In practice it works pretty well, although the idea you won’t have to tidy up before the vacuum does its rounds remains farfetched. Our review unit occasionally got stuck on power cables and irobot vacuum cleaner the odd child’s sock, but we received significantly fewer error/stuck messages than we did from the Dyson and the Miele. WIRED Recommends is your definitive guide to the best technology.
Dyson’s design choices have downsides, too; the height of the machine means that it can’t squeeze under couches or low tables to clean those hard-to-reach areas. Roomba’s devices are much shorter, but wider, allowing them to sneak under furniture much more easily. The fix is that you’ll have to move your furniture out-of-the-way once in a while, which ultimately isn’t that bad of a workaround given 360 Eye’s other advantages.
“Engineers are dreadful — they always have better ideas. I don’t mind that — I think it’s quite a good habit.” The point being, he continues, that his company spent a lot of money in 16 years “to make the right product.” The gap sensors that prevent it from taking a tumble down stairs work well, but unlike my Roomba, it doesn’t think the black portions of my area rug are pits into which it might tumble. With the Roomba, I was able to work around the issue by taping pieces of paper over the gap sensors and walling off the open stairwell to the basement with one of its virtual wall emitters. Its smaller footprint makes a difference in its ability to get in and around table and chair legs, and it takes up less space when sat on its dock, which makes it a lot easier to live with in cramped flats and terraces. Taking the bin out and emptying it is quick and easy, but it is a small bin and you might have to empty it mid-run if you have particularly dirty carpet. Of the dozen-plus autonomous floor cleaners we’ve tested to date, it holds its own alongside the best of the best.
Shaped more like a dense 3-layer cake than its wider-flatter counterparts from iRobot and Neato, I assumed it would never clear coffee tables, chairs and other low-profile furniture. It costs $999/£800 and didn’t perform as well as the similarly app-enabled $700 Neato Botvac Connected or the $900 iRobot Roomba 980. She’s interested in environmentally-conscious brands, and appliances that save time, money and improve our lives. Gear Patrol participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. Dyson offers a two-year guarantee with its Heurist, as iRobot does for its Roomba models.
Chunky wheels able to move in and out of the frame also increase that clearance when needed. Dyson goes even further, using a tank track-like underside rather than wheels. However, a good non-mapping vacuum will still be able to find the way back to its charging station. The main benefits of the smart sort are an bissell crosswave cordless ability to approach floor coverage a bit more efficiently and, perhaps more important, setting “no go” areas. While the battery life and suction has improved greatly, this is not a fast cleaner, and if you have a large, cluttered house it will almost certainly need a halfway recharge before completing the job.
He looks after all things smarthome and home appliances for Trusted Reviews. The 360 Heurist comes with the same pull-out 0.33-litre bin at the front of the cleaner as the original. This is a handy position for the bin, as you can see quickly if it needs emptying without having to lift up a flap on the robot. Inside the bin is also one washable filter, with a secondary filter at the rear.