It’s still definitely a premium priced option – but double the money of a Dyson stand-up vacfor half the labor sounds pretty good to me. But the best part of the app might be the Activity tab, which shows you a history of your vacuum’s outings, and the coverage area it cleaned each time. These graphs are only stored locally on your device, and show you how long the vacuum was working, how many charges it required to finish the job, and the total area your bot covered during the trip. The app also lets you start, pause and schedule the robot, and includes a full manual with a guide to cleaning its filters and emptying the dust bin.
Placement of the cleaning brush is also a key part of the design, since it allows for a full width component, where most robot vacuums use smaller brush bars that mean the bot needs to make more passes to finish the job. There’s no doubt that Dyson is planning a return to the arena of robot vacuum cleaners. But how will its next robot vac – which seems to be known as the RBO3 at the moment – improve on previous models? It tends to be the more expensive models that have room-mapping. It’s the advanced controls that really prove useful, allowing you to set restrictions to control how the 360 Heurist.
The Alexa Skill is very good, providing enough voice control that you can even use the robot in Routines, triggered either by your voice or through another bit of smart kit – say, your Ring Alarm turning on. Google Assistant is also supported, if that’s your smart helper of choice. It can be unscrewed and removed from the side, but I found I never actually needed to do that, even for shoe laces it had eaten. The Dyson Link app for Android and iOS allows remote control, scheduling and diagnosis of faults, in an easy-to-use manner.
When it launched way back in 2015 the Roomba 980 (£849) was iRobot’s top-of-the-range Wi-Fi connected design, and while it now somewhat eclipsed by the i7+, it has more enough cleaning smarts to deserve a place on this list. One final hangover from the original remains; its unwillingness to successfully dock and charge after a clean. Frequently, just like a drunk sleeping in his own doorway, the Heurist gets so close to the charger and seems to think, ‘that’ll do’ and just stops. The self-emptying bin is our favourite feature for sheer convenience, but its smart maps come a close second. You know which rooms need cleaning and which are too cluttered. Simply tell it where to clean as you go out, then leave it to do the housework.
However, superior cleaning performance is still available in all our other vacuums. Vacuum-proof the house – Things like socks, pet toys, or other small objects can get stuck in the robot vacuum just as they would in a traditional vacuum. The difference is that you’re not there to pick it up on the fly or go around it, so you need to keep the house more or less vacuum-proofed before the vacuum runs. With that in mind, let me share with you the pros and cons of robot vacuums so you know what to expect if you invest in one. When I agreed to review the Rydis H68 Pro I didn’t consider myself an expert on robot vacuums by any stretch.
In addition to its digital V2 motor that Dyson says “spins at up to 78,000 revolutions per minute,” the way a robot vacuum sees rooms has a huge impact on its ability to clean. The 360 Eye by Dyson is a very good robot vacuum, but competitors offer similar features and better performance for less. But there are changes from previous models, the most obvious of which is the shape of the robot vacuum itself, which seems wider and shorter. It also has one flat side, so it has more in common with the Neato Botvac than previous Dyson vacs – superficially, at least.
Dyson says this isn’t stored or used to inform the vacuum’s next trips – each time it starts up, it starts up completely fresh. But what it does offer is confirmation that your vacuum has covered the area you want it to, since you can see right in the visualization what portions of your floor it managed to clean. The Dyson 360 Eye managed to deliver a better overall clean than my Roomba, which is no small feat because I have a very orange dog which sheds a lot. Pet hair, in volume, is a terrific vacuum challenge, and even though my Roomba has pet in the product name, the 360 Eye beats it hands-down when it comes to dog dander.
Another reason Dyson’s bot works so well is its companion app. The 360 Eye can connect to your Wi-Fi network, and is then accessible via the Dyson Link app. This will let it regularly grab updates from Dyson and install them automatically, which the company says will improve performance over time. Dyson makes a big deal about its engineering efforts, but its external industrial design is also a key ingredient in the appeal of its products. The 360 Eye is no exception, and its purples, blues and glossy grays make a bold visual statement, which is actually additive to your home decor. It looks sleek and modern, and draw attention – a stark contrast to iRobot and others, who seem to have designed their bots as broad flat pucks that try to blend in with their surroundings and disappear.
Dyson has also revamped the controls and information dial on top. Scheduled cleaning – It’s nice to be able to just program the vacuum to run on select days, or at a specific time each day, so that the floor shark cordless is generally clean without any human interaction. Using a combination of the camera and infrared sensors the vacuum is able to create a digital blueprint of the house using key landmarks to help it navigate.