If you have elected for a robot vacuum with mapping capabilities, it usually gives you the option of a quick mapping run without cleaning. It might seem like a waste, but it does save time in the long run. Use the mapping run to take a quick walk around your house and look for dangling shoelaces, wired headphones, or any long strings or fringes that will trip up the smartest robot vacuum.
And turn on your lights. Your robot might have optical sensors, which require ambient light to operate. If you find that your vacuum is getting stuck a lot, don’t schedule your cleanings at night. (Try 9 am, which is when my vacuum is usually scheduled.) If you have a dog, cleaning right after you leave will also give your pup less time to have an accident on the floor.
Nowadays, your robot vacuum will also ping you if it has navigation issues. In my house, dust often gets on top of the optical sensors, which can be removed by wiping with a soft cloth.
Empty the Bin
Yes, unfortunately, a robot that routinely digs into the yuckiest corners of your house will need a little routine maintenance. More than a few people have complained to me that their robot vacuum doesn’t work and just drags dirt around. If yours is doing this, then the bin is probably full. A robot vacuum’s dust bin is pretty small. Most robot vacuums have a bin size of around 0.6 liters. The dust bin on my Dyson ball vacuum is twice that, and I still need to empty it from room to room.
Dealing With Clogs and Clots
Many robot vacuums now come with tiny tools embedded inside the body of the vacuum that make routine maintenance slightly easier. I also keep scissors and, er, poking tools (a chopstick) on hand for cutting through hair or yarn that has snarled a roller brush or to push an obstinate Lego through the vacuum chute on a self-emptying bin.
I do have to say here that robot vacuums are not unique in this regard; these are all problems that have befallen my handheld push vacuum. I have yet to come across a robot vacuum problem that could not be solved with a few minutes of routine maintenance (well, and the occasional factory reset).
Divide and Conquer
Photograph: Carol Yepes/Getty Images
Ideally, you’d automate your robot vacuum’s cleaning cycles, not give it another thought, and come home to a clean house every day thereafter. But as helpful as robot vacuums are, they cannot pick up your kid’s 1,000-piece puzzle set for you or put away the dirty laundry that you’ve left in a pile on the floor.