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With two very furry dogs (Chocolate Lab + A Husky) we have our fair share of dog hair floating around the house; in fact, if you don’t vacuum it within two days you start to get cute little tumbleweeds of Husky fur. It’s a really fun thing when you vacuum and two minutes later it doesn’t look like you’ve done it in a week. I’m pretty tired of pulling the vacuum out of the closet everyday, so I caved and bought the bObsweep Pet Hair Vacuum.
Why did I choose the Bobsweep Pethair vacuum over the roomba?!
When I think of robotic vacuum, the first thing that comes to mind is the iRobot Roomba series… and also a huge price tag. After reading countless reviews about different robotic vacuums I ultimately decided to put my money toward the bObsweep Pet Hair because it was less than half the price and the reviews were still very good (3.7 stars out of 5 on Amazon.)
Not only that, but countless reviews said that bObsweep (a Canadian Company 🇨🇦) had amazing customer service if anything was to go wrong with the vacuum. bObsweep created the product with households in mind, not to create a nice looking piece of art that is essentially useless – no, they are committed to providing a product that is a long-lasting household appliance.
Fun Fact: The bObsweep Pet Hair has the largest dustbin of all robotic vacuum cleaners! It’s 1L and made for households with loads of fur!
The bObsweep Pet Hair Vacuum isn’t just a vacuum though – it also comes with a mop attachment. You have to lightly dampen it before using, but it works to clean paw prints off of ceramic tiles.
Purchase the bObsweep Pet Hair from Amazon.ca for $369 CAD
What does the bObsweep Pet Hair Vacuum come with?
The bObsweep Pet Hair Vacuum comes with two sweepers (the little plastic fan that you see sticking out from underneath it,) as well as two mop cloths and the attachment, filters, a cleaning tool, screw driver, remote and some bumper stickers to help mitigate any impact on furniture when the bObsweep inevitably runs into them full-force. As well as a docking station that can be used to charge the bObsweep and schedule certain days and times that it cleans.
How does the bObsweep Pet Hair Vacuum Work?
There’s a nifty little UV light that is said to help kill germs – although I’m not sure it actually does much I always leave it on anyway. When you turn the bObsweep on, you can specify different cleaning modes.
- Automatic – the bObsweep automatically switches between corners, spot cleaning and different speeds as it sees fit.
- Corners – the bObsweep will follow walls.
- Spot – the bObsweep will clean in a circular motion slowly making a larger circumference. Good for spills.
To be entirely honest, the only cleaning setting I’ve ever used is Automatic. I find that the bObsweep pet hair does a good job at automatically deciding between the different settings. I have used the remote to get it out of spots that I thought that it already did. It’s super easy to do, you just pick up the remote while it’s cleaning away and just redirect it.
The bObsweep Pet Hair Vacuum doesn’t clean the way we would
When you start up the vacuum you’ll notice that it starts to go in weird directions – rest assured that eventually it does manage get to spots that it missed. At first I thought it was so stupid for turning away in some places and no, it doesn’t learn the layout of your house. So every time you start it, it’s basically starting fresh. Although I have noticed a certain method that it seems to use each time (like turning left off of the dock.)
How long does the battery last?
That’s a fantastic question! And it was my biggest worry when I purchased the bObsweep. Thinking that in 30 minutes it would only have finished half my house and then started to search for it’s dock (which can take a while, it’s not the most clever thing.)
The battery lasts for a surprisingly long 90 minutes in my house! It literally vacuums for an hour and half. But note, I do not have any carpet in my home except for one 5 x 8 area rug with a low pile. I believe that the company states the average vacuum time is 75 minutes. If you have carpeted rooms it is likely the battery will die sooner.
The bObsweep Pet Hair does not mean you’ll never have to vacuum or mop ever again
The bObsweep helps you to minimize the amount that you have to manually vacuum. It cannot get into small corners very well – even though the fan brush works really well. With two dogs I still have to vacuum manually at least once a week to get all the spots that the bObsweep couldn’t reach and to clean the rug a bit better.
Some downfalls of the bObsweep Pet Hair Vacuum
Inevitably, there are some drawbacks with using a robotic vacuum. For one, it is one of the larger robotic vacuums and it doesn’t fit underneath my couch very well. Actually, more often than not it does get stuck there. It spins and spins until eventually I go and free it. It seems like most of my furniture just happens to be at a height where it can get wedged in and not free itself.
I do not use the bObsweep when I’m not home for that reason.
Living in rural Ontario, my power seems to go out more often than one would expect. Even just for a minute. bObsweep claims that the charging station can hold a charge for up to 8 hours before it dies; this is not the case. Every time my power has gone out even for a short while the charging station also died – so I reset the schedule and the clock but after the third or fourth time I gave up and just manually start the bObsweep (not a deal breaker for me.)
Therefore, I don’t really know how well the scheduling works.
If you have a house that’s more carpet than hard surface I would pass on the bObsweep, or any robotic vacuum in that case. They just don’t have the power to properly clean carpeted areas. Plus, it makes their battery die much faster.
Avoid a robotic vacuum if you have a house with minimal hard surface flooring
The bObsweep is pretty dumb when it comes to finding its charging station – it always does, it just takes a really long time. There’s been times where the bObsweep is right beside the charging station but ends up going in the wrong direction trying to find it. I’ve never had it die before finding its charging station… but the signal must be pretty weak for it to have such a hard time finding it.
I must admit that a couple times I was getting so annoyed with the beeping that I picked it up and put the bObsweep in front of the charging station manually!
Overall thoughts about the bObsweep Pet Hair Vacuum
All-in-all I do love the bObsweep Pet Hair Vacuum because it does save me from vacuuming multiple times a week (that tumbleweed of fur formed in two days without vacuuming!) Although it has some drawbacks, they aren’t enough to really annoy me that much. I think it does a fantastic job at cleaning my floors and every time I empty it after a 90 minute run the dustbin is filled to the brim.
Plus, I paid a fraction of the price for a vacuum that I think works just as well as a Roomba (based on seeing some other Roomba’s in action.)
If you’re tired of vacuuming (even if you don’t have pets!!!) I highly recommend investing in a robotic vacuum because they are such a relief to have. You can be as messy as you want in the kitchen and it will happily suck up any crumbs.
Purchase the bObsweep Pet Hair Vacuum from Amazon.com for $289 USD
