What Smart Vaccum should I get?

I’m another one with the Xiaomi Roborock 2nd gen. Never had a different one, so can’t compare it. I can say that it does work really well. I hate vacuuming and didn’t do it nearly as often as I should have, but I’ve now got this set to vacuum 3 days a week and my floor has never been cleaner.
My floors are mostly wool carpets with 2 large thick pile rugs as well. The vacuum will miss some deep bits and pieces in the rugs but has no problem otherwise. It does occaisonally get stuck trying to go over the legs of my clothes airer, which is annoying, but otherwise is pretty good at getting around and under everything.
With tile, you’ll likely only find small bits left in the corners, where it can’t reach.
I do wish it had a larger bin. My place is really small, but I have to empty the bin after every clean because it fills up with red fluff from the rugs.
Overall, I love it, and unless there’s major improvements (like a self emptying bin maybe) I won’t be upgrading until this one breaks.

Yea I got the d7 on Black Friday on amazon so was half price.

You said it’s for tiles at home: just to throw a curveball at home we went for a battery powered dyson with hard floor motor head and a robot mop. Hoovering with the battery powered dyson is so quick and convenient whereas I hate keeping our floor tiles clean. Robomop has sorted that issue out. It’s not quite as autonomous as a robot vac but it does a great job at cleaning our tiles in the kitchen and I just set it up before I go upstairs to watch tv at night

I just ordered my first smart vac yesterday, the Roborock S55. Can’t wait to get it, we currently vacuum manually with a Dyson stick about 2-3 times a week, hopefully the roborock will reduce the need.

https://www.tecobuy.com/en_AU/xiaomi-roborock-s5-robot-vacuum-2-black-s55-eu-version-4.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjw-b7qBRDPARIsADVbUbUQ43S4FAoOtl6o9NwammvSNIqD9G-jrnukUqj0b35FR8EyXFpN2jcaAmc0EALw_wcB

At this moment only Roborock S5(50), S6(60) and Neato D7, D5 worth an attention. They are pretty compareable (except the price :laughing:) For me i bought D7 for larger brush and bin. Anything cheaper is just waste of time and money.

There is also Roomba i7+ and S9+ but if you think the Neato D7 is expensive…, and it still needs light in the room to be able to vacuum. Personaly i like it just for the suction base…

Here you have some material :nerd_face::

Really happy with my Roborock S55, flashed with valetudo, except for the noise.
We have a dog and two cats that shed hair like crazy. The robot vacuum goes out every other day and our floors have never been cleaner. Our two boys can now play on the floor without their clothes being full of hair.

We now start it after leaving home. I just hope we will never encounter this: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://metro.co.uk/2019/07/16/roomba-irobot-rolls-into-dog-poo-and-vacuums-it-all-over-the-house-10348771/amp/&ved=2ahUKEwiR4ayNvPrjAhUFzKQKHUdMDGAQFjAAegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw0hzbilEiowcLHsJBMcXuxo&ampcf=1

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I have 2 Xiaomi Vacs. The Roborock S50 and the S55.
Both are identical except colour and they are really good, especially for the price point.
Almost every review i have seen online that has compared these machines have placed the roborock in the top 3 if not the clear winner.
The only issues ive had with them on HASS is the map rotation but its apparently fixed in the latest firmware and i havent had an issue since with that respect.

In terms of issues with the unit, i do have 2 little girls that leave their hair ties and rubberbands around. Sometimes these can get caught in the fan and you can hear the band rubbing on the fan AND smell a burnt rubber odour. With some man handling of the unit, you can “Tap” these obstructions out but other than this one issue, the Xiaomi vacs are awesome and great value for money.

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What are the benefits of rooting the roborocks?

Easy integration with home assistant, support for zones, no dialing home to China, easy to do…

Only benefits according to me

Xiaomi Vacuums for the win…

I have had the first gen vacuum for over 2 years already, still running strong. No issues at all. Very reliable, precise and smart. You can run it locally, no need for internet connection at all.

I have only changed the filters twice and the brushes once .Just because I wanted to give it regular maintenance.

It’s a blessing I tell you, you can setup some automations so it runs daily whenever you’re not at home. It will remind you when the dustbin it’s full, that’s about the only thing you’ll need to do manually aside from regular maintenance.

Everything works even with voice commands start, pause, charge, zone cleaning, fan mode.

