Would you trust a robot vacuum from a privacy point of view?

[maartendc]

Hello all,

 

Long story short, I want to get a robot vacuum to keep my house clean(er), but I am concerned about the risks:

 

- Privacy risk: With iRobot being sold to Amazon, and Roborock being from Xiaomi, I don't trust these devices at all from a privacy point of view. A lot of these devices are equipped with cameras, lasers that map your home, microphones (in case of Alexa or Google voice control options), etc. I don't trust these companies to not abuse this data gathered.

 

- Security concern: A lot of these devices have Wifi, and require Wifi / internet connection to function fully. I try to minimize the number of "smart" devices I own, because I don't trust the average company to patch security flaws, and not have my smart devices to be DDOS'ing all over the place. 

 

So I would pose the question here to you good people: Is my fear unfounded? Or am I right to be distrustful of these devices?

 

The alternative is perhaps a few low-budget models that don't have Wifi, and don't have smart sensors, but these are pretty severely limited in terms of functionality as well, and just don't work as well.

 

Thanks!

[Dedayog]

38 minutes ago, maartendc said:

Hello all,

 

Long story short, I want to get a robot vacuum to keep my house clean(er), but I am concerned about the risks:

 

- Privacy risk: With iRobot being sold to Amazon, and Roborock being from Xiaomi, I don't trust these devices at all from a privacy point of view. A lot of these devices are equipped with cameras, lasers that map your home, microphones (in case of Alexa or Google voice control options), etc. I don't trust these companies to not abuse this data gathered.

 

- Security concern: A lot of these devices have Wifi, and require Wifi / internet connection to function fully. I try to minimize the number of "smart" devices I own, because I don't trust the average company to patch security flaws, and not have my smart devices to be DDOS'ing all over the place. 

 

So I would pose the question here to you good people: Is my fear unfounded? Or am I right to be distrustful of these devices?

 

The alternative is perhaps a few low-budget models that don't have Wifi, and don't have smart sensors, but these are pretty severely limited in terms of functionality as well, and just don't work as well.

 

Thanks!

What is it you do that you're worried about Amazon/China knowing?

 

You can always either A) Vacuum yourself B) Stop going to all the far right websites that try to put the fear of God in you about those things.

 

Frankly, what data would they have about you?  How large your TV is?  Where you put your Lamborghini keys so someone can come steal them?  How messy your living room is?  That you eat Doritos for dinner, so they're going to sell this information to ad agencies?

 

If you do shit you don't want them knowing, don't get the vacuum.  If you don't, enjoy your clean house!

 

Yes, I work with people who are paranoid as fuck and listen to that brainwashing shit all the time.  Democrats eat babies, election was stolen, earth is flat, tap water has mind control drugs in it, etc.  Sounds like healthy paranoia at first but stepping back it's just worrying over nothing.

 

WE HAVE NO PRIVACY   Your Credit Card has been taken pics of by the waitress at dinner last night, or hacked in a data breach. Your income and EVERYTHING you buy is spread over the internet or sold or hacked.  Hell, the guy offering a free roof inspection when he came to your door looked around in your house and noted all your stuff and sold that info to local thieves probably.  You got more problems than a little vacuum.

 

Worry less, live more.

 

 

 

[Dedayog]

46 minutes ago, Caroline said:

Short answer: no.

 

Long answer: There's a privacy risk sure, but my reason to prevent buying such nonsense devices are planned obsolescence, low construction quality and overcomplicated internals that aren't repair friendly. Not to mention they need proprietary firmware to work, can't be reprogrammed using a computer (well, at least not officially) and run on batteries, and as we know, batteries die fast on these devices.

The only reasonable number of smart devices to have is

Oh and by the way you don't "own" them, you're simply leasing them from the companies for a while by agreeing to use their software in exchange as if it were monthly payments, you don't own anything you pay with your data to use.

Smart devices are trash, like, literal trash, they're disposable pieces of tech, not meant to be used for over 5 years, but they usually go fill a landfill in a third world country after 2 years.

