ILIFE Robot Vacuum and Mop, 3000Pa Strong Suction Robot Vacuum Cleaner, Gyro Navigation, App Control, No Tangle, Compatible with 2.4GHz WiFi, Alexa, Ideal for Hard Floor, Pet Hair, V9

The media could not be loaded. This is an early review from about a weeks worth of use. But I do regularly update reviews with pertinent changes.Let me preface with, I am an owner of a Neato Robot Vac for the last 4 years. It is the original XV series. I've liked it, but it had its bugs. The error message 'put my dust bin back in'.....UGH!!!!! That drove me crazy for the last 3.5 years. But the Neato did a good enough job, that I dealt with it.We have 4 kids, so we stay busy and have little time for cleaning. Having 4 kids means we have substantial need for regular cleaning. I installed a central Vac for regular deep cleaning, but still find the need for daily robot Vacuum cleaning services. I like the robot to clean once and sometimes twice per day and we deep clean with the central Vac a few times per week. My stay at home wife, and amazing mother to our 4 children, and I share these duties, so I have an appreciation for the time and effort that goes in to floor cleaning.The Neato got a weird error a few weeks ago. It started saying the dust bin need to be cleaned. This completely disabled it, no matter how I cleaned the dust bin and surrounding chamber. So I started shopping for robot vacs.I have tried to add a second Neato for a while, but each one failed to be as effective as our original. So I really did not consider another Neato. I looked at several other brands, and I was a little put off by the iLife.I figured it is too in-expensive to be effective.I haven't heard of the brand.How will it clean?Finally I was intrigued by pretty good reviews, and a low profile for cleaning the under stuff. Though it won't go under our couch. But I'll be modifying the couch, it just needs to be raised an inch.iLife wont vacuum in straight lines, If that bothers your OCD, I would look elsewhere. But I have found iLife to completely clean my floors in whatever random pattern it chooses. So if clean floors are your top goal, I can say I am pleased so far. If I were to sit and watch the little Vac clean, it may just drive me crazy watching it go all over the place, so I just set it and forget it.So iLife it is.I ordered it and had it all set up in minutes. The manual said charge overnight. So I planned to do that. However I set a schedule and got everything programmed. After about an hour of charging it started cleaning the house for some reason. Maybe one of my curious minions decided to play with the new toy.Anyway, I was pleased with how quiet it was. Yet it still seemed to clean everything off our tile floor. I was a little disappointed that you must press the button for max suction each time it runs, in order to get max suction. Because we are often not at home while it is working. But after a week of running, on mostly standard suction, I can say my floors are always clean. We live in south FL. There is sand everywhere. So in addition to 4 children under age 12, we have the sand issue to deal with. If you don't vacuum at least once per day, you will get sand on your bare feet while walking around our home. For the last week I can walk around my house barefoot and my feet stay clean. I love it!! One of my compulsions, is tactile issues. The feel of gritty sand on my feet drives me a little nutty, unless I'm st the beach. Having cl an, sand free flooring eases that compulsion for me. It's actually a bigger priority than watching this vacuum travel in straight lines.The iLife does require some maintenance. You'll need to clean the brush, especially if anyone in your household has long hair. You'll need to clean the filters as well. But these tasks are simple and relatively quick. The brush cleaning is tool-less. The filter does require a small screw driver. (Edit: 5/22, you don't need a tool. Removal of the screw is unnecessary)I do really like the filter set up. It's three stages. It has a silk screen that keeps most large debris out of the main filter. I'll assume this is going to greatly extend the pleated paper filter life. It then has a secondary foam filter and finally a pleated paper filter. After 5 days the silk and foam filters benefited from cleaning, but the pleated paper filter still looked great. I did Vac it with the central Vac, since I had the filter all apart.The dust bin always has a pleasing amount of debris after each vacuuming so we know it's doing a great job, clean feet not withstanding.It has gotten stuck a few times. Twice on a loose draw string from low hanging clothing in the closet, and once under a piece of furniture. It does seem to navigate well around obstacles. Though it seems to find darker furniture more difficult to see.It does not vacuum in long straight lines, like the Neato. But it does vacuum for nearly 2 hours. Neato was at maybe 45 minutes with fresh batteries. Neato was much louder and heavier.We end up with clean floors, and tile does not show Vac lines, so I don't really care which path it takes. Just git 'er clean!!ILife is quiet, but even on high suction it is much quieter on carpet, as evidenced by my video.Time will tell how iLife holds up. But for daily vacuuming, and clean feet, I think it is an exceptional value thus far.I would love a wifi and Alexa enabled version."Hey Alexa, clean the living room". Now that would be the bombdigity!!!!Update: 7-26-17:After a couple of months of fairly successful use, I found the robot unresponsive. I messed with it and cleaned everything. It would beep at me on the base, but refused to move. I contacted the manufacturer through their email. I let them know exactly what it was doing. Come to find out, the power switch on the side can accidentally get bumped to the off position. Ill blame one of my smaller minions! But it just as easily could have bumped into something and got switched off. So if you find your little bot a has stopped working, obviously check the power switch first! I feel a little silly, but I suppose it could happen to others.(I paid for iLife with my own money, he was not given to me in exchange for anything, and no one has since contacted me with any sort of offer)---------------------------------------Update 3-5-19I still use this vacuum every day. it has proven to be the most reliable robot vacuum I have owned, and the rest of the robots were much more expensive. I guess simplicity is the key to reliability with this little guy. He does not have fancy sensors, or mapping. He does not vacuum in straights lines, or have any plan or logic. But at the end of the day the floors are pretty clean, and he just keeps working. He almost always makes it back to his charger, though we have learned what cant be left out. He is still working with the original battery as well. Also I think I mentioned this earlier, but his on off switch on the side, can be easily bumped to the off position. So if it seems he has stopped working, always check that first. I have had mine bumped off at least 5 times, and my wife thought he was broken. I flipped the switch back on, and back to work he goes.