Have a roomba here that works just fine. But only the latest models support also to not do certain rooms and those xiaomi do that for less money. But they do clean up nicely and get the job done. Only the higher models support the roomba integration. Only go for models that map the room like the Xiaomi does too i believe. If i where to get another one, i might look at Xiaomi but its not that common where i live.

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Lol where I live everyone has Roomba, Alexa, and tons of Apple products, im the opposite. I have google home, 0 apple products, and am going to order a Xioami vaccum after reading these. Thanks guys.

hi, how are you doing automations for the roborock? I’ve just set one up in HA and not yet used it, but want to get it straight into automations if i can.

This is what I have been using for nearly 2 years.

Automations.yaml

#==============VACUUM NOTIFICATION AT THE END OF THE DAY============

  - alias: Send alert after daily vacuum to empty the dustbin
    trigger:
    - platform: state
      entity_id: alarm_control_panel.home_alarm
      to: 'disarmed'
      for:
        minutes: 5
    condition:
      condition: and
      conditions:
      - condition: state
        entity_id: input_boolean.daily_vacuum_first_run
        state: 'on'
      - condition: time
        after: '08:30:00'
        before: '23:30:00'
      - condition: template
        value_template: >
          {% if states.automation.send_alert_after_daily_vacuum_to_empty_the_dustbin.last_triggered is not none %}
            {% if as_timestamp(now()) | int   -  as_timestamp(states.automation.send_alert_after_daily_vacuum_to_empty_the_dustbin.attributes.last_triggered) | int > 1800 %} true {% else %} false
            {% endif %}
          {% else %}
          false
          {% endif %}
      - condition: state
        entity_id: input_boolean.disable_dustbin_notification
        state: 'off'
    action:
      - service: media_player.volume_set
        data_template:
          entity_id: media_player.living_room_speaker
          volume_level: 0.6
      - service: tts.google_say
        entity_id: media_player.living_room_speaker
        data_template:
          message: 'The vacuum dustbin needs to be emptied.'
          cache: false
      - service: notify.android_tv
        data_template: {"message":"Please clean the vacuum dustbin","title":"HomeAssistant"}
		
#==============RESET DAILY VACUUM FIRST RUN SWITCH AT MIDNIGHT (INDICATOR WHETHER THE VACUUM HAS RUN THAT DAY, REQUIRES AN INPUT BOOLEAN)============
  - alias: Reset Daily Vacuum First Run state at midnight
    trigger:
    - platform: time
      at: '0:00:00'
    action:
    - service: homeassistant.turn_off
      entity_id: input_boolean.daily_vacuum_first_run
	  
#==============CLEAN SPECIFIC ROOM (REQUIRES INPUT_SELECT and SCRIPTS)============
  - alias: Start Cleaning Room
    hide_entity: True
    trigger:
    - platform: state
      entity_id: input_select.vacuum_room
      from: 'Select Input'
    action:
    - service: script.turn_on
      data_template:
        entity_id: >
          {% if is_state("input_select.vacuum_room", "bedroom") %}
            script.vacuum_bedroom
          {% elif is_state("input_select.vacuum_room", "guest room") %}
            script.vacuum_guestroom
          {% elif is_state("input_select.vacuum_room", "dining room") %}
            script.vacuum_dining_room
          {% elif is_state("input_select.vacuum_room", "kitchen") %}
            script.vacuum_kitchen
          {% elif is_state("input_select.vacuum_room", "living room") %}
            script.vacuum_living_room
          {% else %}
          {% endif %}
    - service: input_select.select_option
      entity_id: input_select.vacuum_room
      data_template:
        option: "Select Input"

#==============RUN VACUUM DAILY ONCE WHEN I AM NOT HOME============
  - alias: Start Daily Vacuum
    trigger:
    - platform: time_pattern
      minutes: '/5'
    condition:
      condition: and
      conditions:
      - condition: state
        entity_id: alarm_control_panel.home_alarm
        state: 'armed_away'
      - condition: state
        entity_id: input_boolean.daily_vacuum_first_run
        state: 'off'
      - condition: state
        entity_id: input_boolean.disable_daily_vacuum
        state: 'off'
      - condition: time
        after: '11:00:00'
        before: '21:00:00'
    action:
    - service: notify.android_tv
      data_template: {"message":"Automatic daily cleanup started","title":"HomeAssistant"}
    - service: vacuum.start
      entity_id: vacuum.xiaomi_vacuum_cleaner
    - service: homeassistant.turn_on
      entity_id: input_boolean.daily_vacuum_first_run
    - service: notify.homeassistant
      data_template: {"message":"Started daily vacuum.","title":"Vacum status"}
    - service: persistent_notification.create
      data_template: {"message":"Started daily vacuum.","title":"Vacum status"}