 

The alternative is cleaning by yourself and not some shitty moving disc that can't even clean corners or behind some furniture properly. My mom's 80's vacuum cleaner will clean anything you put in the way, comes a long hose, extension wand, 10m cable, a ton of tip attachments, can suck dirt, water, mud, rubble, wet concrete. I also used the blow function to unclog heating pipes and radiators.

 

Lovely. Bait for the bait god.

Caring about your privacy is far-right. 

However the narrative never changes. "why are you worried about corporations spying on you? do you have something to hide?"

What if I do have something to hide? what if I don't want Bezos' little elves or the CCP to know everything I do *inside my own house* huh? 

 

I know, you said something about credit cards or online purchases, well I don't even have a card or buy online, but not because I'm paranoid and far-right but because I find online shopping unreliable and bank accounts+credit cards a trap few can get out of clean, I've seen countless people take ludicrous amounts of credit and then be so deep in debts just to continue living a fantasy, buying trash products all the time just for the sake of doing so or because it's popular and everyone else does it. Also tracking and stuff, I'd rather use cash to "worry less and live more" in that case.

 

By the way before you accuse me of being a Trump shill that stormed the Capitol building, I'm not even American.

So you know people who can't operate in this world properly, cool.  Credit cards?  They're a tool like anything.  If you don't understand how lending, interest rates, and credit works... that isn't American Express's problem.  

 

You outline PEOPLE doing shit, not some evil corporation.  Also, I was teasing about the "what do you do that you don't want out there?" thing.  I know devices record, or at the very least listen in.  How do you think Alexa can respond to her name?

 

But yeah, if you're worried your vacuum is "after you", get a regular one and get off your ass and vacuum.  Or this shit can happen...

 

 

 

[YellowJersey]

Short answer: No

 

Long answer: Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo


In all seriousness, though, I don't trust any IOT things. The only internet enabled things in my house are my phone and my computer.

[Ravendarat]

I would if I thought they worked well. I dont care about the security risks involved with them, in general its not ever something Im overly concerned with. The extent of my online protection is using real passwords of random numbers and letters and symbols but besides that I dont really pay much attention to it.

[maartendc]

Thanks for the responses all. I guess the consensus is more or less no   I guess this would be the logical opinion of anyone informed enough to keep up with the tech news, security breaches etc. 

 

I am not overly concerned with privacy in general, but having a device in my house with cameras, microphones, radar, etc. where the manufacturer has questionable security practices and motive to gather data (Amazon), is where I draw the line. I also don't like to have devices on my network unless they are secure from a software point of view. 

 

12 hours ago, Caroline said:

Short answer: no.

 

Long answer:

 

Thanks, that is a good point. You are correct, these devices are probably not made to last. I am

currently using an old vacuum from the 80s that used to be my grandmothers, and I suspect it will last me another few years at least. Back from when things were built to last. I try not to buy too much useless junk usually, but the appeal of less cleaning is strong  

[LAwLz]

17 hours ago, maartendc said:

Hello all,

 

Long story short, I want to get a robot vacuum to keep my house clean(er), but I am concerned about the risks:

 

- Privacy risk: With iRobot being sold to Amazon, and Roborock being from Xiaomi, I don't trust these devices at all from a privacy point of view. A lot of these devices are equipped with cameras, lasers that map your home, microphones (in case of Alexa or Google voice control options), etc. I don't trust these companies to not abuse this data gathered.

 

- Security concern: A lot of these devices have Wifi, and require Wifi / internet connection to function fully. I try to minimize the number of "smart" devices I own, because I don't trust the average company to patch security flaws, and not have my smart devices to be DDOS'ing all over the place. 

 

So I would pose the question here to you good people: Is my fear unfounded? Or am I right to be distrustful of these devices?

 

The alternative is perhaps a few low-budget models that don't have Wifi, and don't have smart sensors, but these are pretty severely limited in terms of functionality as well, and just don't work as well.

 

Thanks!

There are robot vacuum cleaners that do not require Internet access, if that's what you are after. For example the Roomba 614 does not, as far as I know, have any Internet connectivity option at all.

A quick Google shows that the RoboRock S5 doesn't require Internet access, and even if you want to use automatic scheduling through things like Home Assistant, you can flash community developed firmware on it if you want. Someone in the same Reddit thread said that no Roomba vacuum requires Internet access, and support connecting to your self hosted automation server.

 

If you absolutely want a robot vacuum but don't want it to connect to the Internet because of privacy concerns, your only options are to either get one that doesn't require Internet access or to not get one at all.

 

 

Here are guides on how to do it with Roomba:

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/roomba/

or:

https://github.com/NickWaterton/Roomba980-Python

[wanderingfool2]

This is really a what if sort of thing, so there isn't exactly a concrete answer as it's really a sliding scale of what you are comfortable with.

 

I have a vacuum and it's really nice, it's scheduled to run when I'm not home and it overall reduces the amount of times I need to actually vacuum the house.

 

In the sense of privacy, yes it has a camera and maps out the house.  In terms of mapping the house, that is something that I don't think really is too much of a concern...since the layout is something you can kind of guess anyways (or look up the city public records for the blueprints if they exist).

 

The camera is something of a iffy point though...in theory it could be used to spy on you, or gather information (but the benefit being object avoidance).  I mean there has been cases (not vacuums) of companies being compromised and getting access to things such as live feeds before.

 

Honestly though with my setup, I initially had it map the house and setup the schedule I want it to run on.  After that, I just disabled it's access with the router controls.  I have it also connected to my IoT wireless network (which is isolated from the rest of my network...honestly they need to start offering ports on consumer routers that allow easier separation of things you might want as an DMZ and such).  From there, it runs pretty much offline, I do connect it back up every month or two just to check to see if there are any messages/updates...but it runs in offline mode perfectly.  The way I look at it, all they could really get from me is my initial layout and maybe images from my house during the initial setup (but really that would mean their system would be compromised during initial setup).

 

The tl;dr it's really a sliding scale on how important you think your privacy is, for the most part though it can be minimized.

 

18 hours ago, Dedayog said:

What is it you do that you're worried about Amazon/China knowing?

 

You can always either A) Vacuum yourself B) Stop going to all the far right websites that try to put the fear of God in you about those things.

Amazon was caught recording Alexa stuff before (even when the command wasn't issued).  So yea, there is a valid reason to not necessarily trust a company like Amazon (and their devices).

 

Yes people do get recorded, have their privacy encroached on everyday but that doesn't mean you should necessarily sit down and take it.

1 hour ago, maartendc said:

having a device in my house with cameras, microphones, radar, etc

I'm not sure if they necessarily have microphones.  Lidar and cameras yea, but I don't recall seeing any with microphones...could be wrong.

 

1 hour ago, maartendc said:

Thanks, that is a good point. You are correct, these devices are probably not made to last.

Well I think they can be pretty durable, but what I did as well as a few colleagues, we all bought ours on massive sales (when the model was being replaced with a new better model)...so even if it breaks in a few years we don't really care.

[maartendc]

2 hours ago, wanderingfool2 said:

 

I'm not sure if they necessarily have microphones.  Lidar and cameras yea, but I don't recall seeing any with microphones...could be wrong.

 

That is a pretty smart way to go about it I guess. But I don't necessarily want to go to that level of setup to create separate Wifi networks for my iot devices. But good to know.

 

Yes, some of them have microphones. The Roborock series apparently has microphones...

[Isuck Assimov]

Just get a 1st gen robot vacuum. Mine is just a glorified lipo battery on wheels. no app support, no cams, no wifi, just an IR remote.

I actually was surprised when i let it run on a seemingly clean floor and it somehow sucked up a whole lot of dust and dirt.

It's as dumb as they get tho, so it's running into every bit of furniture and makes random paths.

model: ilife v5 pro

[wanderingfool2]

4 hours ago, maartendc said:

That is a pretty smart way to go about it I guess. But I don't necessarily want to go to that level of setup to create separate Wifi networks for my iot devices. But good to know.

Yea, I get the feeling.  I use to run just a single wifi (and if needed I would just set firewall rules etc to limit IOT stuff)...until I got a router that had "guest network" built into it.  Made my life easier.

