2000Pa has fast become the norm when it comes to the suction power of the best robot vacuums. So, if your budget allows, we’d recommend looking for vacs around this number. However, cheaper options are available that sport around 1500Pa which are still perfectly capable. A few robot vacuums have a clever bissell crosswave cordless self-emptying feature, most notably those of the iRobot Roomba series. These can transfer the refuse they pick up to a larger compartment in the docking station, letting them carry on for weeks with minimal maintenance. As mentioned, this vacuum cleans deep, and is especially good on carpets.
It worked well but had frequent problems with colliding with objects and stopping short of walls and other objects, as well as leaving small areas not cleaned. In 1997, one of Electrolux’s first versions of the Trilobite vacuum was featured on the BBC’s science program, Tomorrow’s World. Other mechanical dyson robot vacuum features include a rotating brush that spans the width of the robot, and treads for better traction over different floor surfaces. In another promotional video, Dyson said it developed a new motor for the machine that can suck up to 20 air watts compared to 0.22 AW for conventional floor robots.
In 2001, the company released an earlier robotic vacuum cleaner, the bulky DC06, which bogged down under weight issues, heavy expectations, a hefty $6,000 price tag and which was, eventually, pulled from the market. We put the device to the test by using dyson robot vacuum it in a very busy household across three floors of the home. Surfaces included wooden, carpeted and tiled floors, all with plenty of obstacles so that we could closely observe how the robot navigated through rooms and see what it did and didn’t clean up.
As with all patents, there’s no way to know if this design will ever hit the shop shelves. Many companies will file patents just to secure the intellectual property. Dyson touts its carbon fiber and nylon brush that’s roughly as wide as the 360 Eye itself, but a lot of the stuff the 360 Eye struggled to collect was hiding in corners or up against the side of the test pens. Like the Roomba 980 and the Neato Botvac Connected, the 360 Eye is app-enabled. Dyson told me it was trying to steer clear of any software gimmicks, so the app is very basic. You won’t be able to drive your robot on-demand from your phone, for instance.
So if you’re patient, the 360 Eye will eventually find and clean your mess—so long as it’s not liquid (for that you’ll want a mopping robot like iRobot’s Braava Jet 240($799.99 at Currys)). The robot was very methodical in its cleaning and the only areas that were missed were unsurprisingly, the room corners which the robot couldn’t get into. When set to max or high power we found it to be a pretty loud machine, but this was worth it for the seriously impressive suction power which was a stand-out feature and provided a deep clean every time. We also liked that you could monitor the robot’s progress remotely via the app – we could see exactly where it has cleaned and how long it took.