bObsweep PetHair SLAM Robot Cleaner Review
Imagine a robot vacuum cleaner that effortlessly navigates your home, leaving no corner untouched. Then envision a sleek and powerful companion that tackles dust, debris, and pesky pet hair with unparalleled precision. Today we delve into the world of the bObsweep PetHair SLAM, which promises this very revolutionary cleaning experience, but will it really sweep us off our feet or is it just blowing hot air?
Design
A circular design at one point was ubiquitous when it came to robot cleaners, but now the bObsweep PetHair SLAM is actually standing out from the crowded field of floor robots with its proud circle, becoming a personality driven product in its branding. With Bob being its first name and the product language being more personable, it doesn’t have quite the sterile image of other robot vacuums. In fact, the striking jade green hue of ours, reminiscent of precious gemstones, exudes an air of elegance and sophistication, effortlessly infusing our environment with a touch of opulence. We think it’s one of the best looking robot cleaners to enter the studio. It’s also available in jet black and jasper red.
Even beyond aesthetic appeal we can’t really find anything to fault when it comes to practicality and durability. Ours has taken on some heavy cleaning work and the body remains new in appearance, although one interesting thing to note is, despite the product’s name, it gently nudges against furniture, which is certainly a good thing for both the furniture and cleaner. Additionally, its matte plastic body won’t easily scratch like some of the glossier robots we’ve used. The inclusion of side brushes and a generous dustbin capacity demonstrates a thoughtful design, that particularly accommodates pet owners like us seeking to combat stubborn hair. Two removable side brushes are recommended to be replaced every 12 months, the filter every 6 months but shaken out every time you empty the bin. The bin features a door to make the process a bit cleaner, but there is also a wet mop attachment which can be put into the same slot when the bin is removed and is to be filled with water for hard surfaces.
App & Controls
A control panel and rectangular display is featured on top of the PetHair SLAM, which allows quick access to start/stop cleaning and to see any immediate errors (audio alerts can be enabled too). However, all this information is also present via notifications from the app and this is how we almost exclusively interact and control the bObsweep. Here you will find the charge level, the ability to set up customised cleaning schedules, enable edge cleaning and low power mode. Because this cleaner can generate a literal map of your home/rooms, it allows us to easily highlight within the app zones an area where we don’t want the cleaner to roam (particularly useful for blanking out rugs when mopping) or point out paths and zones which we actually want additional attention paid to, such as hallways with heavier footfall. There’s a lot of tech packed into this cleaner, much of which is similar to that you’d find within a self driving car, and the app doesn’t make the array of functionality feel heavy or complex, it just blends the roster of technology and filters it all into relatable and useful functionality that is genuinely helpful in our homes.
Manoeuvring
A crucial aspect of bObsweep's effectiveness lies in its ability to map and navigate the floor layout of our home, so we first introduced bObsweep into a zone that posed various challenges, including a 5cm drop split level, low furniture which it could just about go underneath, a rug and objects such as plants and boxes situated across the floor. It’s a fast learner, or should we really say planner, with its swift adaptability and problem-solving skills seeing it ignore the mild drop, and venturing underneath all the furniture it could, impressing us when it came up against a coffee table centre bar preventing it from going straight underneath, then cleaning one half and intelligently zooming out to return and finish the other side. What’s more, if a pair of human legs or a feline friend come nearby, it doesn’t redraw the room’s layout based on these obstructions but understands the difference, so it continues once they have ventured on. Around 2hrs of runtime is the quoted stamina of this bObsweep and we’d agree with that.
Whilst first cleaning it is methodically SLAMing (standing for simultaneous localisation and mapping) the space, and when the cleaning session is finished we are presented with a render of our home floor-plan within the app for us to divide spaces into named rooms. One caveat however, if you should venture upstairs or downstairs, which will almost certainly have a floorpan that overlaps the former it has plotted, bObsweep will effectively draw over it. Generally speaking, though, we’ve found over the many years of having robot cleaners that they become exclusive to the floor they are on due to the nature of the charging base and the obvious limitations of traversing stairs.
Unlike most of the previous robot vacuum cleaners we’ve reviewed that clean in a sporadic, almost pinball like fashion on floors, including the previous bObsweep model we’ve used, the SLAM vacuums like a human would, going back and forth in lines once it’s understood the space in which it will be cleaning. You may be wondering what happens once the battery power is depleted; well it goes back to its dock, which incidentally it finds with no issues, and starts to recharge. It’s aware of the progress it has already made and where it hasn’t cleaned, so once it has replenished energy it will set out again to complete its cleaning mission.
Cleaning Performance
The edge brushes play a crucial role in our cleaning routine as they effectively dislodge dust, dirt, and pet hair from hard-to-reach areas such as skirting, corners of rooms and furniture legs. Furthermore, we are truly impressed by what bObsweep refer to as the ‘Turbolift vacuum’, which is essentially the cleaner head design, effectively giving this cleaner the ability to comprehensively suck up every last trace of embedded cat hair as it ventures around our floors. The dustbin deposits, whilst lurid to see, do highlight that this cleaner is catching fine dust as well as the more visible specimens, and our floors have been left universally spotless and fresh. Cleaning in lines and having full awareness of the floor environment allows us to see where it has cleaned via the app, minimising the chances of missed spots, and reassuringly the bObsweep PetHair SLAM covers the entire area on every session.
In addition it effortlessly transitions between hard floors and carpets, adjusting its suction power accordingly for a seamless cleaning experience. It handles different pile heights with remarkable efficiency, although it falls slightly short when it comes to vacuuming our shaggy-style rug. To address this limitation, we have designated the rug as a restricted area within the app. Despite this minor setback, the PetHair SLAM consistently delivers satisfactory cleaning performance on a wide range of surfaces and passed our obligatory flour test in one pass on both surfaces. Notably too, its large dustbin capacity minimises the need for frequent interruptions during cleaning sessions.
Our hard floors receive regular vacuuming by bObsweep, and on occasion we employ the mop attachment to eliminate marks and imperfections. This innovative mopping technique ensures that the floors are not excessively saturated but rather coated with a smooth layer of the cleaning solution dispensed from the mop head attachment's reservoir. It’s a method that does effectively clean the floors and significantly reduces our time spent mopping, particularly in our open plan studio space where a newly installed 40m² hard floor would take us a long while. Furthermore, it can actually mop areas where a regular mop just wouldn’t be practical, such as when it goes underneath low furniture, as in the case of bed frames.
Verdict
From its striking design and colour choices, easy interchangeable accessory option to mop hard surfaces, intelligent manoeuvring yielded by its sophisticated mapping tech, its remarkable performance on both hard floors and carpets, going right against edges and into corners to effectively remove dust, dirt and stubborn pet hair, this new bObsweep will not disappoint. It all shows that the bObsweep PetHair SLAM represents a significant leap forward into the future of household cleanliness for the brand, and this model is certainly a cleaning dynamo, solidifying its position as an innovative leader among robot cleaners.