 

If your router allows it, you could always block it from accessing the internet after the initial setup (as long as you are willing to accept the downsides of it not being online)

[Yoinkerman]

If xiaomi wants to look up at my taint I guess that's on them

[dalekphalm]

On 10/10/2022 at 8:34 AM, maartendc said:

Hello all,

 

Long story short, I want to get a robot vacuum to keep my house clean(er), but I am concerned about the risks:

 

- Privacy risk: With iRobot being sold to Amazon, and Roborock being from Xiaomi, I don't trust these devices at all from a privacy point of view. A lot of these devices are equipped with cameras, lasers that map your home, microphones (in case of Alexa or Google voice control options), etc. I don't trust these companies to not abuse this data gathered.

 

- Security concern: A lot of these devices have Wifi, and require Wifi / internet connection to function fully. I try to minimize the number of "smart" devices I own, because I don't trust the average company to patch security flaws, and not have my smart devices to be DDOS'ing all over the place. 

 

So I would pose the question here to you good people: Is my fear unfounded? Or am I right to be distrustful of these devices?

 

The alternative is perhaps a few low-budget models that don't have Wifi, and don't have smart sensors, but these are pretty severely limited in terms of functionality as well, and just don't work as well.

 

Thanks!

I own an iRobot robot vacuum and mine only has an IR sensor and a physical bumper sensor. It literally cannot steal anything of import - though it does have WIFI, so there is the potential for security issues.

 

It's a tough call IMO, but if you're concerned, buy one of the dumber ones.

[GameRetro]

This is a great topic/question.

 

I guess I don't and wouldn't care. But for people that do I guess there are ways and large enough communities that go into depth with smart devices to a point where you're bound to get the info on protocols, servers and all that that the vacuum is using and limit it's access to only some of these.

 

Granted anything dependent on a third party online service (like account, profile or something of the sorts) is in itself a bad investment since if the service goes down you get limited features - so as long as it's something I can run offline I don't care about privacy things.

 

In terms of it being hackable and if someone were able to use that to somehow compromise my home privacy or security - to achieve that someone would have to know you have the device and they would have to have enough info on you to a point where if they were looking for such a hands on way to compromise your home they would probably find other ways to exploit...

 

This could go into a lot of dark theories qick.

[Noble3212]

On 10/10/2022 at 5:34 AM, maartendc said:

Hello all,

 

Long story short, I want to get a robot vacuum to keep my house clean(er), but I am concerned about the risks:

 

- Privacy risk: With iRobot being sold to Amazon, and Roborock being from Xiaomi, I don't trust these devices at all from a privacy point of view. A lot of these devices are equipped with cameras, lasers that map your home, microphones (in case of Alexa or Google voice control options), etc. I don't trust these companies to not abuse this data gathered.

 

- Security concern: A lot of these devices have Wifi, and require Wifi / internet connection to function fully. I try to minimize the number of "smart" devices I own, because I don't trust the average company to patch security flaws, and not have my smart devices to be DDOS'ing all over the place. 

 

So I would pose the question here to you good people: Is my fear unfounded? Or am I right to be distrustful of these devices?

 

The alternative is perhaps a few low-budget models that don't have Wifi, and don't have smart sensors, but these are pretty severely limited in terms of functionality as well, and just don't work as well.

 

Thanks!

TBH I know people with these kinds of vacuums. The tech itself isn't perfect and the robot often get's trapped or stuck. So I say: Take the hour or so out of your day like once every week or month to vacuum rather than spending an hour trying to finding where the damn thing got stuck and died  

[wanderingfool2]

25 minutes ago, Caroline said:

Are those good tho? I still can't see how a rotating disc on wheels can thoroughly clean a room, maybe it's just me and my room that's always full of dust that enters thru the windows, pieces of cut wire insulation, tape, etc. I do have a workshop but still do some work on my room heh

But nothing that can't be solved by vacuuming myself everything in 5 minutes. And the same machine also works if I want to clean the bed, mattress, walls, windows and even the ceiling fan. It's also useful in the workshop if I clean, polish, cut or drill something.

