Meet Roberta, my labour-saving friend

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Several readers have asked questions about Roberta, my robovacuum, that I’ve been raving about lately so I thought I’d write about my experiences. Please note that I haven’t had it long and I can only give my view on this one model. I have one of the latest Mi models, made in China and so new there are no English instructions with it and there seems to be none online either. So that might turn out to be a distinct disadvantage. Luckily my friend had told me all about hers so we’ve been able to muddle through. My friend’s only vacuums and she have tiles and carpets. We have tiles and vinyl strips that look like wooden floors. To switch from vacuuming to washing, I change a small canister and attach a cleaning pad. About every 40 minutes, I stop the machine and fill the water dispenser. The canisters need to be emptied of dirt and fluff and I brush the filter with a brush that is supplied. There is a docking component that Roberta backs up to when her battery starts to go flat. It might take her an hour to recharge. If she is in the middle of doing the lounge and needs to recharge, she goes to the docking station. When recharged, she starts up again where she stopped and finishes the job. Our lounge holds 60 people for a concert so it is a large area. My back isn’t very keen on vacuuming and to have Roberta do this huge area is just wonderful. When you push her start button, she maps out an area, vacuums it then moves on to another area. She works her way around all obstacles but we put up the chairs and barstools so that she can hopefully do a better job. We also tuck away any cords that she might get caught up in. I do a room at a time so I shut doors into other rooms. When she has finished, she returns to her starting point and shuts down. Because of her dimensions, she can’t do areas like, say, behind the TV so from time to time I still need to do some vacuuming. A little brush extends beyond the circular shape so regular corners are cleaned. In the kitchen, she didn’t manage to remove a bit of food that was stuck to the floor. However, she saves me so much effort I’m happy to touch-up any areas which need it. I’m sorry this is so long but I wanted to tell you as much as possible. Perhaps others would like to write about their own experiences.