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.

[update May 18, 2024] I'm even more pleased after Buddy has been on the job for six months. He's just a joy to have around. Yes, he has a name now. Buddy has gotten stuck no more than four times while cleaning at least part of the house every few days. I'm still amazed at how much stuff (mostly cat fur) is in the base station when I check it every month or two, because to me the house looks like it's mostly clean all the time now so I don't expect that much "invisible" debris to be collected.The self-cleaning brush roller isn't completely maintenance free, but I never expected it would be. The worst culprit isn't the cats, but my wife's hair. Fortunately it's extremely easy to pop the roller out and untangle the stuff, which I do about once per month. You can hear when it needs a cleaning.The only thing I really wish for is a single-room learning update. No way I want to update the whole house again, but there are one or two small pockets where Buddy just doesn't go. I'd like to be able to update just that one room without having to re-learn the whole house.But, I have to say, this is one of the most unexpectedly satisfying purchases I've made ever.[original review]I can't compare this robot vacuum to any others because it's my first. I will say that I didn't expect it to work as well as it does. We have two rag doll cats that put out an amazing amount of fur. It's either vacuum all the time or just put up with it between vacuuming. Not any more! Sure, it can't get everywhere the fur likes to go hide, but surprisingly, it does get most of it.We have wood floors with area rugs. I was afraid it would choke on the thicker area rugs. They're a pain to do even with a regular vacuum, but it handles them like a champ! It's so refreshing to see the floors so tidy. I'm embarrassed at what we put up with before. Another nice thing is if I make a mess, such as in the kitchen, I no longer care. I just whip out the phone and order up a room cleaning.Now for the big advice. Spend as much time as needed getting the initial exploration, map, and room creation process as perfect as possible. Move everything you can out of the way so it doesn't mistake something like a bathroom scale as part of the house geometry. After the first few tries, there were areas it just decided weren't part of the house because it couldn't get there when exploring. It simply wouldn't clean there even if not obstructed! Once I went through the house thoroughly and got everything I could out of the way, it made an excellent map. When you put things back, the map will remain but those things will just be seen as temporary obstacles. Seriously. It's worth the work.My biggest ask for improvement would be single-room learning. After going to all this trouble getting a good map, I really don't want to re-learn the whole house if I, say, rearrange the furniture in one room. But for now that's not an issue. I initially took off a star for these initial shortcomings but have put it back up to five stars. Overall it's fine.I can't say for sure, but I think it's getting smarter. For sure, it hugs the walls really well now, where it wasn't doing that before. The only downside is I can't say this thing is saving me any real time yet because I end up following it around the house just to watch. lol!