We've had Electrolux Pure i9.2 robot vacuum, it cost us around 500€ at the time. It was working well, I didn't even try to look at the traffic and was just happy to use it. It started to behave...
We've had Electrolux Pure i9.2 robot vacuum, it cost us around 500€ at the time. It was working well, I didn't even try to look at the traffic and was just happy to use it.
It started to behave weird after say 10-12 months - it forgot to clean some rooms when I set it up just for a few rooms cleaning and not the whole house. I kept using it in that state until one day my patience ran out. That day I did reset and started over. The bloody thing couldn't vacuum the whole house to make a new map! It did a room or a few and then was happy with the result. I had to restart the mapping a few times until it got the whole house. Then I made rooms once again in their app to no avail - the vacuum did the same poor job forgetting a room here and a room there... One day it didn't even finish the living room! After doing half of it, it just thought "I'm done here" and happily went back to the dock. I did reset it once again and didn't bother learning the house again, using it just as is - vacuum the whole house. And it didn't do even just that, once again randomly ending the vacuuming as it decided...
I sent it for repairs, it was under warranty (EU 24 months warranty, thanks for that!). I included A4 letter that explained my thoughts (which I will shorten a lot here) - vacuum was great from the start, then likely got some automatic update that I didn't even know about and the service could probably see in their system if that is the case and since then it did poor job. I also mentioned that I wanted it back fixed and I would accept older firmware with inability for remote control (as connecting to wifi will download new firmware, of course). I also added my email address for additional communication if needed. I was really surprised when they returned the 500€ - no questions asked.
I bought heavily used Roborock S5 for 80€ and when it got home I flashed Valetudo on it right away, didn't even bother with Roborock app or whatever. This vacuum was 4 years old at the time, it did over 50000 square meters already before I bought it and was a bit battered - well, it was used for 4 years. But it does the whole house on one battery charge with 30-40% remaining, something the Electrolux Pure i9.2 couldn't do (and we had the highest battery option). This Roborock S5 with Valetudo is also easily integrated into Home Assistant which is what I use to set the vacuum up for cleaning. I still can't believe the luck chain of events - got 500€ back, bought used vacuum for 80€, flashed with Valtude, integrated to Home Assistant and it works perfectly fine!
I raise my middle finger to all corporations that are greedy and unable to make something that is actually good.
God. This is why I fucking hate IoT devices. Double plug for the wonderful work from the team at Valetudo. If you are a tinkerer this might be a better option. Support the project if you can. I...
God. This is why I fucking hate IoT devices.
Double plug for the wonderful work from the team at Valetudo. If you are a tinkerer this might be a better option. Support the project if you can.
I currently have a Roomba and the second it completely shits the bed, I'm buying a Valetudo compliant machine and never looking back.
It all started innocently enough. I had recently bought an iLife A11 smart vacuum—a sleek, affordable, and technologically advanced robot promising effortless cleaning and intelligent navigation. As a curious engineer, I was fascinated by its workings. After leaving it to operate for the entire year, my curiosity got the better of me.
I’m a bit paranoid—the good kind of paranoid. So, I decided to monitor its network traffic, as I would with any so-called smart device.
All I did was block its data logging IP address—just the logs, not firmware updates or OTA channels. Simple enough, I thought.
For a few days, everything seemed fine. It continued to clean, map, and obediently avoid the furniture. However, one morning, it failed to power on.
Seems pretty standard for an IoT device, what more is there to say? The process of diagnosing and fixing the issue is pretty impressive but also something almost no one will go into. Coincidently...
Seems pretty standard for an IoT device, what more is there to say? The process of diagnosing and fixing the issue is pretty impressive but also something almost no one will go into.
Coincidently I recently looked into getting a smart vacuum and the choices are these ones, ultra budget local only ones that don't seem to work that well, trying to find one that can still work fully without internet and Valetudo.
Looking into Valetudo most models require lengthy jailbreaking process usually involving soldering and dissassembly. Like they say on the website it is basically a hobby. It is more than I want to get into simply to get an automated vacuum.
If I happen to find an offer for Roborock S5 as one of the easy models I will probably get it but the main thing I took from that research is that I don't need robot vacuum.
We've had Electrolux Pure i9.2 robot vacuum, it cost us around 500€ at the time. It was working well, I didn't even try to look at the traffic and was just happy to use it.
It started to behave weird after say 10-12 months - it forgot to clean some rooms when I set it up just for a few rooms cleaning and not the whole house. I kept using it in that state until one day my patience ran out. That day I did reset and started over. The bloody thing couldn't vacuum the whole house to make a new map! It did a room or a few and then was happy with the result. I had to restart the mapping a few times until it got the whole house. Then I made rooms once again in their app to no avail - the vacuum did the same poor job forgetting a room here and a room there... One day it didn't even finish the living room! After doing half of it, it just thought "I'm done here" and happily went back to the dock. I did reset it once again and didn't bother learning the house again, using it just as is - vacuum the whole house. And it didn't do even just that, once again randomly ending the vacuuming as it decided...
I sent it for repairs, it was under warranty (EU 24 months warranty, thanks for that!). I included A4 letter that explained my thoughts (which I will shorten a lot here) - vacuum was great from the start, then likely got some automatic update that I didn't even know about and the service could probably see in their system if that is the case and since then it did poor job. I also mentioned that I wanted it back fixed and I would accept older firmware with inability for remote control (as connecting to wifi will download new firmware, of course). I also added my email address for additional communication if needed. I was really surprised when they returned the 500€ - no questions asked.
I bought heavily used Roborock S5 for 80€ and when it got home I flashed Valetudo on it right away, didn't even bother with Roborock app or whatever. This vacuum was 4 years old at the time, it did over 50000 square meters already before I bought it and was a bit battered - well, it was used for 4 years. But it does the whole house on one battery charge with 30-40% remaining, something the Electrolux Pure i9.2 couldn't do (and we had the highest battery option). This Roborock S5 with Valetudo is also easily integrated into Home Assistant which is what I use to set the vacuum up for cleaning. I still can't believe the luck chain of events - got 500€ back, bought used vacuum for 80€, flashed with Valtude, integrated to Home Assistant and it works perfectly fine!
I raise my middle finger to all corporations that are greedy and unable to make something that is actually good.
God. This is why I fucking hate IoT devices.
Double plug for the wonderful work from the team at Valetudo. If you are a tinkerer this might be a better option. Support the project if you can.
I currently have a Roomba and the second it completely shits the bed, I'm buying a Valetudo compliant machine and never looking back.
Seems pretty standard for an IoT device, what more is there to say? The process of diagnosing and fixing the issue is pretty impressive but also something almost no one will go into.
Coincidently I recently looked into getting a smart vacuum and the choices are these ones, ultra budget local only ones that don't seem to work that well, trying to find one that can still work fully without internet and Valetudo.
Looking into Valetudo most models require lengthy jailbreaking process usually involving soldering and dissassembly. Like they say on the website it is basically a hobby. It is more than I want to get into simply to get an automated vacuum.
If I happen to find an offer for Roborock S5 as one of the easy models I will probably get it but the main thing I took from that research is that I don't need robot vacuum.