Samsung - POWERbot R9250 Wi-Fi Connected Robotic Vacuum - Airborne Copper

I will admit, I only got this as kind of a novelty, but it actually works well. I have a 1,400 sq foot carpeted finished basement that doesn't get a lot of traffic, and I figured this will keep the dust under control. It actually does clean down there very well, and it is nice because it can be scheduled to do it late at night when you don't have to worry about it. It doesn't pick up as much as my dyson "Human controlled" vacuum, but in all reality this works better because I could run it every night, and clean the same spots over and over, and then it gets more then the dyson would, because I am too lazy to use a manual vacuum everyday. The Powerbot is down there, It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until the carpet is all vacuumed. It is also nice, coming down in the morning and seeing the little wheel marks in the carpet where it ran last night. And those line are precise, it goes in a straight line, turns around and goes one "powerbot" width over. I guess the Roomba ones run around randomly and hopefully gets every spot, but this powerbot grids it off and hits every spot without excessive overlap. It has "eyes" and it "sees" the area it cleans, and learns the best pastern. It even changes the pastern sometimes, so it seems like it gets areas is did not cover well last time. As if it's learning a better way to clean, I only hope my POWERbot does not become Self-Aware and try to overthrow me from my current rein over my home. I have a Samsung phone and I have the app on my phone (Smart Things), one of it's first unattended cleaning tasks it got a blanket that was hanging off the edge of the couch got caught in the wheel. It attempted to correct it's own malfunction and could not, it stopped and notified me on the app that it need help (saying specifically the wheel had an item jammed in it). I read the message and told my wife my R2 unit was in danger and I had to go on a mission to the basement to save it. I can literally be in my office (miles away) and go on the app to tell the powerbot to start cleaning. And an unintentional benefit to having it is that you tend to keep things put away, because while you can be lazy and vacuum around them with a manual vacuum, you don't want to have the powerbot possibly run into or over them, so you keep things put away. It will do my entire 1,400 sqaure foot basement on one charge, and I even have it set on the highest suction power. It comes with magnetic tape, to put down on areas that you do not want it to go to, like the edge of stairs. I imagine that if I think that the POWERbot does become self-aware and seems like it is planning a revolt, I can always put some magnetic tape in my bedroom doorway, since it cannot pass that line to cause me harm in my sleep. When it gets close to draining the battery completely it will return to it's charging station and recharge on it's own. If there are obstacles in the way it can be fun to watch it try to figure out a way to the charging station. One time I had too much in between the point it got a low battery and the charger. It ended shutting itself off after it could not find a path to the charger, so I had to pick it up and carry it to the charger; hopefully the times I have had to do this has resulted in the POWERbot to realize that it does need me to help it from time to time and a revolt against me will ultimately lead to it's demise as well. The Powerbot should then realize that it needs me more then I need it and logic will dictate that it should allow me to live if it ever become self aware.

Unable to get the wifi to work after several tries. The bot does a good job cleaning... however, unable to get directly to the edges of the walls. Cleaned the entire unit while I was away. Hard wood, carpet and tiles. Nice contraption

Shamefully for as much as these cost they used cheap bushings instead of bearings in the motor for the brush. After just 2 years of maybe twice a week running ours started to make a very loud noise and shuttered like crazy. I pulled the brush out and it was whisper quiet. Thinking the brush had become bent I ordered and new but no fix. Took the vacuum apart and found the motor output shaft wobbling all over. Now ordered new motor case assembly from samsungparts for $100 we hope to get another 2 years I guess.. Shame on samsung for that little bit of cost savings..!

