r/workingmoms • u/Proper_Cat980 • Nov 28 '25
Working Mom Success Ro 👏🏼 bot 👏🏼 vac 👏🏼 uum
This is not an ad or a bot. I am a cheap and stubborn mom who is here to admit that I was wrong!
I am generally not a very spendy person. I tend to agonize over large purchases and resist consumerism when I can. But HECK you guys, we splurged on a robot vacuum a week ago and I cannot express how satisfying it’s been.
I’ve seen mixed results in reviews online but our house is like the perfect scenario with:
-single story
-hard floors
-minimal stuff and furniture with taller legs
Now before bed, we load the dishwasher while the robot vacuums and mops the house and wake up with floors clean like a fancy hotel. I would say I got an hour of my time back but let’s be honest, I was NOT cleaning the floors every day- we were just living in a grungy house lol.
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u/GoingToFlipATable Nov 28 '25
I set mine to the male voice so at least there’s one man around who reliably cleans.
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u/MegBrulee Nov 28 '25
Which kind did you get??!
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u/Proper_Cat980 Nov 28 '25
We got the Roborock that’s on sale at Costco right now.
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u/RosieTheRedReddit Nov 28 '25
We have the top of the line Roborock with docking station and mop. Soooooo happy. Over time you'll also notice a huge reduction in dust bunnies. When we move the couch or something, of course it is dirty, but still civilized. With daily vacuuming there is way less dust that can accumulate in corners and crevices.
Also it keeps us honest with tidying up toys. Every night we tell the kids, "Time to clean up for Roborock!" And I am not kidding, my youngest son's first word was Roborock. 🥺 Ok more like "Rara" but we all know who he is talking about!
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u/mrsgrabs Nov 28 '25
Yes! We have one on each floor. On our main level we have a robot mop/vac that is self cleaning with a warm water wash station and it’s life changing.
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u/OrchestralMD Nov 29 '25
What model ?
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u/mrsgrabs Nov 29 '25
The roborock qrevo maxv. It’s ~1.5 years old and a sensor went out. I contacted customer service and mailed it to a repair center and they sent it back. So not sure if I’d get the same model.
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u/blossom_rays Nov 28 '25
For the one you picked, does it make a lot of noise? We have single story, hard wood floors… but my fear is that it will run all night and keep the dogs awake who sleep in the main living space, potentially us too. I saw the sale on Costco too though and had a thought about it. We have cleaners every two weeks but with the dogs I still have a mess within 3 days of the cleaning!
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u/Proper_Cat980 Nov 28 '25 edited Nov 28 '25
It’s noisy enough that we wouldn’t be able to run it in or near a room we’re sleeping in. Quieter than a hair dryer, maybe similar to a loudish kitchen stove fan? So far we’ve been running it after toddler goes down but before we fall asleep.
The mop clean is about the volume of a coffee brewer and the canister empty is COMICALLY VERY LOUD haha. It sounds like a portal to another dimension opens for like 10 seconds. We busted up laughing the first time we heard it. You can set it to not do that at night.
Edit: it takes about 1.5 hours to vac and mop the main areas with mop washing in between. Around 500 sq ft
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Nov 28 '25
The portal sound 🤣🤣🤣
Have you named it yet? One of my pals named hers "Dustin Timberlake," which also cracked me up.
Edit: typo
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u/GoingToFlipATable Nov 28 '25
Mine is named Wall-E in honor of his thankless, unending task of cleaning my house every day.
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u/babygotthefever Nov 29 '25
Oh I love that! My first one was named Beemo because he’s my favorite lil robot and we tried to name the new one Baymax because it’s heavy duty and awesome but Beemo keeps coming out of my mouth.
My MIL named hers Eric after my BIL. SIL & BIL lived with them for a bit and she explained, “Now I can say Eric does something around here!”
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u/ShadowlessKat Nov 28 '25
We have ours set to run each day starting at noon. It usually finishes the house by 5 pm.
Depending on the vacuum, you can schedule when it runs.
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u/blossom_rays Nov 29 '25
I work from home so I don’t want to hear it then either…
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u/ShadowlessKat Nov 29 '25
Oh that makes sense. I don't know that you'll find a vacuum that doesn't make any noise. You'd just have to schedule it for non work and non sleep hours I guess
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u/TinHawk Nov 28 '25
Bro, i have ADHD and I'm domestically challenged. Even without my kids, the robot vacuum is a game changer. We got one that has a big tower with a huge collection bag and a mop feature that squeegees the water as it goes.
Absolutely incredible.
