Why your first robot vacuum disappointed you (and what has changed since then)

Smart Household

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Surprisingly many Dutch cupboards contain a robot vacuum cleaner that still works perfectly well.
It just never gets used anymore.

The story is almost always the same: bought enthusiastically at first, played with for a few weeks,
and then increasingly stuck, both literally and figuratively. Anyone who dives into the reviews of that first
generation will see three complaints come up endlessly. All three have now been resolved. So here’s an overview: what was wrong, and what has changed.

1

He bumped into everything and got stuck.

The first generation drove around randomly and hoped for the best. "Often gets stuck on
chair legs at an angle and on the coconut mat," writes one buyer about such a model. Another
keeps it brief: "Gets stuck everywhere."

What has changed: laser navigation. The new generation scans your home, creates a
floor plan, and drives in neat lines. From a review of one such newer model: "The navigation works
precisely, and it finds its way around well without getting stuck anywhere."

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There he was again.
2

Mopping meant lugging around a wet cloth

The “mopping function” of the past: a damp cloth underneath the device. “The result was mediocre
because the device drags a wet cloth across the floor,” one reviewer summarizes.

What has changed: real mopping systems that apply pressure and clean themselves. Today’s
reviews sound different: “It mops better than mopping by hand.” And: “After
mopping, the floor is truly cleaner than clean, with not a single streak left to be seen.”

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The “mopping function” of the time.
3

You were still working on it every day

Emptying the bin, pulling out the brush, searching for it because it had died somewhere under a cabinet.
The device that was supposed to save work became a chore itself.

What has changed: the self-emptying station. The robot empties itself after every run, so you don't have to think about it for weeks.
“You can see everything in the app, and set a schedule so you don't have to worry about it at all,” writes one user about the new generation.

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You kept at it
4

So: if your first robot was a disappointment, you were right. And yet things are different now.

The converts put it most aptly themselves. "After cheaper robot vacuums that bump into everything, and with a mop you have to clean yourself, this is truly an upgrade."
Or this one: "Our previous robot vacuums were worthless compared with this one."

We looked at which new-generation model is the best buy without immediately spending €550+, and settled on the Bloomfold Drift:

Laser navigation, vacuums and mops in a single
pass, and empties itself at the station.

For €329, with 30 days to discover at home whether the
difference from your first robot is really as great as the reviews promise.

View the Bloomfold Drift
The new generation: the Bloomfold Drift