Shark RV1001AE IQ Robot Self-Empty XL, Robot Vacuum with IQ Navigation, Home Mapping, Self-Cleaning Brushroll, Wi-Fi Connected, Works with Alexa, Black

Where to start?With the bad, let us get that right out of the way. The mapping is abysmal, truly, we have run Bruce (if you can name a Shark branded robot vacuum, what other name than Bruce would you choose) 25 times, he is nowhere near mapping our house, compared to my brothers robot from a competitor who rhymes with BOOMBA, which did it in three runs. This Shark does not even play the same sport....this prevents me from doing room specific vacuuming. And that is it. Unless you have a multi story house, where this feature is a must have, set Bruce and he will clean you house. Wonderfully. Next, the not so great, Bruce is so mentally challenged. For a smart device, he is pretty dumb, but you want to know something, Bruce is determined. He will get the job done. He may have to fumble and bumble his way about, but he will get it done, and, if you watch, he does get a little smarter each time, just a little, but it is noticeable. Bruce used to do the house in large, long swaths, now he breaks it into one half of the house, then the other, and just the today, a new feature, he went around the perimeter of the house, cleaning the base boards. Small steps.As for his vacuum, top notch, perhaps too good. Bit of advice, if you get your own Bruce, run the beast on low suction for at least the first 4 or 5 runs....another con, Bruce does not know when he has eaten too much, and like a greedy guppy, he dies...locks up and cries for help... remember, I told you Bruce is not bright, but he is a work horse. When this happens, you cannot tell Bruce to restart, he has to start over, and hopefully one of Bruce's engineers will fix this, since Bruce will never know how much he has consumed, he has not the ability. Perhaps a command to send him to his base to empty himself, or a shorter duration than the 30 or so minutes it defaults to.Oh, and the base, the self empty….I am sure robot vacuums before the base were fine, if tedious, since you had to clean them every time….but the base, oh the base is pure genius. Bruce’s base is perfect, we take up with a button, and open it with a button, and never have to touch the refuse. No bag to buy, just push a button, the bottom opens and all that stuff drops out.If you have not noticed, but this family loves Bruce, we are now looking at getting Bruce a skin, to spruce Bruce up a bit…We have had Bruce for a week now, barely, but already Bruce has made an impact. I absolute honesty I cannot recommend this product enough, it works, it has quirks, but it works, and very well.Bit of adviceTurn on all your lights until your Bruce gets a good map of the area, he is a camera based robot and needs to “see" the ceiling, mostly, for landmarks.Run it on low the first few tries, while Bruce bounces around the first few runs, then move to medium and so on. Remember, Bruce has no sesnor in his bin, he uses a set algorithm that tells him to go back to his base and dump his load. It is terrible. But his vacuum is great, so he gets too full too fast. I can manage it a little for the quality of his cleanup.Because our house is neither toddler nor robot ready, we did not have all our rooms ready, and so we began mapping with the bedrooms and bathrooms doors closed. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, the mapping is not great, but it does move forward, slowly. Bruce stared being more efficient in our great rooms’ right about the time we added the bedrooms and bathrooms. Our house, 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 great rooms and a heart kitchen, Bruce can do it on one charge now, I think because we basically added one room a day after his initial runs.I think you can tell, Bruce has been a wonderful addition to our home, truly, a robot vacuum was a luxury I didn’t think worked. It works and now I know what gift I will give every new home owner I know. There a lot of options out there, some a lot cheaper, and if those meet your needs, get them, some a lot more expensive, and aside from one specific feature Bruce does not have,( multi floor mapping) I cannot imagine they are better.UPDATED 2/19/20Mapping works now, had to delete the map once , run it three times, and bang! house mapped. Room specific vacuuming unlocked! Suggestions to others having issues. Delete the map and ( and I think this part is important) run the vac with every light you can on. The robot "see" and makes its map on your ceiling, the more light, the better it see's.To reiterate, my little robot, Bruce, has literally changed my house...cannot recommend enough.Updated 2/5/21A year later and no regrets. One of, if not, the best purchases I have made for my home. I will state again Bruce is an addition to the house and family, he is almost a pet....a very dumb, but very hard working pet....he is like a toddler...he seems to always want to be where you are... He cleans your floors and carpets...If you are on the fence about buying a robot vacuum...let me put you at ease...buy one, this is no longer a luxury to my home, they are a requirement, utterly worth every penny. As for a Shark...I love mine. Works great, does what it is supposed to do. The only house I wouldn't think this is perfect for is multi floor homes. Short of that... a must have.4/28/23 Still the best purchase we have made for our home cleaning. No change there...but a small observation...recently replaced some furniture and changed the layout of our home. We had to move the dock from a north to south orientation to an east to west...and, I swear, it now navigates even better than before.

Pros:Cleans wellSimple to clean/replace partsGood for single floor homesCons:Loud/bumps into wallsApp not fantastic but servicableNo grid cleaningFloor needs to be clear (no items laying around)After nearly two years my device finally stopped working. I absolutely loved this machine and was devastated when it stopped working.I used this machine daily, often twice a day, for nearly two years. In that time, I used my standup vacuum maybe a handful of times for big messes that need to be cleaned up immediately. Other than that, I used the robot vacuum. I lived in single story 2 and 3 bedroom apartments with a mix of carpet/tile while the vacuum was in use. Mostly live alone with one cat.I learned quickly that prior to having this robot vacuum, I was not cleaning my floor often enough. Every single time I would run the Shark it would pick up huge clumps of cat hair, dirt, and debris. I often received compliments on how clean my place was. For the first year or so, I had the Shark set to start cleaning while I was at work. After it got stuck a few times and ran out of battery I decided to just run it manually. Manual use is super simple - literally just press the button on the device and it takes off. It would run for about two hours or so and return to the charging base. It is not methodical in the way it cleans - it just bounces from wall to wall like that old screensaver (it’s kind of addictive to watch) - but it does the job.You do need to make sure to pick up any big things on the floor before you run it. It will get caught in curtains, shoe strings, phone charging cables, dirty clothes, etc. and it’s kind of loud. Definitely not anywhere near a standup vacuum, but it does make a whirring noise and bumps a little too loudly against the walls. Living in an apartment, I didn’t run it at night because the thumps might’ve bothered my downstairs neighbors. I didn’t like to have it running while I had company over or when I was trying to nap, but other than that it was fine.Cleaning (the vacuum) is self explanatory I think, comparable to other robot vacuums from what I can tell. I needed to open it up and clean the brush maybe quarterly if necessary. The brushes start to bend after getting used, but I just switched which side they were on to get them to bend the other way - not an issue at all. I actually replaced the brushes and filter only once after about a year. I accidentally threw away the filter and didn’t even realize it was gone for months, the vacuum still worked great.This was easily the cleaning device I used the most and I will be prioritizing getting a replacement asap.