Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by tguvot 193 days ago
i got roomba less than year ago, because it was hard to find well reviewed non-mop vacuum with docking station that sucks all the dirt out.
2 comments

The common solution is to just buy the cheapest Roborock that does a great job at vacuuming, even if it has a mop (that you never have to use).

I got a Q7 M5+ for this exact reason, for $265 shipped. (And yes, that includes a self-emptying bin.)

For the vacuum function, it seemed to be highly rated.

> non-mop vacuum

Such a good point. Vacuum wars website has no way to filter out vacuums without mop (my house is mostly carpet, I do want a good product but they are all with mops nowadays).

It's such a common issue with sites like this. It's either all products or products WITH this feature. No way to find products WITHOUT this feature.

Anyway quite happy with my Mova which is a rebranded Dreame.

I have a Roborock S5, and when I don't use the mop, I just remove the mop AND the water tank. And without the water tank it never gets stuck in doors.
it feels like getting instead of pickup track minivan, removing 2 rear seating rows and then chopping off parts of roof and doors
my house is actually mostly tiles/hardwood (at least areas that are accessible for roomba). but i want it just to be vacuumed.

polished tiles will always have some water marks after washing and require pass with floor buffer to buff it out. i also don't want to deal with with clean/dirty water (yeah, i know that are now few models that you can hookup to drain/water supply. but it's not exactly trivial to arrange in convenient way).

what i really want, is dock integrated with central vacuum.

I have a pretty old Roborock, and I can just not attach the mop and have it in vacuum only mode.
> what i really want, is dock integrated with central vacuum.

I have two dogs that shed HEAVILY. I fear to even turn my robovacuum on, since getting them.

I NEED THIS!!!

i bypassed this specific problem by getting dogs that don't shed (frankly, i shed more than both of them).

i contemplated getting spare dock for my roomba and modding it. but one thing I didn't figure out yet it's a how to close opening into central vacuum piping when it's not actively engaged. probably possible to do something with servos/etc, but it feels like too complicated/messy

You can avoid water marks by using distilled water.
water marks in this case will be because water mixes with dirt and it's not 100% wiped off and polished off
You fix this by doing a cycle of vacuuming first. Robots allow you to clean frequently to prevent large buildups. It's the same as if you were cleaning by hand. I have tiles as well and no dirty water marks.
i have robot running daily. it will never pick up 100% of everything. because if it would have picked up 100% there would be no need in mopping.

when i did robot shopping year ago, based on reviews and feedback it (vacuum before mopping) doesn't always work and the more polished your floor is, the worst the outcome