If you have things on the ground that typically would tangle a normal vacuum then this isn't a product for you.  If you have only a few select spots that fall into that category, you can set virtual boundaries.

 

They do not replace a normal vacuum realistically, but it means my vacuum schedule went from once a week to once a month and I find that in general the carpet and tiles stay in a cleaner state (because I have it vacuuming twice a week while not home).  So it in general gives the impression that it's freshly vacuumed more often.

 

Given the choice, would I go back to not having one?  I would not, given the price though I would only purchase on really good sales though

Everyone's usecase is going to be different though

 

24 minutes ago, Noble3212 said:

TBH I know people with these kinds of vacuums. The tech itself isn't perfect and the robot often get's trapped or stuck. So I say: Take the hour or so out of your day like once every week or month to vacuum rather than spending an hour trying to finding where the damn thing got stuck and died  

My vacuum gets stuck maybe once every other month, and it's not that hard to find it...usually takes me like two minutes to find it and reset it...if I had notifications turned on I would realize it got stuck though

 

On occasion it has gone missing in an area that I don't see it (it's effectively in offline mode because I choose to run it that way so I don't get notifications), and I only notice it got stuck when I notice the tiles are getting dirtier than normal.  At which point I will just search for it...but again it can only be in so many places and it's larger so it still only takes me a minute or two.  If I had the online features enabled I would be able to just track where it was as well.

 

The biggest issue is if you are the type of person who leaves things that might tangle a vacuum (cords, string, clothing) on the ground.

 

1 hour ago, GameRetro said:

Granted anything dependent on a third party online service (like account, profile or something of the sorts) is in itself a bad investment since if the service goes down you get limited features - so as long as it's something I can run offline I don't care about privacy things.

Yea it is a gamble.  I mean if you go with an iRobot it likely isn't as it's been around for a while...but I look at it as a cost benefit analysis.  If I get even 2 years out of it, I save myself on average maybe 24 hours over the course of 2 years of work.  That's 24 hours that I get to spend doing other things more enjoyable...but even in terms of "salary" even at $15/hour that's $360 over 2 years.  If it lasts 6 years, that's $1080; which more than pays for itself.

 

The biggest perk for myself though is the amount of time it saves me in that I can go about my weekend doing other things (or instead of spending 3 hours cleaning the house, it only takes 2.5 hours as I don't have to vacuum)

 

1 hour ago, GameRetro said:

In terms of it being hackable and if someone were able to use that to somehow compromise my home privacy or security - to achieve that someone would have to know you have the device and they would have to have enough info on you to a point where if they were looking for such a hands on way to compromise your home they would probably find other ways to exploit...

See the issue I would say is the concept of a general hack.  Lets say iRobot were to be fully compromised, then there would be the potential to retrieve your wifi password (which ends up on the dark web).  If it has the capabilities to transmit photos then they could potentially just randomly target everyone.  Lots of things could go wrong honestly...but if you just have a lidar and bump sensor ones then there isn't as much to worry about.

 

Actually another concept, if they manage to poison the firmware so that it allows them to open connections inside of your network...that way it can be used to either create botnets, or potentially steal information from unsecured devices inside your network/infect other devices or deliver malware/ransomware.

[Bad5ector]

On 10/10/2022 at 10:04 AM, Dedayog said:

WE HAVE NO PRIVACY

Amen... glad to see at least one person sees this.

[Bad5ector]

On 10/10/2022 at 2:19 PM, Caroline said:

bank accounts+credit cards a trap few can get out of clean

You mean you can't withdraw savings from your bank account? I'm confused.

 

I get the fear of the CC, if you are the type who can't manage their money. It will end up being a debt trap. Otherwise, IMO, a good CC with some sorta rewards program isn't that bad at all. Pay your balance in full every pay and profit. Don't go using the card to by stuff you can't afford, just use to make the purchases you already have the money for, like groceries, bills, etc. Then you basically get a little kick back for spending the money you would have already been spending anyways. Heck, it's how I paid for my Steam Deck, just paying for groceries, gas and some other bills.

 

Anyways, sorry sorta off topic there. 

[dalekphalm]

2 hours ago, Caroline said:

Are those good tho?

They're alright - you essentially get what you pay for, in terms of the quality of the cleaning job. Mine, being the bump-sensor version (the IR literally only tracks the base station for docking into the charger, or if you buy "virtual walls" or whatever iRobot calls them, which are just IR sensors you place that tell the vacuum "don't go that way".

 

So to clean a room, it literally just drives around until it bumps into something, then points in another direction, and keeps going.

 

The more advanced versions with cameras and LIDAR can actually map your room, see how dirty the floor is, target actual dirt piles, etc - mine can't do any of that.

2 hours ago, Caroline said:

I still can't see how a rotating disc on wheels can thoroughly clean a room, maybe it's just me and my room that's always full of dust that enters thru the windows, pieces of cut wire insulation, tape, etc.

The thing about Robot Vacuums that potential buyers need to understand, is that they are not a replacement for a full vacuuming. They won't, and literally cannot (in most cases anyway), clean everything as thoroughly as you can, with a proper vacuum.

 

The idea behind them, is more about reducing the frequency in which a full vacuum is needed - or keeping the room cleaner in between full vacuum jobs.

 

They don't "clean", they simply reduce the amount of cleaning needed, once you actually do clean.

2 hours ago, Caroline said:

I do have a workshop but still do some work on my room heh

But nothing that can't be solved by vacuuming myself everything in 5 minutes. And the same machine also works if I want to clean the bed, mattress, walls, windows and even the ceiling fan. It's also useful in the workshop if I clean, polish, cut or drill something.

A proper vacuum job takes way longer than 5 minutes, unless you have no furniture and no stuff inside your home. For my small 2 bedroom basement apartment, it probably takes a minimum of 30 minutes, and that's kind of rushing the job.

 

For us, we have cats (just one at the moment), so the robot vacuum just helps to keep the cat hair levels down in between major cleaning.

 

IMO, we don't use our robot vacuum that often because we have way too many obstructions on the floor, so we can't just set an automatic schedule and let it go. We have to prep the area first, picking up stuff that will get in the way.

 

In hindsight, a "smarter" version with cleaning and navigation sensors would have worked much much better, but those models are also pretty much double or triple the cost of the model we ended up buying, which was way too much to justify the expense.

[wanderingfool2]

14 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

The thing about Robot Vacuums that potential buyers need to understand, is that they are not a replacement for a full vacuuming. They won't, and literally cannot (in most cases anyway), clean everything as thoroughly as you can, with a proper vacuum.

 

The idea behind them, is more about reducing the frequency in which a full vacuum is needed - or keeping the room cleaner in between full vacuum jobs.

I agree with this sentiment completely.  The difficulty is typically corners, the sweeper brush just can't get close enough.

 

I would like to point out, when you do a full vacuum you also spend less time I find; as there is just less overall dirt than before

 

I think the biggest change though is in the kitchen area though.  It works really well picking up the crumbs and such involved while baking.  As a result it greatly reduces the amount of times I have to fully clean my kitchen...as there is just less small particles that get trampled on and spread.  It actually went from needing to vacuum every week in the kitchen area to doing it ever 2 months (and even then it's mostly just focusing on the corners).

 

19 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

In hindsight, a "smarter" version with cleaning and navigation sensors would have worked much much better, but those models are also pretty much double or triple the cost of the model we ended up buying, which was way too much to justify the expense.

This I also agree with a lot.  While the smarter versions cost more, I think the added cost is more than justified in terms of how well it performs.  I think a lot of people get a bad impression on them because the non-smart version are so much less efficient.  For myself, I don't have to setup any IR sensors or things like that (just open the app initially and set virtual boundaries in the generated map, mine has lidar).  I think overall camera ones are nice to have, but making sure it has something like lidar is super important, as that is what allows it to do an efficient cleaning.

[Heliian]

I'd rather have clean floors than privacy.  

I absolutely love my iRobot, I have the perfect house for it. I should have sprung for the self unloading one. 

[Omni-Owl]

I tend to find that if I can flash the firmware on the device relatively easy with something that isn't bound to the company's cloud servers?

Then I will buy whatever it is and then go home and flash it.

 

Privacy Concerns: None.

This goes for *any* smart device in my home. I check if I can flash the firmware and get rid of the corporate control. Many more devices have hacker communities out there than one would think. This means I can get rid of any privacy concerns I might have while I use my home server to keep track of things with Home Assistant.

[maartendc]

15 hours ago, Noble3212 said:

TBH I know people with these kinds of vacuums. The tech itself isn't perfect and the robot often get's trapped or stuck. So I say: Take the hour or so out of your day like once every week or month to vacuum rather than spending an hour trying to finding where the damn thing got stuck and died  

I know vacuuming by hand is still superior, but it would just be to reduce the amount of cleaning we do.

 

If it was once a week, no problem. But our kitchen floor is like an off-white epoxy floor, which shows ALL dirt very clearly (previous owners' choice to put that in). That, plus we have 3 cats, a garden, etc. I'm not a clean freak, but I this floor gets disgusting SO fast. I should vacuum this floor ideally every day, but realistically its like twice a week, and the days in between it looks disgusting. It feels like we spend a lot of time cleaning, the robot would just be to reduce that.

[maartendc]

9 hours ago, Omni-Owl said:

I tend to find that if I can flash the firmware on the device relatively easy with something that isn't bound to the company's cloud servers?

Then I will buy whatever it is and then go home and flash it.

 

Privacy Concerns: None.

This goes for *any* smart device in my home. I check if I can flash the firmware and get rid of the corporate control. Many more devices have hacker communities out there than one would think. This means I can get rid of any privacy concerns I might have while I use my home server to keep track of things with Home Assistant.

Yeah, maybe I will look into this actually. Although that is more hacking and setup than I had previously thought about. But I had no idea this was even an option.

13 hours ago, dalekphalm said:

They're alright - you essentially get what you pay for, in terms of the quality of the cleaning job. Mine, being the bump-sensor version (the IR literally only tracks the base station for docking into the charger, or if you buy "virtual walls" or whatever iRobot calls them, which are just IR sensors you place that tell the vacuum "don't go that way".

 

So to clean a room, it literally just drives around until it bumps into something, then points in another direction, and keeps going.

 

The more advanced versions with cameras and LIDAR can actually map your room, see how dirty the floor is, target actual dirt piles, etc - mine can't do any of that.

The thing about Robot Vacuums that potential buyers need to understand, is that they are not a replacement for a full vacuuming. They won't, and literally cannot (in most cases anyway), clean everything as thoroughly as you can, with a proper vacuum.

 

The idea behind them, is more about reducing the frequency in which a full vacuum is needed - or keeping the room cleaner in between full vacuum jobs.

 

They don't "clean", they simply reduce the amount of cleaning needed, once you actually do clean.

A proper vacuum job takes way longer than 5 minutes, unless you have no furniture and no stuff inside your home. For my small 2 bedroom basement apartment, it probably takes a minimum of 30 minutes, and that's kind of rushing the job.

 

For us, we have cats (just one at the moment), so the robot vacuum just helps to keep the cat hair levels down in between major cleaning.

 

IMO, we don't use our robot vacuum that often because we have way too many obstructions on the floor, so we can't just set an automatic schedule and let it go. We have to prep the area first, picking up stuff that will get in the way.

 

In hindsight, a "smarter" version with cleaning and navigation sensors would have worked much much better, but those models are also pretty much double or triple the cost of the model we ended up buying, which was way too much to justify the expense.

Yeah vacuuming my whole house takes about 45-60 mins. Only the downstairs takes maybe 20 minutes, which is what the robot would handle.

 

I heard good things from my brother in law about the robot vacuum. I always assumed they were crap, but the consensus seems to be that they are actually OK. Don't expect miracles, but it keeps the place cleanER.

 

Thanks for the input!

[Heliian]

13 hours ago, Caroline said:

Modern society

Every on carries around a spy device on their person 247 now.  How is a vacuum going to glean any more information than a smartphone?  

 

Unfounded paranoia is the problem.