Also, automatic cat boxes.
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u/Mildyamused2378 Nov 28 '25
What brand do you have ?
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u/TinHawk Nov 28 '25
Eufy. I have one of those crazy expensive ones that can mop. An incredible gift lol
Cat box is the Neakasa M1
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u/Worldly_Science Nov 28 '25
We’re on our second. We have two small children and had 4 animals until this week.
They can pry my roomba from my cold dead hands.
Got the vac/mop version for almost half off on Prime day lol
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u/Prudent_Honeydew_ Nov 28 '25
It's basic the best appliance ever. We just upgraded to one that empties itself at the dock.
We live in an apartment so we can't run it at night, but it's still amazing.
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u/EmberFlame27 Nov 28 '25
We call our robot vacuum Kirby because he “sucks up all the dirt “ (so named after the cartoon character)
My two-year-old is very attached and cries hysterically when I took him apart to clean him, six ML first thing in the morning when we come downstairs, and always points to him on the dock and says “Kirby sleeping!”
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u/CowboyBoats Nov 28 '25
Ro 👏🏼 bot 👏🏼 vac 👏🏼 uum
👏🏼, 👏🏼, 👏🏼-👏🏼-👏🏼!
(Sorry, I just taught my 4-year-old that cadence and she's been busting it out every time something is four syllables, which is actually hilarious and (unsarcastically) not getting old at all)
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u/Proper_Cat980 Nov 29 '25
Haha so cute! My mind now forever goes to Kendall Roy in succession banging on the window screaming “FAM-ILY THERA-PY!” 👏🏼, 👏🏼, 👏🏼-👏🏼-👏🏼!
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u/bulldogbutterfly Nov 28 '25
My house is almost 4k sq ft and I’ve never mopped myself. I have one for each floor. Thank you little robot vacuums. They are the employees of the month year round. There is something about waking up to a glistening floor and perfect vacuum lines in the carpet. Roborock has too many models but it was nice because I could buy a version for my exact needs, so upstairs is a stronger vacuum with the vibrating mopping pad, while downstairs is all wood so that one has less vacuum power but oscillating scrub mop pads. And it’s all the same brand, so a single app to control both and many interchangeable parts.
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u/ShadowlessKat Nov 28 '25
Oh yes! We got ours a few years ago. We had two large long haired dogs at the time. Within a day of it running, we boticed a difference.
We currently have one long haired dog and three cats. I can tell when the vacuum missed a day.
It doesn't always work perfectly. Currently I have a notification that it is stuck lol. But when it works, it more than pays for itself. Mine just vacuums. But it saves me from having to vacuum often. It runs daily. I definitely recommend one to others.
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u/FishyDVM Nov 28 '25
I just ordered one on a really good Black Friday sale and I genuinely can’t wait for it to be delivered. I’m vacuuming once a day right now because we have a furry long haired dog and it drives me nuts to have her little fluffs everywhere no matter how much I brush or de-shed her. Plus a long-haired cat who drags litter around a 5 ft radius of his box We have a single storey, laminate and tile floors, no rugs. It’s gonna be GREAT.
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u/vatxbear Nov 28 '25
Yep I splurged on one a few months ago that mops and vacuums and self cleans/empties so that we can go a week or so without messing with it (with daily use). I am so obsessed. I LOVE clean floors and this is such a game changer. 100% worth it.
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u/09percent Nov 28 '25
Really? All the research I’ve done, it seems like these can’t get over certain rugs and surfaces and can’t handle big messes.
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u/Proper_Cat980 Nov 28 '25
That could definitely be true. For us, I think our house just happens to be set up in a way that works for this thing. We’re also just really short on time and energy right now with two parents working opposite shifts and a 1 year old. So more of a passive maintenance tool taking the place of us not cleaning the floors at all lol.
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u/TinHawk Nov 28 '25
The ones that can are like $500. The eufy i have is excellent at this, and even maps where rugs are so when it mops it avoids the rugs.
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u/11pr Nov 29 '25
Our Roborock couldn’t handle the shag/long rug we had in our basement at one time so we just mapped it to avoid it. But it does go over the foam play mat and other rugs on our main floor. I will do a pre-sweep sometimes (4 and 1.5 yo so there’s always food or a rogue crayon or Knick nack somewhere). We have separate devices for the mop and the vacuum because I love our Roborock and it was too new to replace with a combo mop/vaccum. The mop isn’t scrubbing like super dried stuff up but it does improve the overall state of the floors. They’re both worth it.
