Is it worth spending £800 on a robot to vacuum your home?

SURELY vacuuming is the most soul-destroying of all chores. No sooner is a floor clean than someone tracks mud all over it. So it’s little wonder the world went into a spin when Dyson launched its robot vacuum cleaner last month.

The £800 Dyson 360 Eye is one of a new generation of robovacs boasting high-tech extras: cameras to map rooms and wifi access for remote control.

But are they worth the staggering price tags? LORRAINE FISHER puts them through their paces.

TOP CLEANER, BUT BEATEN BY A SOFA (AND A RUG)

Dyson 360 Eye, £799.99, dyson.co.uk THE LOOK: Perhaps the most attractive of the lot, in brushed chrome with blue lights. It’s taller than most at nearly 5in and thinner — barely 9in in diameter — with a battery time of 45 minutes. THE TRICKS: This claims to have ‘true 360-degree vision to clean more of your home than any other robovac’, along with the powerful cyclone technology Dyson is known for and twice the suction of any similar machine. THE RESULTS: Dyson says anyone buying this can have an engineer to set it up for free. I don’t know why — it’s incredibly easy.

The only hiccup I had was not putting my smartphone in direct sight of it as I connected them via the app.

This is the only one that sounded like a proper vacuum, and it cleans meticulously and methodically. But it couldn’t get under my sofa, which was frustrating.

And I had to take the rug up (which Dyson advises) because the machine got stuck in it.

The small bin fills up very quickly, and the low battery time meant it hadn’t finished when it was forced to return to the charging dock. But two hours later, it emerged again and went straight to the spot where it had left off. 4/5

ALL PERSONALITY WITH NO BRAINS

Miele Scout RX1, £499.99, johnlewis.com THE LOOK: A sleek, circular machine in red or black with touch-screen controls and a docking station.

It’s 3.5in tall with a 14in diameter and comes with a remote control and two hours of battery life. THE TRICKS: An in-built camera and navigation system ‘maps’ the room to refine its route, and seven optical sensors prevent it from bumping into the furniture.

Four cleaning modes include ‘turbo’ for a twice-as-quick clean, ‘cornering’ for hard-to-reach areas and ‘spot’, where the machine goes over a dirty area again (it’s preset to cover 70sqin). THE RESULTS: It seems strange to say a machine’s packed full of personality, but this one is. Seeing it charging into my kitchen, lights flashing, brought a smile to my face.

Set up is easy, as is programming it to clean on certain days at certain times on the remote control. You can almost see its little brain trying to problem-solve when it hits an obstacle. And it does hit them, albeit gently, but those sensors just don’t seem to do the job.

And while it mounts mats easily, it didn’t like the tassels on my rug and had to be rescued.

Quiet and not bad at cleaning, it got a lot of the mess up. 3.5/5

A REAL TROUPER — IF YOU CAN WORK IT

Neato Botvac Connected, £549.99, robertdyas. co.uk THE LOOK: A sombre, black, Dshaped machine, 13in at its widest and 3.5in deep. Comes with a docking station and touch controls. THE TRICKS: The flat edge helps it get into corners and along walls, and there’s laser-guided technology to map the room and increase efficiency as well as a Power Clean system to target pet hair. Settings include turbo (fast), eco (quiet) and spot cleaning.

It’s wifi-enabled so you can turn it on remotely and if it needs longer to clean than its two-hour battery life, it takes itself back to recharge before returning to finish the job. THE RESULTS: It should have been easy to connect the robot to my iPhone, but when they failed to link time and time again, I had to call Neato for help.

Not a good start. I also found it tricky to align the robot with its base to charge — there’s no flashing light to tell you it’s properly positioned.

But boy, when charged, does this machine try hard, and it’s great at changing between surfaces and heights.

I set it to work in the kitchen and it did everything in its power to manoeuvre through the chair legs and under the table.

When it got stuck, I received a text message: ‘Please free me, I’m stuck’ — sweet, but useless if I wasn’t there.

Second time, it navigated the circular bin without touching it and only missed a few spots on the tiled floor — although the D-shape doesn’t help with any tight corners.

