Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is the first robotic vacuum I've owned, and so far, I'm thoroughly impressed with it. After reading reviews for many different brands/models, I ended up choosing the "dumber" Ankler Eufy model that just has the infrared remote since the smarter, app-controlled models only worked through a cloud app. Yuck. The remote is intuitive and has decent range and coverage, so the few times I've needed to manually drive the robovac have been trouble-free. I also like not having to launch an app or worry about spotty wifi/internet outages affecting my ability to control the vac. The price was also really reasonable considering the features, performance, and other positive reviews. I've got two large dogs, mostly hardwood upstairs, a single room with linoleum, medium pile carpet in the bedrooms, low pile carpet in the basement, and various low/medium pile rugs. This thing does well on all of them (except the shaggy bathroom mat, but that's to be expected). It's a total lifesaver as I was usually vacuuming daily and there was still dog hair all over the place. After an initial charge, during which time I ran the regular upright vacuum, I let it run two cleaning cycles on the first day, and each time it came back with a mostly full dust bin. I was both impressed and grossed out by all that it picked up *after* a regular vacuuming. PROS: * This thing is super quiet. I typically leave it on "Auto" mode where it only sets the vacuum to max when it thinks it needs it, and even then, it's no louder than the tower fan I keep on at night for ambient noise. If it goes under a couch or bed, you often can't hear it at all until it resurfaces. I scheduled it to clean at 6am, and it cleaned under my bed without waking me. Love waking up to freshly vacuumed floors. * Its edge cleaning mode is fantastic. I usually keep ceiling fans on 24/7, so any dog hair/lint on the hardwood tends to accumulate into tumbleweeds along the baseboards. If you set it to edge clean cycle, it'll find a wall and follow it all the way around the house, room to room. Doing that every day manually was extremely tedious, and this little robot does it with aplomb. Having two side brushes is also welcome so that it cleans a path along the edge in addition to the edge itself. It also works really well around appliances (refrigerator, oven, etc) and will pull in dust/hair/crumbs from slightly underneath them. * It's incredibly thin and can clean under all of my furniture. Under my couch, desk, entertainment center, and bed have never been cleaner as they are difficult to move to clean underneath. The wand on my upright vacuum could only partially clean under these, but this bot has no issues as long as any cables are picked up and out of the way. * Battery life is decent and within the advertised range. I've gotten between an hour and two hours of cleaning time, depending on how often it had to kick the vacuum to max. The stated average runtime is 100 minutes, and I've seen both less and more than that, so no complaints with the battery life. The battery is also easily replaceable as the lithium battery will inevitably degrade and need replacement at some point. * It has decent obstacle detection and avoidance, but still bumps into things from time to time. Most of the time, it will stop/steer clear of obstacles without physically bumping into them. However, it doesn't seem to pick up any dark colored obstacles like my espresso coffee and end tables, black bed frame, or black refrigerator; it tends to need to bump into those before it detects their proximity. Still, it always seems to gently tap them versus ramming into them full throttle, so I haven't noticed any dents/dings/scratches from its use. I've also got many large houseplants on the floor, and it cleans/navigates around their bases very well without knocking them over. * In auto mode, it seems to take the most random path it can find. e.g. it will enter a room and make one swipe before leaving and coming back later for another pass. However, this is pretty normal for robo vacs from what I've read (at least the ones that don't have advanced mapping). That said, it does still provide excellent coverage over time, especially when run on schedule or twice daily. More specialized modes likes edge and spot cleaning are quite thorough, though. This isn't going to replace your regular vacuum, but it's not meant to. I used to run the upright vacuum daily to keep up with the dogs. Now, I can do a full vacuum once a week or so and let this little guy maintain in between, and in that, it is doing a great job. * The dust bin, pre-filter, and foam filter are all washable with water which is great. The only part that can't be is the fine air filter. I'm not sure if the dust bin is dishwasher safe, but a quick spray from the sink sprayer is usually sufficient. CONS: Most of the "cons" are petty things, hence the 5-star review. Just figured I'd mention them to round out my experience. * The side brushes don't appear to be incredibly resilient. After about 6 or 7 cleaning cycles, they started to curve outward against the direction of spin. I'm not sure how negatively this impacts its cleaning ability, but I figured they would last a little longer (I am still using them, and it's still doing a good job, so I guess I'll find out). It did come with two spares, which is nice, but I'm a little concerned about how often I might need to re-order replacements. Considering I've never owned a robovac before, this could just be par for the course, so I'm not going to knock any stars off the review for it at this time. * The "remove before use" sticker didn't peel all the way off and left some ugly residue on the top (nothing a little Goo Gone can't fix). While very sleek, it's also a fingerprint magnet, so keep a tack cloth on hand if keeping it shiny is important to you. * It's not a huge gripe considering I purposely chose a dumber model to avoid having to rely on an app (which does have this feature), but I wish the scheduler was a little more advanced. The scheduler on this model is about as smart as a clock radio from the days of yore, only allowing a fixed time for it to run every day. Having an option for day of the week or the option for a second schedule (e.g. run once in morning, once in evening) would be nice. * The base has a little space for the remote to sit in, but I'm unsure if the remote has to be in that or otherwise within line of sight of the vac to start it on schedule. The one time I left the remote in another room, it didn't start on schedule the next day, though that could have been operator error on my part since that was the first day I had it. I've since left the remote in the caddy on the base, and it's run on schedule since. My concern with that would be the dog deciding the remote would make a good chew toy. Directions do not mention anything along those lines and imply the remote just programs the bot to start at that time. * The base is a little light, and even against a wall, the vac would sometimes push the base to a weird angle and be unable to dock. I noticed this when I had the base in the living room on the hardwood. I've since moved the base to a carpeted room against a wall, and it hasn't been an issue. So, I do wish the base were a little heavier and/or the rubber strips on the bottom had more grip. Overall, I couldn't be happier with this vacuum. It's not the smartest model out there, but for the price, it has an excellent feature set, does a great job, and doesn't have to connect to the cloud. A small number of other reviewers mentioned issues started cropping up 6-8 months after purchase, so time will tell whether I encounter any issues. Those reviewers also said Ankler has excellent customer service, so while that's great, I hope I don't have to reach out to them. So far, though, I'm highly impressed and may purchase another for downstairs so I don't have to carry it back and forth.