Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I received my iLife A6 today and after charging I sent it on its first mission. I recently installed tile (white) in my kitchen. I have two Black Labs. It’s easy to imagine the resulting mess of black hair all over the tile. I have Eureka mini-vac that has done a nice job of keeping the floor clean by vacuuming twice a day with it (about 10 minutes per run). My A6 headed out on its way. People are correct in that its pattern of cleaning will drive you a little nutty if you watch it. It’s hard not to watch, so I watched it anyway. It did a very nice job of picking up the dog hair and dust bunnies. Surprising me a little is when it went under the dining room table and chairs. I have a circular white and black rug under the table and chairs. The black is random on the rug and does confuse the A6 a little, but in all runs over the rug it eventually finds a way out and back onto the tile. I also have a gray with black square pattern rug going down one wall to the doggie door. The A6 has absolutely no problem with this rug, vacuuming without any directional problems at all. I ran the A6 for only about 15 minutes and it covered almost the entire kitchen floor. Quite by accident I had set the daily schedule for 3:30pm and had parked the A6 on its charger at 3:27pm. At 3:30pm it kicked on and started to vacuum again. I hit the off button and put it back on its charger. It’s difficult to guess if the A6 is learning how the floor is laid out or if it’s truly just random and eventually gets everywhere. The bumping is very mild against the wall and furniture. The only issue I’ve had, and I’ve only run it once is that it didn’t find its way back to its charger. I had to put it back manually. However – I am not following the instructions for clearance of the charging station. I simply don’t have a wall that has enough free left/right space for the charger to set without my dogs eventually stepping on the A6. That’s minor though as I can always put it back on its charging station if I can’t find a place for it to park itself. From what I’ve seen so far, if there are no mechanical problems, I believe the A6 will give me back some of my time spent vacuuming each day. UPDATE 4/5/2017 - I've set a schedule and setup the charging station in a position that seems to work great, though still not as recommended. The A6 finds its way back every time so far. I've also added pictures. One of the A6 in its charging station. Another of the black/white patterned rug I have under my dining room table. This is the rug that the A6 has some problems with, but eventually gets out of and continues on its way vacuuming. The other rug I show with black square patterns actually causes no problems at all for the A6. I do pick up my dining room chairs to make the A6 go through the room easier. I manually kick off the A6 in the morning and it's scheduled for 3:30pm. When I get home, the floor looks really good. Is it perfect? No, but it's sure keeping me from going crazy with my Eureka having to vacuum each night after arriving home from work. UPDATE 4/12/2017 - I like this robot vacuum so much that I've purchased two more, both for my sisters. I did have a little trouble with my unit today. When I pulled the dust bin I found it was empty. The dirt and hair had not made it into the bin. I quick cleaning of the filters and wipe down of the A6 resolved the issue. I re-ran the floor and everything it picked up was in the dust bin as it should be. A weekly cleaning seems to be the trick and empty the dust bin daily. I kick my A6 on MAX in the morning just before leaving for work and then it's scheduled to run at 3:30pm and done just before I get home from work. Still loving the time it's saving me from having to clean the tile floor each evening. UPDATE 4/14/2017 - Well my sister in Florida received her A6, let it charge overnight and ran it before going to work. For those that claim it won't pick up sand and dog/cat Hair I have to say you're not following the instructions on how to use the robot or you have a defective one and need to use the warranty service. The final picture is of the dirt, sand, and dog/cat (two of each) hair that the A6 picked up on its first run at her house...and she keeps a clean house so what it found and picked up is very impressive. You can easily see the sand the A6 picked up. She sent the photo with the caption "LOOK!" so she's very pleased with the results. Her floor is tile and wood, very open floor plan, and very large. Keep the dust bin/filters clean, empty the dust bin after each run, use the MAX suction option on the remote, don’t expect it to pick up on rough or thick carpet, don’t expect it to not jam on shoe strings, wires, and other garbage you didn’t pick up, and most of all don’t expect miracles out of under $300.00 robot vacuum and you’ll be pleased with your purchase. UPDATE: 02/05/2018 - It's been alomst a year since I purchased Beetles. It's been doing a great job until recently. I hadn't used the vacuum for a few weeks while doing a make over on two back bedrooms and the hall in my house. I didn't want to plug it up with dust from the construction. I had switched it off. When I tried to fire it up, it would back out of the docking station and then shut off. I sent an email to support. They responded in less than 12 hours, asking me to make sure the vacuum was turned on while charging. I checked, and sure enough I had switched it off again for some reason. I switched it on, put it in the docking stations and left it there overnight. The next day I sent it on a cleaning runa and it worked fine. The only other issue I was having is that it sounds like something was lose inside the vacuum. I've done a fair job of cleaning the vacuum, but not a dissasembly type cleaning. I decided to do that today. Oh my Lord, I pulled more dog hair out of all sorts of places that I never thought it would get into. After this major cleaining, Beetles is a happy camper and cleaning like new. I also have expanded Beetles area of cleaning (originally just my kitchen), now Beetles covers my living room carpet, my master bed room, library, and bathroom (all carpet), and my dining room which is tile. I have a Black Lab and two Perinese Labs. Beetles does a nice job taking care of the dirt and hair they put all over the house. I dump the dirt bin and clean the filters after each use - it is always full. I've learned what I can leave on the floor and what I can't. I've also setup barriers to block Beetles from getting caught on furniture that it has trouble with. Is it always perfect in its runs? No. It does get stuck sometimes, but the time it saves me in not having to use a manual vacuum every day is great. I only manually vacuum once a week now, even with the dogs. Learn what it can and can't do, adjust to those situations, and you'll have a great addition to help keep the house clean.