Privacy Friendly Robot Vaccum Cleaner in 2026?

Hardware
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1

Hello all,

I’m thinking about purchasing a robot vaccum cleaner but i do really struggle to find the sweet spot in term of price/quality/privacy.

My requirements are the following:

  • Good enough vacuum cleaner.
  • No “Cloud”.
  • Not to complicate to setup.
  • Not too pricy.

For now, i see:

  • Cheap dumb robot vaccum cleaner. Privacy is nice, but vaccum capability … i’m not sure.
  • Buy a classic “cloudy” robot vacuum cleaner but do no set the app part. How useful is the mapping part ? I don’t own a robot vacuum cleaner, so don’t really know.
  • Switchbot K11+ seems nice but i don’t find enough information online about how “cloudy” it is . Does the app require account ? Does the home assistant limited bluetooth integration work with an out of the box robot, how far it get, etc…
  • Valetudo seems nice in theory but the best supported robot seems pricey for something you hack with an alternative software.
  • It’s also seems to me there is somewhere on the web a real opensource robot vaccum but very pricey (+ 1000 $/€), but it’s seems to have disappear.

So, have you any suggestion/feedback about robot vaccum for a privacy friendly usage ?

2

There is no such a thing. Companies that are making robot vacuums are not interesting in building such a device, although they have all the knowledge and capabilities to do so, as it is not profitable.
But on the other hand use vlans and put your vacuum on vlan and open communication ports just for home assistant and you are good to go.
As for the brand goes, I can suggest you roborock as they are making very durable and high quality robot vacuums. On another hand they are not cheap but quality is there.

3

What he said^^

Get a Roborock. Still cloud but at least their app has dedicated servers & is certified by TUV Rheinland, for what it’s worth.

4

You can have a look at the list of supported robots by Valetudo. Also read Buying Supported Robots where you get some comments from the author.

I noticed that the Eureka robots are now officially supported. The last time I had a look, Hypfer really liked them, but the rooting method was only available in a telegram group:

I think me next vacuum will be a Erureka with Valetudo :slight_smile:

5

Yeah that is great is you want to empty them by your yourself.
If you want any smart config like self emptying or mop auto washing you will have to go with property solutions.
Not to mention camera on it.
This is because those stations are not just a station, you will have to hack them to make robot work locally.
And that is no easy task as companies making those robots will under no circumstances give you their code.
And that is why is much better to go with property solutions. especially like roborock, but just in case hold their robots on dedicated vlans.

6

It’s new year

The CES and other electronics shows are starting. Means new products, new implementations of technologies and most importantly…discounts on 2025 stuff

7

Look like i have to way few more year.
VLAN doesn’t solve the privacy concern and is somewhat complicated to set up.

Edit: i just found the pricy robot vacuum i was thinking about in the first post : https://maticrobots.com/

8

Aaa I don’t think so. They are just doing what all other companies do. Roborock connection to a cloud is actually encrypted as they are using mqtt.

Vlan can solve a lot of privacy concern problems but never the less… Use flat network and believe in advertisement.

9

If you need just vacuum cleaner, that’s overkill. But it looks valid option if you want to clean your floors. Like Tineco, but robot. Just doubts if they stay in business…

10

I’m doing the same search.

Atm I bought a used Roomba i7 for 50€, it is good enough for me and it’s almost all local.
Whenever I ‘ll find the courage or the price will fall enough I’ll upgrade to a used Eureka, it seems the simpler to hack via adb.

I have seen there is a Valetudo fork named Congatudo that works with cheaper (albeit a littlle older) Conga robot. But it seems the supported robots are limited in capabilities and the hack relies on the vendor not changing the default root password….