Configuration.yaml

input_select:
  vacuum_room:
    name: Choose a room to clean
    options:
      - Select Input
      - bedroom
      - guest room
      - dining room
      - kitchen
      - living room
	  
input_boolean:
  daily_vacuum_first_run:
    name: Daily Vacuum First Run
    initial: 'off'
  disable_daily_vacuum:
    name: Disable Daily Vacuum Automation
    initial: 'off'
  disable_dustbin_notification:
    name: Disable Dustbin Notification
    initial: 'off'

Scripts.yaml

  vacuum_bedroom:
        alias: "Vacuum Bedroom"
        sequence:
          - service: vacuum.send_command
            data:
              entity_id: vacuum.xiaomi_vacuum_cleaner
              command: app_zoned_clean
              params: [[17500,18000,21800,21000,1]]
  vacuum_dining_room:
        alias: "Vacuum Dining Room"
        sequence:
          - service: vacuum.send_command
            data:
              entity_id: vacuum.xiaomi_vacuum_cleaner
              command: app_zoned_clean
              params: [[22209,23429,25709,26079,1]]
  vacuum_kitchen:
        alias: "Vacuum Kitchen"
        sequence:
          - service: vacuum.send_command
            data:
              entity_id: vacuum.xiaomi_vacuum_cleaner
              command: app_zoned_clean
              params: [[23228,21760,25478,23210,1]]
  vacuum_living_room:
        alias: "Vacuum Living Room"
        sequence:
          - service: vacuum.send_command
            data:
              entity_id: vacuum.xiaomi_vacuum_cleaner
              command: app_zoned_clean
              params: [[19610,21180,25460,26081,1]]
  vacuum_guestroom:
        alias: "Vacuum Guestroom"
        sequence:
          - service: vacuum.send_command
            data:
              entity_id: vacuum.xiaomi_vacuum_cleaner
              command: app_zoned_clean
              params: [[22269,18116,25869,21116,1]]

Of course you will need to adjust it to your needs.

In my case for some I want a persistent notification, for others just voice notification, in some cases you might want to run the vacuum only during weekdays or certain days, etc… I am pretty sure it can be simplified but I got this from an old post, then I have had to fix it or make small amendments when there were changes to these components on Hassio upgrades or based on my neccesities but I never bothered on making it nicer, cleaner, shorter.

4 Likes

Thanks for this, it will certainly help to get me started. Appreciate it!

1 Like

BTW, can you suggest the best way to figure out the zone params for each zone?

I was using FloleVac Android App as per this post.
Basically you go to Zone Cleanup, paint the zone on the map and long press on Start, it will copy the coordinates to the clipboard.

Be absolutely sure the coordinates are reachable otherwise the vacuum will return to the dock or not even start at all, it will come out of the dock wait a few seconds and go back to the dock.
It could even be a few centimeters that are unreachable but because of that it might go back to the dock.

I’m planning to buy an Xiaomi / Roborock Vaccum and run valetudo on it.
What I want to achieve is zone cleaning like you do in your scripts.
Which Vacuum do you use?
Do you have valetudo installed on it and how did you integrate it with HA - Xiaomi or MQTT?

I found this article on dyson robotic vacuum release date, anyone here knows anything about this robot vacuum cleaner?

A bit Old thread, but I rather post here than creating a new one.

I’m running HA on a Rpi3b+, with a Conbee 2.

Would be happy if anyone could tell me if there are some vacuums that would work with that setup and also lives up to:

*Local control, i.e no phoning home to manufacturers server.
*Lidar or some other good navigating tech.
*Mapping of the house or floor.
*Zone cleaning (click to clean that specific area).
*Cleaning report that shows what area was cleaned.
*Virtual no go lines.

I have a Neato D4 since before and I’m really happy with it. Only downsides are that I believe it “phones home” and that the software doesn’t support zone cleaning.

I don’t mind if I have to root or modify the hardware slightly.

Anyone have some suggestion? :slight_smile: