Robot vacuum cleaners of 2017: what are the new cleanliness fairies capable of?

AEG: triangle instead of circle or horseshoe

The Elec­trolux con­cern, which is the par­ent com­pa­ny of AEG, calls itself the inven­tor of robot­ic vac­u­um clean­ers. Back in 2001, the Swedes launched Trilo­bite on the mar­ket, that is, the first autonomous vac­u­um clean­er. But since then, oth­er brands have gained promi­nence in this area, which have replaced Elec­trolux from the lead­ing posi­tion. With the AEG RX9, the com­pa­ny is back in busi­ness. This robot offers sev­er­al inter­est­ing fea­tures, includ­ing a retractable side brush, a 22mm lift, and a com­bi­na­tion of nav­i­ga­tion equip­ment from a cam­era and laser sen­sors.

In addi­tion, the suc­tion pow­er must be adjust­ed depend­ing on the sur­face to be cleaned. You also have the abil­i­ty to con­trol the device through the appli­ca­tion and view infor­ma­tion about its sta­tus. Thus, on paper, the RX9 is in no way infe­ri­or to our rat­ing leader, Room­ba 980. This robot vac­u­um clean­er costs about 88.5 thou­sand rubles.

Bosch: newcomer to the robotic vacuum market

The first Bosch brand robot vac­u­um clean­er became known back in July. Rox­xter relies entire­ly on inte­gra­tion with the Smart Home sys­tem. It cre­ates a map of your apart­ment that you can divide into parts. Thus, the robot, even with­out spe­cial fenc­ing ele­ments, will know where to vac­u­um and where not. Through a smart­phone, an app and a self-cre­at­ed IFTTT pro­gram, you can pro­gram it accord­ing to your per­son­al pref­er­ences.

For exam­ple, so that the vac­u­um clean­er gets to work only when your smart­phone (that is, most like­ly you too) leaves your home WLAN net­work. With Ama­zon Alexa, you can send Rox­xter for a sep­a­rate clean­ing in the kitchen or in some liv­ing room. And the para­noid can access live feed from the robot­’s cam­era from any­where. At the same time, the device that appeared in 2018 will cost you at least 82 thou­sand rubles. The ver­sion with a cam­era will cost 95 thou­sand rubles.

iRobot: Roomba with WLAN

A small update for a clas­sic: the main­stream Room­ba series of robot­ic vac­u­um clean­ers now also con­nects to a WLAN net­work, and there­fore can now be con­trolled remote­ly. Until now, this fea­ture has been a priv­i­lege of the expen­sive 900 series, and in Room­ba 895 it has found its use in mod­els cost­ing from 34 thou­sand rubles. up to 41 thou­sand rubles — this is prob­a­bly done in order to take mar­ket share from Neato with its inex­pen­sive Bot­vac Con­nect­ed mod­els. The robot has been avail­able for pur­chase since July.

Miele: a smart complete update

In its Scout RX1, the Ger­man con­cern was espe­cial­ly proud of the vac­u­um clean­er’s two hours of bat­tery life. Scout RX2 should not lose a minute, but in oth­er areas should add sig­nif­i­cant­ly. Miele promis­es three times the suc­tion pow­er on car­pet­ed floors. Of course, the man­u­fac­tur­er will not for­get about addi­tion­al equip­ment and intel­li­gent func­tions: Live-cam­era, infrared sen­sors and map­ping of your apart­ment. Soon it will be pos­si­ble to pur­chase Scout RX2 for 48 thou­sand rubles. A mod­el with a cam­era will cost 57 thou­sand rubles.

Neato: like Bosch, only cheaper

Neato is among the devel­op­ers who were among the first to equip their off­spring with the func­tion of con­nect­ing to WLAN net­works. Bot­vac D7 Con­nect­ed is the lat­est off­spring of this fam­i­ly and it turns out to be no worse than the Bosch Rox­xter that appeared lat­er. New fea­tures include smart apart­ment map­ping, vir­tu­al clean­ing area set­up, and sup­port for Ama­zon Alexa, Apple Watch, and Google Home. The robot should go on sale in the fourth quar­ter with a price tag of 61 thou­sand rubles.

1. iRo­bot Room­ba 980

Nav­i­ga­tion (40%)

: 98.8

Clean­ing qual­i­ty (35%)

: 83.7

Equip­ment and con­ve­nience (25%)

: 100

Over­all score: 93.8

Val­ue for mon­ey: 81

2. Vor­w­erk Kobold VR200

Nav­i­ga­tion (40%)

: 100

Clean­ing qual­i­ty (35%)

: 68.7

Equip­ment and con­ve­nience (25%)

: 95.7

Over­all rat­ing: 88

Val­ue for mon­ey: 82

3. Neato Bot­vac D3 Con­nect­ed

Nav­i­ga­tion (40%)

: 92.3

Clean­ing qual­i­ty (35%)

: 81.2

Equip­ment and con­ve­nience (25%)

: 79.6

Over­all score: 85.2

Val­ue for mon­ey: 100

4. Dyson 360 Eye

Nav­i­ga­tion (40%)

: 88.8

Clean­ing qual­i­ty (35%)

: 100

Equip­ment and con­ve­nience (25%)

: 49.7

Over­all score: 82.9

Val­ue for mon­ey: 62

5. Neato Bot­vac Con­nect­ed

Nav­i­ga­tion (40%)

: 98.9

Clean­ing qual­i­ty (35%)

: 58.4

Equip­ment and con­ve­nience (25%)

: 83.3

Over­all score: 80.8

Val­ue for mon­ey: 70

6. iRo­bot Room­ba 896

Nav­i­ga­tion (40%)

: 67.7

Clean­ing qual­i­ty (35%)

: 81.6

Equip­ment and con­ve­nience (25%)

: 89.5

Over­all rat­ing: 78

Val­ue for mon­ey: 70

7. Medion MD 17225

Nav­i­ga­tion (40%)

: 77.7

Clean­ing qual­i­ty (35%)

: 83.8

Equip­ment and con­ve­nience (25%)

: 67.1

Over­all score: 77.2

Val­ue for mon­ey: 86

8. iRo­bot Room­ba 681

Nav­i­ga­tion (40%)

: 67.2

Clean­ing qual­i­ty (35%)

: 95.9

Equip­ment and con­ve­nience (25%)

: 65.9

Over­all score: 76.9

Val­ue for mon­ey: 85

9. Sam­sung Power­bot VR7000 VR1GM7010UW/EG

Nav­i­ga­tion (40%)

: 83.6

Clean­ing qual­i­ty (35%)

: 88.4

Equip­ment and con­ve­nience (25%)

: 43.5

Over­all score: 75.3

Val­ue for mon­ey: 94

10. Medion MD 18500

Nav­i­ga­tion (40%)

: 73.6

Clean­ing qual­i­ty (35%)

: 67.7

Equip­ment and con­ve­nience (25%)

: 46.9

Over­all score: 64.9

Val­ue for mon­ey: 96