[furyg3]

Are there any good robo-vacuum cleaners that will still clean your floor if the internet is down?

I've had my Miele vacuum cleaner for 15 years now, and I bought it second hand. I can still buy bags and filters for it, and when the floor roller piece broke (something heavy fell on it) I was able to buy a replacement one for cheap. I see no reason why it can't go another 10 years.

It feels like a very low probability that a robo-cleaner I buy now will come from a company that (in 10+ years) will a) exist and b) support 10+ year old vacuum cleaners.

[stavros]

I used Valetudo on my early Roborock model and it worked great for many years. Unfortunately, the battery gave out and it's somehow DRMed, so even though everything else works fine, the vacuum refuses to work because it doesn't like the new battery.

It's the worst kind of e-waste, it's only waste because someone decided I should buy a whole new vacuum when the battery dies, but Valetudo is otherwise good. Just never try to look for support at all.

[meindnoch]

Did you look inside the old battery? It may well be just a bunch of 18650 cells with some electronics in a plastic case. Just desolder the old cells and solder on new ones.

I did the same for my wife's cordless vacuum, and it works better than new, because the new cells are about 2x the capacity of the originals.

[KeplerBoy]

Oh boy the creator of valetudo sure has an abrasive writing style. Whatever works for him, I guess.

[gspr]

This stuff should flat-out be illegal.

[dmantis]

For me it's so weird nobody makes a thing you can trust. I would happily overpay 3-4x for the good vacuum without the cloud and the need to do some hacking with valetudo, with an official service and support for the device. Yet nobody is willing to take the money. They'd rather go bankrupt..

[moooo99]

> I would happily overpay 3-4x for the good vacuum without the cloud and the need to do some hacking with valetudo, with an official service and support for the device. Yet nobody is willing to take the money. They'd rather go bankrupt..

I feel like you are over estimating market demand based on your own preferences. Been there, done that. Most techies under estimate how little normal folks care about privacy, cybersecurity and stuff like that.

The market for privacy focused vacuum robots (at a significant premium) is probably not even going to pay for the injection mould tooling

[bee_rider]

Yeah. The real options are usually: a Chinese device from a company that seems nebulously a little close to their government, imported (so, limited need to follow local safety or privacy regulation); or, a US product from a company with explicit connections to the Google/Facebook/Amazon network, and with a warranty that lasts a whole month (as long as you don’t open the battery hatch).

I don’t know if people would pay 3X for something that actually works in their interest, probably not, but it isn’t as if such a product has been tried in the last ~50 years.

[Workaccount2]

>I would happily overpay 3-4x for the good vacuum without the cloud a

Those wall-to-wall advertising packed smart TVs that cost $350 for a 65" outsell the $1500 65" 10 to 1.

People love low prices. Their concerns about privacy are a distant second or even third (after aesthetics).

[lotsofpulp]

> Yet nobody is willing to take the money.

It’s weird that you have identified this business opportunity with such confidence, but you are also unwilling to take the money.

[sandworm101]

Mine doesnt need cloud or internet. AIRROBO P20

[probably_wrong]

For what it's worth I never connected my 5-years-old Xiaomi Mi to the Internet - I just push the button and it starts. A wheel stopped working this year but I bought the replacement and installed it without much fuzz.

As for modern vacuums I have no idea what happens if you never set up their WiFi.

[d_k_f]

Your best bet would be to check which models are supported by Valetudo, which is a local-only firmware replacement: https://valetudo.cloud/ and https://github.com/Hypfer/Valetudo

[goodpoint]

valetudo is just a hack, not a firmware replacement, and could be blocked by a firmware update from the OEM

plus it can void your warranty

[InsideOutSanta]

>Are there any good robo-vacuum cleaners that will still clean your floor if the internet is down?

It depends on what exactly you want. My Roborock can't connect to my Wi-Fi anymore for some unfathomable reason. It no longer runs automatically, and I can't edit its map or tell it where exactly to clean. I just hit the power button once a day to start it manually, and it cleans everything it can access.

[whywhywhywhy]

Had a Neato Botvac D7 for many years, works completely offline and it's cleaning route is pretty smart using lidar.

Can't vouch for their newer models just because this one has worked so well for years.

[PetitPrince]

My D7 lost its mapping capability (including markerless no go zone) a few weeks ago due to the new owner pulling the plug early on their server. An enthusiast is jerry rigging an offline solution thanks to a vuln in an earlier firmware, but for those unwilling to solder an esp32 to the debug port of their vacuum they essential got a lesser robot overnight.

[mrknmc]

Neato went bankrupt lol

[Mistletoe]

Just buy an old Roomba on Ebay. Mine doesn’t even know what the internet is. You push the button and it goes. There is a huge market of cheap aftermarket batteries for it.

[kleiba]

> Are there any good robo-vacuum cleaners that will still clean your floor if the internet is down?

What do you mean? Why would you need an internet connection for a vacuum cleaner?

(Sorry for asking, I've never owned a robot one, plus I am old.)

[lionkor]

Lots of modern appliances connect to the Internet, have multiple computers inside that need updates, maintenance, maybe subscription payments, and that need to phone home everything they see, hear and do.

[mzhaase]

Check out valetudo.

[gkhartman]

Second this if you are willing to do some mild hardware hacking. I've been running valetudo on two Dreame L10 vacuums for three years without issue. Keeps a lot of the smart features, for use over lan instead of a cloud connection.

[chemodax]

I recommend to look at Kärcher RCV 5. High quality.

https://www.kaercher.com/us/home-garden/robot-vacuums-and-mo...

[samschooler]

I have a roomba i3, it's blocked at the network level, but it is connected to my home assistant instance. It can clean and map rooms but doesn't communicate with the cloud because of the network blocking.

[rsynnott]

I mean, Miele make one, so there’s that. No idea if it’s any good.

Obviously no guarantee that Miele will exist in a decade, but I wouldn’t bet against them personally.

[n8cpdx]

I don’t get where the fear mongering is coming from on this. All or nearly all robot vacuums have controls for their various functions on the side. Plenty of robotic vacuums even come with remotes so you can program schedules without a phone/wifi/internet. If you go really cheap you can get decent robots that won’t even let you connect to WiFi if you tried (at least as of a few years ago).

[tootie]

I have eufy 11s. It does a braindead bump-and-run algorithm that uses no computer vision and does not map your room. It's a bit slower, but still does a solid job. Cheap too.