Those LEDs are important, as they ensure the device can navigate in the dark — handy if you want your robovac to clean when you’re out or asleep. Without Wi-Fi, you’ll likely be required to press stop and go manually each time on the robot vacuum itself. On High suction mode, the robot vac measured in at around 70dB, which is louder than much of the competition.
And barring Dyson’s love of launching things in Japan, there’s some solid reasoning for it. “The country adopts to new technology faster than anyone else,” he said. “We’re also ‘Big in Japan’ — the largest vacuum brand in Japan, bissell crosswave cordless and this country is the largest market for robots.” No arguments there. The Dyson 360 Eye is the best performing robot vacuum available. It’s simply better at cleaning than all the others, but it also has its downsides.
The 360 Eye name stems from the vacuum’s unique vision system, which Dyson believes is the future of robotic navigation technology. The system consists of a 360-degree panoramic-view camera and infrared sensors, which map out and plot the robot’s navigation. Dyson added that the team soon realized that vision sensors geared to measure a room, to triangulate location were the way forward. “This technology has a lot of mileage in it — and we’re just at the beginning,” he said. The team paired it with its existing, but still very recent, digital motor (the same one used in Dyson’s stick vacuums) — a motor that balanced suction power with a small footprint and weight.
The Dyson 360 Eye is unsurprisingly a terrific vacuum, but it does have room for improvement for a robot – which isn’t saying anything new for the category. For instance, the 360 Eye can weave in and out of table and chair legs better than competitors so you don’t have to stack chairs on top of tables on scheduled-clean mornings. The 360 Eye picked up a lot of the pet hair, but the rest was stuck along the side of the test pen.
This would tally with Dyson’s past comments that the Heurist was not quite right for US homes. Allowing the vacuum to get under more items of furniture would certainly help with sales. Connecting the Heurist to our Wi-Fi took a few seconds, and, unlike the original, didn’t require the inputting of serial numbers, just our Wi-Fi password and the Dyson Link app. Once connected and charged, we could map rooms , assign safe zones, adjust the power levels for different floor types, and schedule cleaning jobs. We did have some connectivity issues where the Heurist dropped off the network, but overall, it was there when we needed it. Roborock continue to close ground on Roomba with some genuinely useful innovation, a great app and better than expected value.
Device gets stuck – There seems to be somewhat of a standard when it comes to the size and shape of robot vacuums. Some are taller than others, though, and a difference of even a quarter inch can make or break whether the robot vacuum will just bounce off the cabinet in the corner, or get wedged under it and get stuck. It’s certainly too soon to determine the extent of the competitive threat that the 360 Eye presents to iRobot’s Roomba.
It picked up mess right up to the edge of a room, sucked dirt out of a carpet, and even coped with a rickety old wooden floor where dirt had become trapped in cracks and dips. This robot vacuum cleaner manages to beat all of the competition. Nevertheless, your use of a robot vacuum will be far easier with access to Wi-Fi, letting you take advantage of software updates and use accompanying smartphone apps to the full. Depending on your vacuum bissell crosswave cordless cleaner model and capabilities, these apps can let you set intensity, create floor maps for different rooms, initiate zone/spot cleaning and command your cleaner. The majority of robot vacuum cleaners do not need Wi-Fi to work, typically sporting buttons on top of the device to allow you to request the vacuum begins cleaning. Give the house a quick once over without lifting a finger with our pick of the best robot vacuum cleaners.
It’s not an issue really, as you can schedule it to clean when you’re not around. If it’s a basic clean you’re after, the lowest setting is relatively quiet while there’s three higher settings giving you room to ramp things up for bigger messes—but, then, it does get quite loud . There’s also a decent size water tank and the option to use a reusable mop or some disposable mops when your hard floors need a stronger once over. Vacuum under furniture and tough-to-reach spots – When I vacuum the house the old-fashioned way, I generally go around the sofa, bed, and other large furniture. Robot vacuums can just zip right under there and take care of business so you don’t have an accumulation of dust bunnies.
Questioning an investing thesis — even one of our own — helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. A pop-off panel on the back reveals the post-motor filter, while the pre-motor filter sits behind the bin. The robot is probably short enough to fit under an average bedstead. Dyson touts its carbon fiber and nylon brush that’s roughly as wide as the 360 Eye itself, but a lot of the stuff the 360 Eye struggled to collect was hiding in corners or up against the side of the test pens. There’s no guarantee of course that this product will end up in the US, but an FCC filing does obviously suggest that this is Dyson’s current ambition.