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u/NeedleworkerBroad751 Dec 01 '25
I'm always so surprised when people rave about them as well. We had a fairly cheap one maybe 8 years ago and it was terrible. Always crashing into the chairs and getting stuck, could never find it's base. I gave it away.
Maybe what we had was outdated and too cheap? I've always been hesitant to try again.
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u/Biobesign Nov 28 '25
I’ve heard this issue with for the vacuum mop combos. We have a vacuum only and mop only option. I prefer it because I can mop and vacuum at the same time. We have too many rugs, so we’ve never been able to use the mop mapping function,but I absolutely hate mopping, so this doesn’t bother me. I mop way more often with my robot mop than I ever did with my regular mop. You’ll still want a stick vacuum for unexpected mess and a hand mop for when the toilet runs over.
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u/TalulaOblongata Nov 28 '25
I felt like mine was so loud and took like 2+ hours to do like 3 rooms. I could sweep/mop/vacuum that space in like 10 minutes so the droning for so long was making me crazy. I tried really hard to make it work for a few months but it ate my curtains and I threw it straight in the trash. Never looked back. Just - buyer beware, lol.
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u/No-Construction6202 Nov 28 '25
ohhhh ive been eyeing one for black friday and this thread just got me to buy. I am so excited! I dread mopping and just know my 5min swiffer jobs aren’t cutting it but have been too tired to care!
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u/penguin8312 Nov 28 '25
Totally worth it. We have two, one for each floor. It mops, vacuums, cleans its mop. I do wish both of them have the auto-fill/dump though.
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u/krissyface Fully remote - 7&3 Nov 28 '25
We also have one for each floor. They run on a schedule every morning. Besides being convenient they also force us to clean up the floor every morning so the roomba doesn’t suck stuff up.
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u/frugaletta Nov 28 '25
We absolutely love ours but wish we could have the combo mop one. We have hardwood floors (the kind that don’t have the gloss on them, idk what it’s called), tiled bathrooms, and area rugs.
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u/opossumlatte Nov 28 '25
IMO the mop feature sucks. It just pushes a dirty mop pad around on the floors so it’s not actually getting anything clean
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u/bluestella2 Nov 28 '25
I can't ever do that again. Not after my robot vacuum dragged itself through cat vomit and dog shit. I just can't.
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u/notevenarealuser Nov 28 '25
I got one a couple months back when my 10mo started thinking about crawling. Literally so worth the money, I hate vacuuming and mopping and we have two dogs that shed. I save hours in my week and my house is cleaner than ever, it’s amazing.
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u/wolf_kisses Nov 28 '25
Yes, I would love mine, but we just have too much stuff it gets stuck on, so it just feels like another thing I have to babysit. I wish it worked for us!
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u/mightbeacat1 Nov 30 '25
Funny story: my dad was commenting on our Roomba and said, "ours always stops right before it gets to the dock, so you have to pick it up and place it on the dock, every time. I don't think it was worth it." Mind you, I can't recall a time that my dad has ever vacuumed the house. My parents still have a 10-ton vacuum with a bag because he refuses to spend money on a new one when the old one still works.
When he left the room, I asked my mom if she thought the robovac was worth it. She said, "yes, completely."
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u/fuzzypinatajalapeno 🇨🇦 Engineer Nov 28 '25
Hell yeah. We have one on our main floor that’s hardwood and tile with two area rugs. It make such a great difference. We got a Narwal from Costco about a year ago and it’s been fantastic.
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Nov 28 '25
I miss being able to utilize mine. We have a new house that has like 40 year old textured carpet so the Vroomba can't get as good as suction as it used to. But there's hardwood underneath so there's hope !
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u/oliguacamolie Nov 28 '25
How big of chunks of stuff will it pick up? Like will it pick up the pieces of food my toddler has thrown on the floor or spit out?
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u/opossumlatte Nov 28 '25
You don’t want it sucking up anything wet, good chance it will smear it around on the floor
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u/Proper_Cat980 Nov 28 '25
We haven’t tested it with big pieces of food. My 13m old is a big food dropper but I still pick up the big pieces by hand. It DOES get all the crumbs and splatter though which is fantastic.
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u/princess4389 Nov 28 '25
Are you kidding me? I asked some colleges and told me these type of vacuums are garbage, tangle with cables and all… should i ignore them?
