well I will give you 1 good reason NOT to have it I have small dogs that do their thing on a doggy pads and sometime they miss so I dont want it to be spread all over the floor

[@AutomateYourLife]

Lol yeah

[@nicomollet]

Is this video sponsored? If yes please mark it as sponsored.

[@AutomateYourLife]

I did and I state that it is