Regular Vacuum Cleaner vs Robot Vacuum Cleaner for Hardwood Floors

Over the past decades, most homeowners believed that robotic vacuums could not do the job of a regular vacuum. However, with the advent of better and more advanced technologies, this is no longer a dream. Robotic vacuums are now stronger, more advanced and more powerful. With brands such as iRobot and Deebot in the market, you no longer need to worry about dirty spots anywhere within your home.

Robotic vacuum cleaners are now at the same level as your regular vacuum in terms of power and perfection in vacuuming. Although, for most people, there is still the dilemma of whether to go for the robotic vacuum or the regular vacuum. Through this comparison, you will be able to make the right decision on whether to choose the robotic or regular vacuum, especially if your floors are made of hardwood.

Portability

Have you ever tried lifting your regular vacuum upstairs? Well, then you understand exactly what I mean by portability. The robotic vacuum cleaner is a fraction of the regular vacuum cleaner in terms of weight and size, which makes the robotic vacuum easily portable. This means that you can easily carry it upstairs, from one room to another and even to work for those days you need to clean your office floors.

If you own a home with multiple floors, it is easier to have a robotic vacuum cleaner clean all the floors in turns rather than having to carry your heavy regular vacuum to your topmost floor and back whenever you want to vacuum your floors. Its ease of portability that comes with its compactness makes the robotic vacuum cleaner even easier to store as compared to the regular vacuum cleaner.

Access of Tight Spaces

As mentioned above, regular vacuum cleaners are usually huge in size, making access to tight spaces difficult. Even with the extension hoses and cleaning attachments such as crevice tools, it takes so much effort to access and get dirt out of hard to access areas. However, with the robotic vacuum cleaner, tight spots are well taken care of. First, the robotic vacuum low profile design makes it easier for it to access and clean under furniture and other low spaces. Its Edge cleaning mode takes care of any edges, corners and crevices, giving your hardwood floors a spotless clean. Unlike the upright vacuum that requires you to push it around, the robotic vac propels itself, doing all the cleaning as you sit back and relax or take care of other tasks.

Hands Free Operation

For a very long time, people considered vacuuming as a tiresome and cumbersome task. However, with the advancements seen in this industry, the robotic vacuum has seen a great change in this notion. With the robotic vacuum, all your floors are cleaned without you having to lift a finger. With its robotic technology, intelligent sensors and smart navigation systems, this robot has the ability to move around your house without hitting onto obstacles or falling off stairs, detect dirt and clean it up without need for human intervention. As much as using a regular vacuum allows you to see any obstacles or dirt on your own, human error may play a part in ensuring that your vacuuming is not as perfect. This makes the robotic vacuum the ideal choice for a hands free operation, especially since you can easily control it via a smartphone app or remote controller even if you are away from home.

This makes the robot vacuum an ideal choice for a hands free operation, since you can easily control it via a smartphone app or remote controller. But choosing a good robot vacuum cleaner  for hardwood floor is not easy, so before buying one, you need to read a review like this one.

Scheduling Options

Since robotic vacuum cleaners do not require physical operation, they also give users the option of scheduling for vacuuming sessions ahead of time. For instance, if you want your hardwood floors cleaned every day for a week when you are on vacation, you just need to set this via the app. You can also decide on which areas to be vacuumed by designing a virtual map that will set up virtual boundaries where the vacuum cannot extend. While this feature is only available in high-end models, it counts as a huge advantage over the regular vacuum that needs you to be physically present for it to run.

Being able to schedule your cleaning sessions makes it possible to always have your home flawless even when you are too busy to vacuum or when away from home. With this, you have all the freedom and peace of mind to take care of other chores other than vacuuming.

Battery Life

Most regular vacuums do not run on batteries as they are plugged into power outlets. However, it would not be feasible for a robotic vacuum to be plugged onto a wall as this greatly limits mobility no matter how long the power cord is. As much as you are less likely to experience power interruptions with a regular vacuum, the robotic vacuum offers a better option: automatic recharge, as well as long runtime. In this sense, whenever a low battery is detected, this robotic vacuum will automatically move to its recharge dock where it recharges and resumes vacuuming thereafter, thus reducing the level of interruption to vacuuming sessions.

Cleaning Modes

Regular vacuum cleaners rely solely on the user to see dirty spots, obstacles, edges and tight spaces before having them clean these areas. This is a limiting factor depending on the user’s experience and even eyesight strength. Contrarily, the robotic vacuum makes use of advanced technologies for all this. Most of them come with multiple cleaning modes that work perfectly on hardwood flooring. The most common is the auto, spot, edge and intense cleaning modes. The auto cleaning mode is the one that automatically cleans different areas of the floor, the spot cleaning mode is for spots with more dirt concentration and stains, the edge cleaning mode is for edges and tight spaces, while the intense cleaning mode, just as its name suggests, is for the dirtiest and most stubborn dirt. Robotic vacuums also feature multi-stage cleaning technologies that ensure that they go back and forth at every spot making sure that no dirt is left behind. Users of regular vacuums do not have this privilege and have to rely on their strength, patience and time for this level of perfection to be attained.

Verdict

Robotic vacuums have come as a blessing to humanity given the convenience, reliability and fun they have brought forth. However, as much as they are near perfect, it would be very misleading to say that they do not share a set of weaknesses. Actually, they are more expensive than the regular vacuum, going for between $500 and $1000.

The capacity of their dirt containers can also not be compared to that of regular vacuums that require fewer emptying turns. Due to lack of extension hoses and attachment tools, these robotic vacuums are restricted to floors and similar horizontal surfaces, thus not able to clean curtains, drapes, furniture, walls and ceilings, which is a limiting factor. Overall, if convenience, reliability, ease of operation and especially excellent hardwood floor vacuuming is what you seek, then why not try a robotic vacuum cleaner. It will save you the hassle of having to pull or push your heavy regular vacuum around every time you need to.