Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsHate dirty floors? Also hate mopping? BUY THIS!
Reviewed in the United States on January 1, 2023
Let me start off by saying that we have three Siberian Huskies in this house. That is a LOT of fur. We've had a couple of iRobot Roombas over the years, and they helped cut down the amount of time I spent sweeping up fur by a fair amount, but I had grown weary of the issues with them. Firstly, how randomly they wander around the house, the slamming into my furniture (especially chair legs), how freaking' LOUD the thing was when running, what a huge PITA it is to clean fur out of the rollers, etc. I also have problems with my hands that make mopping rather painful. Challenging for someone who has a bit of a "floor thing". I knew there were more advanced robots out there that could do a better job than trusty old Frackin' Toaster (Roomba's name, obvs) and come with more features.
When this robot went on sale for Cyber Monday, I went for it. The reviews (here on Amazon as well as other review platforms and articles) were almost universally 5-stars positive, and it seemed to include pretty much everything I wanted in an upgrade. Holy moly y'all, best grand I've spent in a long time. I've had this guy running for almost a month now (because you know I launched him as soon as he was set up), and here are my findings.
Pros:
Quiet!: SO MUCH QUIETER THAN ROOMBA. I can watch TV if I wanted to with this guy running. People on the other end of my conference calls during the day don't hear it, even if don't have my noise cancelling headphones on.
Smart pathing: When I fired it up to do its discovery run, I was amazed at how quickly it performed its initial room discovery. No vacuum running or anything, it just cruised around using LiDAR and other sensors and mapped the heck out of my first floor. On its first full cleaning run, it tightened up its mapping and identified furniture and other items. When it cleans, it performs an outline cleaning of the room and the furniture in it, then cleans the rest of the floors in an efficient and effective pattern. Freakin' awesome. Definitely smarter than a Valheim Troll, unlike my previous Cylons...erm, floor robots.
Object detection: With the camera, LiDAR, and other sensors this guy has, it does a fantastic job of object detection. No more damage to my furniture from repeatedly slamming into legs etc. It will make a guess at what it's run into if it runs into something on the floor. Fabric, shoes, cords, whatever it comes across that is 'unexpected'. Funny story - my husband's Chewbacca head slippers were identified as "pet waste" (I assume due to being brown, and about the size and shape of a pile of big dog poo if viewed from ground level head-on) but that's the only oddball identification I've seen.
Cleaning around furniture: Okay, this is fabulous. The Roombas are awful at navigating dining table and chairs, stools at the counter, etc. Would spend 30% of its battery life stuck under the chairs. Ser Toaster III rocks at it. Gets aaaaaaaaalll the husky glitter from under the table and without beating the snot out of my chair legs.
Mopping: Look, I know I could probably do better on my hands and knees with a bucket, but pass. My entire first floor is ceramic tile and it now gets a nice sponge bath every day. They look and feel quite clean, my socks are clean, and judging by the water I'm dumping out of the tank, ST3 is definitely getting the job done. I love that it goes and cleans the mop frequently rather than dragging a dirty rag around the house. I also bought extra mop pads so I can change them out every other day or so and get them a thorough trip through the washer.
Fur removal: Both in removing it from the floors and being able to remove it from the machine, I give it a 12/10. Despite my Husky pack's best efforts, there are no fluff drifts. I still have to bust out the Dyson on the weekly to get the cracks and crannies, but I could probably get away with less often if I was slightly less extra about the fur removal. But seriously? Whoever designed the roller was a frigging genius. Rather than fighting to unwrap the fur from the ends, the ends just twist off so you can slide the whole fur bundle right off. To whomever designed that roller: I love you. Seriously, I love you.
Cleaning the unit: Another win here. The brush assembly that cleans the mop head has a little lever you can flip up to remove the brush and do any fuzz removal or give it a rinse. The filter that catches any debris (leaves, stray fur) lifts right out for cleaning as well. (Learn from my mistake, put a paper towel under it or you're gonna make a muddy mess on your way to the sink). The bin design is also very smart (both for water and for dirt) - super easy to empty and keep clean.
Scheduling: I love being able to set different routines and schedules. I work from home, so being able to set the robot to go vacuum my office at 5:45am and subsequently ignore my office when it does its noon run is great. You can set quiet hours where it will do a job, but it will turn down its voice and not empty itself. The office run it does for me is after I've gone to the gym, but before my husband wakes up, so it returns quietly to its dock and doesn't empty itself until it goes to do its noon "daily maintenance" cleaning. This is important because when it does empty the dust bin, it is LOUD AF. But just for about 10 seconds or so.
The app: I like that I can view where the robot is, how it cleaned, what the maintenance status is (it reminds me to clean the sensors, clean the filter, etc), any objects detected, etc. See cons for what I don't love.
Cons:
The app: The app is not particularly intuitive. The routines are in a completely different place than scheduling, for example. That's honestly my biggest beef. App needs a serious UX overhaul.
Dust bin bag: This is a disposable vacuum bag. I wish the design didn't require a disposable and non-reusable bag.
Carpet: I have a large rug in my office with a fairly low pile. After observing how it does on this carpet, I don't think I would recommend this unit to anyone with plushy carpeting. It uses a rubber roller rather than a brush, and I just don't think it would do a particularly amazing job of grooming the pile. Toaster (the disgraced Roomba) has moved upstairs (AKA No Dog's Land), and I think because of the double roller with an actual brush, it performs better on carpet with any kind of pile. If you just have area/throw rugs with a lower pile or berber type carpet, I think it'll do fine.
Throw rugs: Speaking of throw rugs, mixed bag on those. I have a couple it will successfully navigate, but others (like my bathroom rugs) it wants to drag around. I know which ones it'll mess with now, so I pick them up. The ones it doesn't mess with, it really nicely lifts the mop up so you don't end up with a wet rug, then puts it back down once its off the rug.
Final verdict: Ser Toaster III is a fantastic floor robot. It's not absolutely perfect, but nothing is. This gets close enough for me to say unreservedly that I would buy it again. If you can swing the cost on this unit (including the recurring cost on the bags and replaceable parts like the edge brush and such), it's totally worth it.