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u/x_tacocat_x Nov 28 '25
Definitely don’t get one if you have free-roaming pets. This hasn’t happened to me (yet) but I’ve seen poo schmear horror stories all over Reddit 🤣
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u/RedhotGuard21 Nov 28 '25
Yeah I lost a few to that. I will say we had no idea until I noticed the grease smears. So it cleaned it really well lol
I now just run it in the evening when everyone’s in bed
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u/8MCM1 Nov 28 '25
We bought one this paat summer and can't believe we lived so long without it! We have a single story tile house and three dogs
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u/0ddumn Nov 28 '25
We have a threshold between the kitchen and living room that’s about an inch tall, do you think it could manage that? 😭
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u/Proper_Cat980 Nov 28 '25
I have one before the bathroom and it always attempts it head-on, doesn’t quite get there, then charges it at an angle and makes it over. It makes kind of an annoying clacky noise but so far hasn’t gotten stuck. I’d maybe double check the return policy and see how it does in your house.
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u/kdawson602 Nov 28 '25
I had one and honestly I was not a fan. We have 4 pets and it just couldn’t handle all the fur. We have thicker carpet and it didn’t have the suctioning power. It would get stuck on the ledge to the basement stairs all the time. I had to manually vacuum anyways so I got rid of it.
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u/MightSuperb7555 Nov 28 '25
Similar situation here, I rolled my eyes at my husband and held out for so long….we got one last year and it is AMAZING
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u/NikJunior Nov 28 '25
It’s a must especially if you have dogs. We just upgraded the the vac mop combo and it’s awesome.
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u/TheC9 Nov 28 '25
We just moved from a 2 bedrooms flat to a 3 bedrooms house.
While I am so thrilled that we finally got a bigger house, vacuuming and mopping the floor (especially we just had the floorboard replaced so fine wooden dust everywhere) was killing me.
After 2 days, while we still have boxes and stuff everywhere on the floor, I couldn’t stand it and had to open the vacuum + mop robot that we bought during sale - which is an item that I said I have to get even we should be frugal.
It is life changing and I feel I can finally enjoy our new home.
(We have solar panel so I scheduled the cleaning during the day, which even better)
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u/MrsMitchBitch Nov 28 '25
I have a dog and a kid. We spend a lot of time at the beach and in the woods. Robotvaccum is a MIRACLE. It goes off every day at 9am and it really makes a difference in the hair and dirt floating around the house.
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u/clever_gurl Nov 28 '25
We bought one two months ago and it’s actually amazing. also free entertainment for our 3 year old. She will watch and follow it for 30-40 mins…
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u/caityjay25 Nov 29 '25
Please please please someone get my husband on board with this. Every time I talk about one or even get one it ends up in a closet not getting used QUICKLY and it makes me so annoyed.
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u/Mrssunshine1994 Nov 29 '25
Three dogs that shed. I treated myself to one and HOLY COW I’m obsessed. She’s my new bff.
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u/pizzaisit Nov 29 '25
Robot vacuum is a game changer for us. We bought the self vacuum ones and with dogs, it was so worth it.
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u/Rachelalala Nov 29 '25
Just throwing out there— there are a few Eufy models (and maybe other brands too, idk) have a self emptying base AND a blade that cuts the hair out of the roller. So essentially zero maintenance. Life changer
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u/sipporah7 Nov 30 '25
omg I love our robot vacuum! Our first one (super cheap) died and I upgraded to one that has mapping capabilities and it's amazing. I can set it to run anywhere, including just in the kitchen/dining area. We were never ones to vacuum all the time and this thing is cleaning our floors better than we ever would.
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u/Sagerosk Nov 28 '25
Lol, we have like 5 of them at this point. We have a self emptying Roomba on our second floor which is all carpet, and a Dreame vacuum/mop combo for our first floor, which is hardwood and rugs. My daughter has one in her room, we have one in the garage, and we have one in the all seasons room. They're the best.
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u/kayleyishere Nov 28 '25
Hows the Roomba on the carpet? I've been wanting one but the carpet plus clutter makes me nervous. Will it eat small toys?
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u/normalpersonishere Nov 29 '25
We have a two story old house with small rooms, rugs, and obstacles. Pets and small kids. What’s our odds of success with a roomba?
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u/trinity_girl2002 Nov 29 '25
How do I convince my husband to get one?!? He says our young kids will break it. (Their ages are 1.5, 4, and 9).
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u/whateverit-take Nov 29 '25
I actually started with one and a Tri level house. When my main vac I went months just using my robo vacs. I have 2 the same brand which is great since now I can interchange parts and vacs. I survived w/ just roomba vac for 6 months and I have a German Shepherd. It’s like have 10 cats.
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u/Low_Songs Nov 28 '25
We have dogs and we got one a few months ago, it’s amazing! I hate sweep and moping so much lol