ECOVACS DEEBOT M82 Robotic Vacuum Cleaner

WOW, this works much better than expected! I have been eyeballing these for some time and always hesitated to spend the $$$. I don't mind spending extra for a good product, but I hate wasting money. This M82 came up as available as an Amazon warehouse deal "like new, box may be damaged", so I ordered it for about $140. It has no wi-fi, mapping or mopping functions, but exchanges those features for an upgraded bigger dustbin, better battery, quieter operation, and a lower price. Holy cow I wish I had sooner. I've almost considered sending it back just to order a quieter one that mops and self cleans for $500, but for the price I'll just keep it. It is excellent. Our kids have renamed it Cinderella, and even the dog tolerates her very well after the first day. Run time: Right now, it is docking itself after 3 hours and 10 minutes of cleaning tile and area rugs all over my 1500sf house. Yes, over 3 hours -although it seems to more commonly run for around 2.5. Run time is important because these clean so well because these make up for lack of power (compared to full size vacuums) by being repetitious. Testing these the way you'd test a full size vacuum with a pile of dirt or Cheerios and expecting it to pick it all up in one pass is unrealistic. Cleaning quality: She picks up dust, dog hair, crumbs, and debris from our family of 2 adults, 3 kids, and 1 Great Dane, surprisingly well. I've attached a pic of what it picks up EVERY SINGLE DAY. Amazing! Would it pick up a half box of Cheerios? Of course not and I wouldn't expect it to! Of course it's dustbin is smaller than our regular vac (bigger bin on this model -500ml vs 4-450ml on others), but I would estimate that it picks up the same over 7 days as our big vac would once a week. Now I only break out the big vac for a once/twice a month run at the tough spots Cindy can't reach. Emptying the dustbin is easy, as is tapping out the prefilter and HEPA filter. Brush and vacuum performance is just short of spectacular. Sure, a side brush may occasionally flick a crumb away -but she'll get it on the next pass. Coverage: I think it's really very good. It drives by algorithm, not by mapping so it clearly is hit or miss and not as methodical as I would like -but it doesn't really seem to matter. There may be wasted time covering areas previously cleaned, but you will be amazed at how much ground it can cover in 3 hours. Eventually she hits everywhere anyway and if not today, than surely tomorrow and the double covered areas are that much cleaner! Negatives: There will be certain accommodations needed, but ultimately your mileage may vary -your individual experience is dependent on your home/furniture/habits/etc. 1. We've had Cindy get stuck under our bedroom dresser (the skirt is tapered at just the right height to push her collision bumper down instead of in and she can wedge herself under it). I'm going to put 1/4" spacers under the feet to raise it and now her collision bumper will get activated before she gets jammed in there. 2. All of our sliding closet doors need to be closed and Cindy kept out. Too many shoes, backpacks and tight spaces, and she spends too much time trying to just get in and out and sucking up my kids' socks. My kids are learning the hard way not to leave tablet cords and legos laying on the floor in their rooms (although if they are home and playing, they just close their doors). Of course, there will be areas she simply cannot efficiently clean -under low furniture, narrow spaces between furniture, etc, and she doesn't move things to be thorough like pillows, books, chairs, -she just goes around them. 3. One of the downsides of a cheaper non-mapping unit is that if she can't find her way home when her battery gets low, you may find her where it dies. Surprisingly, this actually has only happened once out of maybe 15 runs so far, but it does happen. Again, YMMV depending on your house layout. 4. On carpet, you forget it's running, but on tile it can be a little noisy. The motors are quiet, but it clunks a bit crossing grout lines -of course YMMV depending on your grout line spacing and size. On hardwood, you can hear it running simply because the sound bounces around more. Still, aside from the grout line clunking, it's not louder than my son's RC car or the cooling fans on our PS4. Just do it! Mike If you found my review to be helpful, please click the "Helpful" button below!