At this point I’ve had the opportunity to try Roomba, Neato, and POWERbot, so I thought I'd share my experiences with them. Of course, YMMV. For all of them you can program to clean at a specific time each day, or vacuum on demand. So they all have that going for them. Roomba 860: A neighbor let me borrow his new Roomba to test it out, which is what started all this. It is okay, but not great. The method it employs can be best described as that of a really good housekeeper who did a few shots before starting up the vacuum. :) It got the job done but the route was more entertaining than efficient. I didn’t get to try it out over multiple uses so I don’t know if it would lose suction if not emptied daily, but from the way it’s built I’m guessing probably. The bin was easy to empty though I can see large furballs and dustbunnies getting stuck in there pretty easily. The noise level isn't bad, but it would be irritating if you were trying to listen to a phone call or the television. Neato D80: This was better than the Roomba for cleaning. It maps out a room, vacuums all around the edges and furniture (though still bumps everything), then goes in rows until complete and onto the next room. As long as the door is open it will go in there. It managed the whole ground floor of my home on one charge, no problem. The one issue was that if you don’t empty the bin after each and every use, the next time the suction suffers. The bin is easy enough to empty though so not a major deal. It was louder than the Roomba, and because my entire ground floor is hard flooring, a combination of bamboo, tile and stone, it made this really weird noise like squeaky sneakers as it cleaned. I didn't try it on the carpeting upstairs given how much the suction suffered after one use downstairs so I can't say how it is on carpet. POWERbot R9250: This is the one I ended up getting after returning the Neato, and I’m very happy with it. It is more expensive but is solidly built like a regular vacuum cleaner. The Roomba and Neato felt like toys in comparison, like if you kick it or trip over it you might break it, the POWERbot however might break your toe. Or at least make you spew some creative expletives. This one is really meticulous in the way it cleans! It goes in rows and goes right up to the walls and furniture but doesn’t smack into them as heavily the others did, but will occasionally bump something lightly. I don’t have much use for the wi-fi right now, but may later. On regular clean mode it is still quieter than the Neato (this was a huge deal for me since I work from home and need to be able to hear meetings) and in regular mode it's probably on par with the noise level of the Roomba even though it’s supposed to be way more powerful. There is also a power mode, which is marginally louder, and a quiet mode which could vacuum around you while you’re on a call or watching TV and not make too much of a noise problem (and that's on hard bamboo flooring, it would be even quieter on carpet). With my home I’ll probably never need it to since each level doesn’t have a ton of floor space, but if it runs out of battery before it is done it will go back to the charger to recharge then pick up where it left off. It has the largest dustbin of all of them, and because it’s built more like an upright supposedly won’t lose suction if you don’t empty it after each use. It also comes with a remote you can use to guide the vacuum to where you want it to clean, then point at the spot you need it to work on. The one drawback on it that I noticed is that if you run it on max clean (which makes it vacuum over and over until the battery runs out) it seems to have difficulty finding its charger if it is in another room. It kept trying to go directly to the charger only to realize there's a wall there and then tries from another angle. I'm sure it would have eventually found the charger, but I took pity on it and carried it home. The next day I tried it out upstairs, where it easily went under the beds and tackled dust bunnies that likely predate at least one of my pets. No problem whatsoever. I then recharged it and set it to clean downstairs, to see if it loses suction with the bin not being empty (it was over half full). It still picked up all the stuff on the floor, with no problem. Once it was done I emptied the bin and it was pretty packed, so this is not one you will have to empty before running it. Overall they were all good and they got the job done. But the POWERbot is the one I will keep and the one I’d have no qualms about recommending. It is a little taller and wider than the others so may not fit under some furniture in all homes. In my house that's not a problem as most furniture is 6" or more clearance, so ample room for the POWERbot so it gets under beds, sofas, and most tables. It is too wide to go under the dining room chairs or breakfast bar stools, but those are easy to move if I want a more thorough cleaning in that area.

We bought this vacuum because we've been wanting one, it was on sale for $400 off and we like Samsung. I ended up being disappointed by the results of this vacuum. The design is a bit taller than the competition which prevents it from going under our couch. The AI is not the smartest either. The vacuum will get stuck under my chairs' legs and cry for help by beeping repeatedly. It will sometimes spin in a circle and other times it will pause for a brief moment before resuming work. The vacuum doesn't even have a consistent pattern when cleaning. I've noticed it going around the same are multiple times. Setting up the WiFi was painful. The Smart Home app is unstable on both Android and iOS. I had to power-cycle the device twice before its SSID would appear. Linking Samsung Smartthings was even worse. It would find the device and require us to press the Home button but it wouldn't respond. Eventually, the vacuum stopped connecting to the WiFi altogether and wouldn't setup anymore. After two days of owning this device, it stopped working. It would turn on, count down from 5 to 0, then just display a battery symbol. Pressing any of the buttons on the device or the remote wouldn't work either. Samsung wasn't able to troubleshoot it. I found other users with the same issue as mine but they never got a solution or even why it happened. The device was basically bricked. Maybe it downloaded a firmware update and failed to install it? I'll never know. I returned it and I am now trying a newer slimmer, and also cheaper model from Samsung. Hopefully they fixed all the issues of the first generation.

We love our Samsung PowerBot! It has so much personality we call it our third cat! I love it's design, with one side flat which makes it more efficient vacuuming against straight edges like walls. I also love the fact that I can just manually empty the dirt cup rather than having to bother with vacuum bags one has to replace every so often. Finally, I love that you can point the remote to spots it has missed and it will obediently follow like a dog. Honestly, the only thing that made me consider taking off a point was how often we would have to rescue the darn thing when it's stuck or if something gets stuck under it but that's just a testament to it's suctioning power so I decided to leave it at 5 stars. My only regret is not waiting until the Darth Vader and Storm Trooper versions came out but on second thought those sound effects would've gotten old really fast so no regrets after all. P.S. Sorry for the full dirt cup in the picture. This is the reason we call it our third cat. The first two are the of the furry variety.

This vacuum sucks like no other. It had quite a powerful suction. However, it can’t get under things as easy as a roomba can. It does a great job, but along the same as the roomba. I ended up exchanging it for a roomba because of this, and the app. The app is a joke. Zero F’s given by Samsung about their app. Roombas app is A+ and just feels like it is a tad smarter then the Samsung. The Samsung also does not have as good of battery life and the purpose of a robot vacuum is to get everywhere and not worry about it getting stuck or making it back. While the suction may be slightly better then the roomba 980, the other advantages ultimately made me go with the roomba 980

The first one ran the best. The second one broke within 6 months. The third one had problems with programming. Now the forth one still has programming problems. You’d think I would of giving up by now. Truth is the vacuum when it works is the best vacuum around for picking up dirt. It stores a bunch of dirt between cleanings if filter. I think Samsung needs to work on programming issues.