It’s 2015, right? So we should have robots doing all the menial tasks for us right?

Well, we’re not quite there yet, but this vacuuming robot is a good first step. We got this after realizing the floors on our single-level home were going to take A LOT of maintenance. Why not let the little robot clean up whilst we focus on more important tasks (like writing creative reviews)?

Right off the bat, it appeared that the robot wasn’t picking anything up–he left a lot of dust and specs. Turns out he was picking up plenty of dust and specs but that we just had more than it could handle. After further assessment it’s clear that the vacuum works, it’s just not that strong (not sure if this is by design since it’s a robot or necessity because of the battery life aspect).

The first run, it cleaned about 20 square feet of area then said it was done and went back to the charger. It didn’t even go down the entire length of the hall. It’s possible that it was because the battery wasn’t fully charged (there’s no battery level, just a binary battery icon). The next time, I placed the robot in a different part of the house and he went much longer and actually moved from room to room, though it seemed like he had an affinity for our bedroom (which ironically was probably the cleanest room in the house).

All in all it took three different cleans for about four hours to complete our 1850 sq ft. house. It was fascinating to watch, but I would recommend running it when you’re away because it is loud. Luckily there’s a handy scheduling feature that allows for that.

After researching, it appears the 880 has a lighthouse feature that promotes room-to-room navigation. I was concerned when it appeared the 770 wasn’t doing that, but I think it works fine without the lighthouse feature.

All in all, I really like this product, but I wish it had a stronger suction. Next, we need a robot to mow the lawn!