Shark AI Robot Vacuum, Smart Mapping|Scheduling|Pet Hair Pick Up|Logical Navigation, Black/Silver (RV2001), Carpet

3 reviews for Shark AI Robot Vacuum, Smart Mapping|Scheduling|Pet Hair Pick Up|Logical Navigation, Black/Silver (RV2001), Carpet

1. 

   Rated 4 out of 5

   Michelle Guinn – September 4, 2024

   I have 2 big dogs who shed like crazy this time of year. Who would have expected short-hair dogs to shed so much? I also have a very large single-level house with all hardwood floors, so keeping them clean all the time was not an option. Since I bought this little Robot (we call him Larry), I am amazed how much hair and dust it picks up EVERY DAY! I have to run it in only 1/2 the house at a time because it would take too long to run the whole house every day. So essentially 1/2 the house gets swept every other day. The picture shows what I empty out of the bin every day. Crazy to think I only swept this up once a week before (yuck!).

   Pros: It works! It sweeps up all the hair and dust (more than I ever thought could be accumulating in my house). It navigates around obstacles pretty well and even goes over all the different surfaces including transition to a carpeted area and a pretty high tile threshold into my bathroom.

   Cons:
   Making the map work can be a challenge, especially if, like me, you have to choose certain rooms to vacuum at a time. When I first mapped it out, every time I sent it out, it kept going to this one area where there was a table and chairs it couldn’t get around and spent 10 minutes trying to navigate around the chair legs. I think that was my fault though because I tried to modify the map to where I thought the rooms should have started and ended. So I deleted that map, put an obstacle in front of that particular table and re-mapped. Works pretty well now, even though the mapping visually still doesn’t make any sense to me.

   Battery Life is not great! Only works for about an hour and then sends itself back to the dock. You can choose a setting where it will go back out and finish the job after it charges back up, but depending on the size of your house, expect the cleaning to take most of the day.

   I’ve also noticed lately that it seems to clean for less time than it did originally before it heads back to the dock. Today, it cleaned for about an hour and at 50% battery went back to the dock. Not sure what that’s about.

   So I’m giving this 4 stars because I love the fact that I can now walk through my house in black socks and not have an extra critter accumulate on the bottom. But it could use some improvements in battery life and the app.

2. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Josh – September 28, 2024

   I had been buying cheaper Chinese made iLife vacuum robots for the past few years to keep my 1st floor hardwoods nice and clean. They worked ok but always had problems. Not enough suction and used invisible barriers so I was constantly buying AA batteries for the barriers.

   My last robot started only working for about 30 minutes before dying so I decided to switch brands and could not be happier.

   This thing is leaps and bounds better. The suction is amazing and it picks up probably 5-10x more dust than the iLife robots. Also its programming ensures it gets everything cleaned and isn’t just randomly bouncing everywhere.

   I bought a refurbished model so it appears it was not wiped. So I had to do a factory reset before i could use it because it was still programmed for a different floor pattern. Not really a big deal. The app lets you clear its memory fairly easily. Afterwards it was able to map my floor quickly and I had set up magnetic tape in places I wanted it to avoid.

   Definitely happy with this purchase. Oh it also ensures it does a 100% cleaning so that means sometimes it has to recharge itself then finish the rest of the job. I don’t mind that feature.

   I guess the only con is that it does require light so its lidar can map your house or also navigate. Ergo, you need to schedule it in the day else it may have navigation problems without any light. Not really a deal breaker as that was fine for me.

   All in all this is a good vacuum unit and I highly recommend it.

3. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Amazon Customer – October 12, 2024

   IMPORTANT: This robot can ONLY connect to 2.4 GHz wifi signal. It took me a week of frustration and crying on the phone with Shark customer support to realize the problem was my wifi router, NOT the vacuum’s fault. I split the wifi frequencies from my internet customer support, so now 2.4 and 5.0 GHz have separate network names & passwords. Once I was able to specify connecting the robot and the app to the 2.4 GHz network, I had no issues completing the setup of the robot. The app is user-friendly and fairly intuitive.

   I read the reviews for LOTS of robot vacuums before choosing this one. Mostly because it has LIDAR mapping technology & because it vacuums in a back-and-forth pattern instead of random directions until it bangs into an obstacle. It was also more affordable than many other robot vacuums, such as Roomba. It definitely does not have as big of a dirt capacity as my upright Dirt Devil corded vacuum. It won’t replace my big vacuum but it’s GREAT for daily use and keeping up with the dirt so I don’t get overwhelmed.

   For context: My house is a 1,700 square foot ranch, currently occupied by two adults, a 65 lb hound dog, and a bird. I need to empty the dirt canister after about three rooms. It can’t quite do the whole house on a single charge. Not a problem because once you complete the initial mapping step, you can send it to specific rooms to clean.

   It’s really exciting and stress-relieving to offload some of the housework burden and be able to multi-task! Both of us work full time and I really like having a clean house. It feels so GREAT to not spend so much of my time vacuuming dog hair. I can spend that time on other tasks now.

   When you start a cleaning session, it gives an estimate of how long it will take. The estimates get more accurate as you use it more often. The app sends notifications if the robot gets stuck, or if it gets clogged by something that it couldn’t “see” to avoid. Once it sucked up part of a sock and I had to rescue it. It’s only gotten stuck a couple of times. It is gentle about obstacles and doesn’t aggressively bash into things. I have some antique furniture and musical instruments which I don’t want to get scratched and dented. This vacuum gets very close without touching, or gently taps and then avoids. When it goes around an obstacle, it resumes the original cleaning path instead of going off in a random direction.

   It has no issues going over flooring transitions in doorways, from hardwood onto a rug, or from a rug back onto hardwood. So far it only struggled with some very fluffy bath mats, because they wouldn’t stay still; the rugs scooted in front of the vacuum and got all bunched up, and the robot couldn’t get over them. So now I just pick those up before it goes into that room.

   The suction is not as powerful as my big upright vacuum. But, it gets the crumbs from dog biscuits, feathers / bird seed thrown on the floor by the bird, and the majority of the dog hair! So far the brushes have yet to get tangled in hair. It’s quieter than my window air conditioner. I have had it cleaning my home office while on a work call and it was not disruptive. Sometimes I run it at night after going to bed.

   Your results may vary, but it also doesn’t upset my dog or trigger his prey drive very often. Sometimes he starts following it around and getting in the way, but he doesn’t go into fits of barking or try to attack it.

   TL;DR – I’m VERY happy with my purchase. I have recommended it to several friends. I’m madly in love after only a few weeks of usage. Excellent choice for something on the lower end of the robot price scale.