In recent years, robot vacuums have become a popular household appliance due to their convenience and efficiency. These autonomous devices can navigate through your home, sucking up dirt and debris, while you sit back and relax.
But you might be wondering: do robot vacuums need WiFi?
In this article, we’ll dive into the world of robot vacuums and explore the benefits and drawbacks of connecting them to the Internet. By the end, you’ll have a better understanding of whether Wi-Fi is essential for your robot vacuum and how it can enhance your cleaning experience.
Do Robot Vacuums Need Wi-Fi?
So do robot vacuums need Wi-Fi?
The short answer is this: robot vacuums perform best with a Wi-Fi connection but many brands of robot vacuum will still work without Wi-Fi.
If all you want your robot vacuum to do is start a cleaning job and return to its charging base once it has finished, you don’t need to connect your robot vacuum to the Wi-Fi.
However, if you want the advanced features that make robot vacuums so convenient and time-saving, then you would need to connect it to your Wi-Fi.
Robot Vacuums Without Wi-Fi
There are several brands of robot vacuums on the market that do not have the ability to connect to WiFi.
These kinds of robot vacuums generally cost less than $250, and they clean just as well as WiFi-enabled robot vacuums.
Examples of robot vacuums without WiFi are:
- Eufy RoboVac 11S ($229.99)
- Enther Robot Vacuum (C200) ($115.00)
- ILIFE V5s Pro 2 ($179.00)
How To Use a Roomba Without Wi-Fi
Another option is to buy a Wi-Fi enabled robot vacuum and use it without Wi-Fi.
To use a Roomba without Wi-Fi, pick it up and place it in the room you want to clean.
Then use the buttons on the top of the Roomba, as follows:
- Press the CLEAN button on the top of the Roomba to start cleaning
- To pause Roomba during a cleaning cycle, press CLEAN
- To resume the cleaning cycle, press CLEAN again
- To stop the Roomba press and hold CLEAN until Roomba’s indicators turn off.
- To send Roomba back to the Home Base, press the HOME button.
Benefits of a Wi-Fi Robot Vacuum
While you certainly can use a robot vacuum without Wi-Fi, you would be missing out on a lot of the smart features of robot vacuums.
Here are seven functions of a robot vacuum you can you only get with Wi-Fi:
1. Mapping your house
Wi-Fi enabled robot vacuums can create a map of your house. This helps the robovac to avoid crashing into furniture.
Also, as the robot learns your floor plan, it becomes more efficient at cleaning and is able to clean your house in less time.
This is a map of our house made by our Roomba i2:
2. Voice commands
With a Wi-Fi enabled robot vacuum, you can connect your vacuum to Google Home or Amazon Alexa and give it voice commands.
Here are some examples of voice commands you can use with a Roomba when it is connected to Google Home:
- Hey Google, start vacuuming
- Hey Google, stop vacuuming
- Hey Google, tell (robot name) to go home
- Hey Google, is the vacuum charging?
- Hey Google, start vacuuming the (room name)
- Hey Google, start mopping around the (object name)
3. Starting the robot vacuum remotely
Let’s say you’re at work and you have guests arriving soon after you get home – there’s not enough time to vacuum before they arrive.
Why not tell the robot vacuum to do it while you’re at work? Just open the smartphone and press a button. Your robot vacuum will clean your house while you’re at work (with your robot vacuum connected to Wi-Fi, you’ll be able to control it from literally anywhere in the world).
4. Telling your robot vacuum to clean a particular room
Once your robot vacuum has mapped your house, you can then name each room in your house.
Once you’ve done that, you can tell the robot vacuum (either through voice command or in the smartphone app) to clean a particular room in your house.
5. Getting maintenance alerts
With your robot vacuum connected to Wi-Fi, you can get automatic alerts when the brushes need replacing or when the bin needs emptying.
6. Scheduling cleaning times
You’ll also be able to schedule your robot vacuum to clean the house on a certain day each week and at a certain time. This allows you to schedule cleaning to happen when no one is at home.
7. Getting cleaning reports
Most robot vacuums will give you a history of how much of your house was cleaned and when:
Some of the more advanced robot vacuums will also let you set up virtual ‘geo fences’ to keep the robot vacuum out of certain areas of your house. And that’s another benefit of connecting your robot vacuum to Wi-Fi.
Conclusion
Do robot vacuums need Wi-Fi?
Robot vacuums work best with Wi-Fi but there are brands of robot vacuum that will work without Wi-Fi and some brands that don’t even have Wi-Fi.
In most cases, if you buy a Wi-Fi enabled vacuum cleaner, you can still use it without Wi-Fi and it will still clean your house effectively.
But to get the full convenience and time-saving benefits of robot vacuums, you need to have a Wi-Fi enabled robot vacuum.