#What kind of user/person am I? I will note some of my usual behaviors while using this vacuum so that you can know what may or may not apply to you in my review:-I do have a powerful regular manually-operated Dyson vacuum that I use for big messes. I do use it a lot less now that I have this iLife, but I do not think this robot vacuum completely replaces the Dyson.-I clean this iLife vacuum after each and every day that I use it (which is around twice a week). If you are the kind of person that does let the recommended maintenance go by the wayside, I cannot speak to how it runs when you stop being diligent in maintaining it. After each cleaning, I will examine the brush roll for any hair that is wrapping around the brush and cut away as needed as well as emptying the bin. This takes less than 2 minutes for me to do each time.-Though this does have scheduling features, I never use it. My life schedule is pretty crazy, so I prefer to just start the robot whenever I want it to run by myself.-When I run the robot, I do try to spend a few minutes to set it up for success. That is, I take small items such as toys off the floor that it may run into. I pick up large items that may obstruct access to tight spaces I want cleaned (i.e. kid toy bins on the floor that may block access to the floor underneath the couch that I want cleaned). I take charging cables that it may get caught on off the floor. I would also close off areas of the house I do not think need to be cleaned by the robot (e.g. bathrooms, some closets, areas I just recently cleaned, etc.)-I live in a condo with the ground floor mostly consisting of short, standard carpet (3/4 of total floor area) with the area of the kitchen being tile (1/4 of total floor area). I base this robot cleaner on the ground floor, but do occasionally take it to the second floor where it is all carpet (except for bathrooms which is tile, but I do not let the vacuum go in to the bathrooms).-We are also frequented by a long-haired, hypoallergenic dog when family often visits.#How does this compare to regular human-operated vacuums?-No, this will not replace your regular manually-operated vacuum. However, I definitely use my regular vacuum a LOT less by running this robot vacuum regularly. Also, now when I do use my regular vacuum, I notice that I am a lot faster. This may be because the robot is already doing a great job or I feel less need to be as thorough when I do vacuum myself.-In some ways, this is better than vacuuming myself. This vacuum easily gets areas of the floor under my furniture (i.e. couch, coffee table, chairs, etc.), which is something I skip on doing because of my laziness when I vacuum manually anyways. I definitely vacuum a LOT less manually by using this nifty robot.#How well does it clean?-This is probably the question most of you are asking. I can say that it picks up most of the stuff I see with my naked eye that I want picked up before cleaning, and the cleaning bin is always pretty full of a bunch of junk I didn’t even know was on my floors.-As above, it does not replace a full regular vacuum.#What is its algorithm for cleaning?-Note that the algorithm that this vacuum uses is of the random trial-and-error “bump-and-redirect” variety instead of the perfectionist and orderly straight-line variety that is found in more expensive robovacs. This means that it moves somewhat randomly: it can go and clean one corner of the room for a few seconds then move all the way to another corner of the room before going back to clean another part of the first corner. This does not bother me, but it can bother others in two scenarios:1. If you are the type that will watch the robot clean for hours, it may drive you crazy that it seems to be doing it less efficiently than a human would vacuum. However, if you leave it alone to do its thing and run for an hour or so, I think it does generally get most of the floor as clean and as much as possible. I am usually away from home or sleeping on a different floor when it is running. If you run it while at home, you have to be prepared that when you sit stationary for an hour, the robot will inevitably come and make several passes around your area.2. If you have a lot of expensive things on the floor that you do not want to get lightly bumped (e.g the wooden legs of an antique chair), this may also bother you. However, the bump is VERY light and does not cause damage on anything I see..#Good features of note:-Good Battery: As other users have noted, I found that the regular battery life for this is usually a little over 2 hours.-Pretty Quiet: I think it is pretty quiet on its regular mode. Obviously, it is a little louder on the higher power cleaning mode. However, I found that either way, it definitely does not bother me when it is running. I barely notice it is running when it is on the default cleaning power mode. Other reviewers note that this robot cleaner is one of the quietest ones out there when testing it against others. Having seen my friends’ other robot vacuums, I certainly believe this one to be one of the quieter ones.-Will it fall down the stairs?: No, I have not had trouble with it falling down the stairs when it vacuums my second floor. It consistently and always knows when to stop at the edge before anything bad happens.-Remote Control: This comes with remote control, which not all robots reportedly do.-Easy to Set-Up and Use: I am pretty much an out-of-the-box user for this vacuum. I installed it using the quick user/start guide and just let it run. I did not play with any of the fancy settings. It was super easy to set up, and then I just let it do it’s thing.-How does it compare to others?: The design and features of the iLife A4s seem pretty similar to the lauded RoboVac11 in the same price-range.#Downsides?-I consider this an entry-level robot vacuum. Don’t expect this to be a Roomba with all those advanced features like wifi connectivity through iPhone apps.-I will note that rarely it will try to power through things like cords and cause things to fall.-If your house has a LOT of different rooms or the floors are very big, then this robot may not be for you as it can miss rooms completely or get trapped in some rooms before returning to its base to charge. However, I imagine this is the case for most robot vacuums in general.#Summary-I think this is a good value for something that is often priced 2 to 3 times as much as this one is selling for. It definitely saves me time and enhances my life.