INLIFE ZK8077 Robot Vacuum Cleaner with 3-Stage Cleaning System 1200Pa Suction 80Min Runtime for Apartments/Small House/Hard Floor/Low-Pile Carpet

This is a cheap robot vacuum. Its amazing! We were struggling having adopted a cat to keep up with the amount of cat hair around the house (so much it was straining our relationship and we considered returning him). Now the vacuum cleans our house everyday while we at work. It is better than us manually hoovering as because it have multiple sweeping parts, it grabs the cat hairs at all angles. This is the best buy I could have hoped for. It can find its own base and charge itself, but not easily in other rooms. We arn't bothered as we just plonk him back om the charging base is he ran out of battery before finding it.

This is very effective on hard flooring and low pile carpets. It's changed the way we clean - the best approach is to clear the floors of as many obstructions as possible, dust tables & chairs, and then set this thing off. It makes its own way around, and seems to do a fair to moderate job of it. Sometimes, I rearrange the furniture, so that it covers new areas. When we set it loose under a sofa, it spent a lot of time there before deciding it was finished... not surprising, given that we rarely clean under there! It also decides when it's cleaned an area enough.... I thought that it would just carry on until the battery ran too low - but this isn't the case. It's also pretty good at finding its way back to the docking station. Be aware, it won't tackle areas that are hard to clean, but as a quick, effortless, way to pick up dust it's really good, and I can see the difference. Easy to empty the dust canister and to clean the filters. The only negative is that I've had no response to my email when requesting how I can get replacement brushes (in spite of a response to a question raised by someone else). It comes with a few spare minor brushes, but it would seem to be unlikely that replacements can be purchased. Very happy to have bought it, and will continue to use it as part of my housework arsenal.

This is a robot vacuum cleaner for under 80 quid. On that basis you have to expect that corners will be cut, navigation will not be top notch and that frustrations will arise. Let's start with the first impressions "out of the box": Build quality is reasonably good. The unit is solid, if unremarkable and all the parts appear well manufactured and fit together well. It has two drive wheels and is round in shape. It mimics the vast majority of robot vacs in having a large bump bar at the front. This is augmented by what appears to be an IR "eye" centered between the bump bar segments. Unlike many other similarly priced robots there is a beater bar with brush as well as the side brushes. The dust box is large and very easy to access from under a flap on the top of the device. There is a multi segment display that is bright and readable and the robot comes with a docking station for recharging. Around this are the buttons to operate the machine and a hard power switch can be found on the side. A "virtual wall" IR device is packaged in the box which allows you to denote areas you do not wish the robot to visit (such as areas with cables, dog bowls or similar). Two spare side brushes are included, along with a remote control and instruction book. In operation: Navigation is not the best. It does make a concerted effort at systematic cleaning (up and down a room) but tends to fall over into a random pattern once it hits obstacles. Generally though, it seems to cover a room well, and will even try to clean multiple rooms if you leave doors open. Whilst it does clean carpet fairly well, it isn't as effective on hard floors as you might expect. Large particles defeat it but, you must remember, this is not a replacement for a good deep clean with a proper vacuum. Think of this as a general maintenance device which will occasionally need help. The cliff sensors work well, no danger of this falling down the stairs and the unit, whilst noisy, is not intrusive. Mats, cables and the like might cause it issues but, like all robot vacs, this is easily rectified by preparing a room first. There is a turbo mode which increases suction but this has a corresponding impact on battery life. Expect no more than 60 mins operation time before it needs a recharge. That docking station is an "auto recharge" point and the vacuum is meant to seek it out when it gets to around 20% battery. This is hit and miss and I would not rely on it. A number of times to date I have come home to find that a scheduled clean (more on that later) has taken place but the robot has not found its way back to the charge point. This isn't an issue as you will likely be emptying the dust box after each clean, but it shows how the budget products offer less sophistication than more premium items. The supplied remote control is also a little finicky, working only from certain angles but it does allow you to control all the main features and functions, plus set schedules. Ah yes, schedules. You can set the robot to clean once per day at a set time. My only issue is that it is just such a faff to get it all set in the first place, particularly as the remote is so fussy, you end up using the buttons on the machine itself .Once set, however, it seems to work just fine, with the caveat that it will often fail to get back to its recharging station. The virtual wall uses 2 AA batteries and offers you the possibility of a straight line from either the front or side of the device, or both, meaning you can cordon off a corner of a room if required. It works fine but I worry about battery life. Verdict: This isn't the last word in robot vacuums. It's 80 quid after all, but it is good value and it will clean your floors daily without much intervention. You can spend much more for much more sophisticated navigation, app control, maps and no go area designation but if all you want is a vacuum cleaner that will clean a room without you getting involved, this is pretty decent. What's more, like other robot vacs, this will fit under tables, chairs, beds etc cleaning areas you tend top forget about with a regular vac. Would I recommend this model? If £80 is your limit then yes. There are better models to be had for not much more (the iMass and iLife machines at about £120 offer lower profile, better navigation and in the case of the former, App control) but this is a bit of a bargain. At £80 you could afford to have one for each floor of a Victorian town house and still not have paid out the same as for a premium product from Roomba or Neato. UPDATE: Having had "Chumba" for a couple of weeks I can make a few more observations. He is, by and large, reliable and effective though as mentioned before he is not as good at picking up dirt as the IMASS A3 I also own. He does have a habit of getting stuck and, because he has no app, it can often be a case of going around trying to find him. He is rarely successful at returning to his recharge dock, especially if he has cleaned multiple rooms and hallways. It appears he needs sight of the charge dock to find it. This is a problem with most of these cheaper, infra red driven dock systems. All in all, whilst I think this is great value, I still hold that you'd be foolish not to opt for one of the robots in the £120 - £150 bracket which seem to be just that bit more reliable and have slightly better navigation.

I was pretty sceptical about buying this as it is so much cheaper than the Roomba but once is for over the shock of the female voiced “hello master, how may I serve you?” I was really delighted. It doesn’t do well on a deep pile rug, but for tiles and wooden floors - and the hall carpets - it’s fantastic. I have two dogs and it’s great at picking up their hair as well as lots of dust. It’s not as noisy as I’d feared. On the negative side - it’s a very erratic pattern that it maps out and so you just have to leave it to get on with it and trust that it covers every bit of the floor. And mine never gets back to its docking station - but that’s ok. Horrendous what it picked up under beds and sofas where my old vacuum rarely went. So very happy.

10-15 uses in 6 months now it fails to operate for more than a minute or two, then announces "main brush stuck". I don't know if this is the reason but my partner has fine long hair and this seems to collect around the main brush ends in tight circular wads, I have cleared it 6 or 7 times and it worked again but now even clearing it has no effect. It also has a few other niggles but did the job for a while and was a promising buy for under 100 quid. Returning it under warranty is not an option because it was taken out of the UK so unfortunately now it's just a large door stop.