Most annoying was when it found the hallway, cleaned a bit but then declared itself finished and returned to base. 2.5/5

CLASSY MODEL I’D TURN ON WHILE OUT

iRobot Roomba 980 series, £789.99, hughes.co.uk THE LOOK: Classy and futuristic, this machine radiates white light around the control panel and comes with a docking station. It’s got a 13.5in diameter and is 3.5in tall. THE TRICKS: Connects to your smartphone, has a navigation system and a carpet booster which automatically increases the power by up to ten times on anything deep pile. It has no brushes and instead uses plastic extractors. THE RESULTS: It took eight minutes to get it out of the box, link it to my mobile phone and have it charging away happily. The app even plays you an introductory video to explain everything.

It’s got serious power and persistence. It found a way around every obstacle, even untangling itself from some laces. It’s the only one I’d be happy to switch on while I was out. The Roomba found every room, covered almost every inch and I got a text to say the bin was full.

A brilliant machine that missed just a few corners and edges. 4.5/5

PURSE-FRIENDLY — BUT YOU CAN TELL

ElectriQ eiQ-R900M, £129.98, appliancesdirect.co.uk THE LOOK: A cheap-looking white circular robot with blue LED display and a docking station. It’s 3.5in high and 13in in diameter. THE TRICKS: The unique feature here is that you can use it as a vacuum on carpet, then change the base to a mop for tiles. As well as the HEPA anti-allergy air filter all robovacs seem to have, it also has a UV light that it claims sterilises your floor.

A dirt-detection system senses messier areas, whereupon the intriguingly named ‘spiral mode’ kicks in to clean them. THE RESULTS: I was keen to try this because even though it was at the bottom end of the market, it came with the promise of being able to clean my whole house.

It’s not as simple to operate as its pricier peers and I spent a good deal of time working out how to use all its different cleaning modes (it can zigzag, spiral and go straight among others) and how to schedule it to clean every day.

But once it got to work, it did a pretty decent job — and quietly, too. However, without a posh mapping system, it missed a fair amount of each room. And the mopping One of the best: The new £800 Dyson 360 Eye robovac function really let it down. You simply change the base and fill a small reservoir with water and detergent then let it go about its business.

While it easily sucked up fresh spills, it didn’t touch ground-in grime. 2/5

IT’S THE GREAT PRETENDER

Vileda Cleaning Robot, £149.99, vileda.co.uk THE LOOK: A circular robot with a black bumper and white buttons, it’s not the prettiest on the market. It has a 13.5 in diameter and is 3.5 in high. THE TRICKS: Has an ‘intelligent navigation system’ to ensure it covers all available floor surfaces and reaches corners.

The three programmes are for different sized rooms: one for a small room (five minutes long), another for a medium room (30 minutes) and the 60-minute cycle for a large one. THE RESULTS: was keen to see if the simple, cheaper machines had improved enough to be worth buying. But the simple answer is no.

This Vileda seemed to drag as much dirt across the room as it sucked up.

And the noise! I’ve never been so pleased as when its irritatingly loud and high-pitched whining and whirring finally stopped.

The set-up is so simple — it’s the only one I tried without a docking station so you simply plug it in to charge it. But you must then remember to unplug it before turning it on and pushing the S, M or L button to start it up.

Also it doesn’t navigate around things — it simply swings round 180 degrees and moves off — and it seems to do the same spot time and time again while ignoring other areas.

Consequently, half the room wasn’t done and the corners were hardly touched. 1/5

IDON’T BIN YOUR VACUUM JUST YET...

WHEN it comes to futuristic robot helpers, you get what you pay for. The cheap ones still aren’t really worth it, while top-end models have come on in leaps and bounds.

I think linking to the internet is a gimmick — if you suddenly find out at work that your mother-in-law is paying a surprise visit, you might be able to set it going, but you won’t be able to remove anything from the floor that might get in its way.

Chances are you’ll come back to a tangled robot and a half-cleaned floor. But if you can afford one, it’s a handy addition to the household.

Just don’t throw away your traditional vacuum cleaner yet — after all, none of these machines do the stairs.