So you want to buy a dock and roll star
Don’t like getting your hands dirty? The newest robots vacuum, mop and even clean themselves afterwards…
[ Words Dan Grabham ]
BALLAD OF EASY GLIDERS: HOW TO CHOOSE
● The big improvement in the latest robot vacs is the ability to self-clean. Look for self-emptying models that can wash and dry their own mop pads .
● Pay attention to the size of water tanks – the latest robot vacs with a mopping feature will have a pair for clean and dirty water. Obviously, the bigger the tanks, the less frequently you have to fill and empty.
● Pet owners will want to look for a vac with strong suction and brushes designed to cope with all the hair. Most come with pet (and child) locks.
● All robot vacs now offer the ability to automate cleaning routines, which is great for minimising your involvement, but you still need to pay attention to stuff like obstacle and object recognition.
● Don’t be tempted to buy an older model that’s been discounted. Tech moves really fast in this category, so you’ll do better with a cheaper new model.
Shark NeverTouch Pro
What’s the story?
Despite its long pedigree in vacuums, Shark is a relative newcomer in robot land, and this vac/mop combo is its top-end cleaner so far.
The clue’s in the name: it’s a self-sufficient cleaning station, and the mopping pad is cleaned and dried after each run. For just vacuuming, it simply drops the pad and leaves it in the base.
That base is reasonably compact so it’ll sit quite happy in most corners. Shark suggests you won’t need to refill the 1.7L water tank for a month, or empty the vacuum debris box for two months, but I think you’ll want to do both a little sooner than that.
As with other Shark gear, the physical out-of-the-box experience is a good one: there’s plenty of instruction if you need help and spare pads are included. An anti-odour cartridge is also supplied – this screws into the top of the machine to trap odours. As with the pad, you’ll need to replace it every so often.
Is it any good?
The combo of mopping and vacuuming is powerful and it easily mastered the few obstacles in my home. It’s quiet too, and pretty good with edges: it uses air jets to dislodge mess, while Wet Edge Detect pushes the pad outwards to make sure the side is reached. Some dust did remain, though.
So, with fine mopping skills and quality vacuuming, this should be a no-brainer buy at this price. But there are issues. The app is limited, with little ability to fine-tune cleans, and more crucially I had real problems getting the cleaner connected to the Wi-Fi network.