Shark RV1001AE IQ Robot Self-Empty XL, Robot Vacuum with IQ Navigation, Home Mapping, Self-Cleaning Brushroll, Wi-Fi Connected, Works with Alexa, Black

Where to start?With the bad, let us get that right out of the way. The mapping is abysmal, truly, we have run Bruce (if you can name a Shark branded robot vacuum, what other name than Bruce would you choose) 25 times, he is nowhere near mapping our house, compared to my brothers robot from a competitor who rhymes with BOOMBA, which did it in three runs. This Shark does not even play the same sport....this prevents me from doing room specific vacuuming. And that is it. Unless you have a multi story house, where this feature is a must have, set Bruce and he will clean you house. Wonderfully. Next, the not so great, Bruce is so mentally challenged. For a smart device, he is pretty dumb, but you want to know something, Bruce is determined. He will get the job done. He may have to fumble and bumble his way about, but he will get it done, and, if you watch, he does get a little smarter each time, just a little, but it is noticeable. Bruce used to do the house in large, long swaths, now he breaks it into one half of the house, then the other, and just the today, a new feature, he went around the perimeter of the house, cleaning the base boards. Small steps.As for his vacuum, top notch, perhaps too good. Bit of advice, if you get your own Bruce, run the beast on low suction for at least the first 4 or 5 runs....another con, Bruce does not know when he has eaten too much, and like a greedy guppy, he dies...locks up and cries for help... remember, I told you Bruce is not bright, but he is a work horse. When this happens, you cannot tell Bruce to restart, he has to start over, and hopefully one of Bruce's engineers will fix this, since Bruce will never know how much he has consumed, he has not the ability. Perhaps a command to send him to his base to empty himself, or a shorter duration than the 30 or so minutes it defaults to.Oh, and the base, the self empty….I am sure robot vacuums before the base were fine, if tedious, since you had to clean them every time….but the base, oh the base is pure genius. Bruce’s base is perfect, we take up with a button, and open it with a button, and never have to touch the refuse. No bag to buy, just push a button, the bottom opens and all that stuff drops out.If you have not noticed, but this family loves Bruce, we are now looking at getting Bruce a skin, to spruce Bruce up a bit…We have had Bruce for a week now, barely, but already Bruce has made an impact. I absolute honesty I cannot recommend this product enough, it works, it has quirks, but it works, and very well.Bit of adviceTurn on all your lights until your Bruce gets a good map of the area, he is a camera based robot and needs to “see" the ceiling, mostly, for landmarks.Run it on low the first few tries, while Bruce bounces around the first few runs, then move to medium and so on. Remember, Bruce has no sesnor in his bin, he uses a set algorithm that tells him to go back to his base and dump his load. It is terrible. But his vacuum is great, so he gets too full too fast. I can manage it a little for the quality of his cleanup.Because our house is neither toddler nor robot ready, we did not have all our rooms ready, and so we began mapping with the bedrooms and bathrooms doors closed. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, the mapping is not great, but it does move forward, slowly. Bruce stared being more efficient in our great rooms’ right about the time we added the bedrooms and bathrooms. Our house, 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 great rooms and a heart kitchen, Bruce can do it on one charge now, I think because we basically added one room a day after his initial runs.I think you can tell, Bruce has been a wonderful addition to our home, truly, a robot vacuum was a luxury I didn’t think worked. It works and now I know what gift I will give every new home owner I know. There a lot of options out there, some a lot cheaper, and if those meet your needs, get them, some a lot more expensive, and aside from one specific feature Bruce does not have,( multi floor mapping) I cannot imagine they are better.UPDATED 2/19/20Mapping works now, had to delete the map once , run it three times, and bang! house mapped. Room specific vacuuming unlocked! Suggestions to others having issues. Delete the map and ( and I think this part is important) run the vac with every light you can on. The robot "see" and makes its map on your ceiling, the more light, the better it see's.To reiterate, my little robot, Bruce, has literally changed my house...cannot recommend enough.Updated 2/5/21A year later and no regrets. One of, if not, the best purchases I have made for my home. I will state again Bruce is an addition to the house and family, he is almost a pet....a very dumb, but very hard working pet....he is like a toddler...he seems to always want to be where you are... He cleans your floors and carpets...If you are on the fence about buying a robot vacuum...let me put you at ease...buy one, this is no longer a luxury to my home, they are a requirement, utterly worth every penny. As for a Shark...I love mine. Works great, does what it is supposed to do. The only house I wouldn't think this is perfect for is multi floor homes. Short of that... a must have.4/28/23 Still the best purchase we have made for our home cleaning. No change there...but a small observation...recently replaced some furniture and changed the layout of our home. We had to move the dock from a north to south orientation to an east to west...and, I swear, it now navigates even better than before.

As a household with a Shark vacuum on each floor of our house (basement, main floor, second floor), we panicked when our oldest, most powerful Shark robot vacuum died. It was the first generation who could empty themselves and was responsible for taking care of the most extensive square footage of our home (the main floor). As we tried to find parts to repair it, fur was getting out of hand in our household. Unable to take it any longer, we upgraded to the new AI vacuum with a larger dumping bin. Honestly, we are so glad we did since it has been truly night and day! The new Shark Matrix was very easy to set up out of the box. The bin was together, mostly just getting protective wrapping off the vacuum. From there, it was just waiting for it to charge. Getting it on the app was just scan and go, with the hardest part being deciding what to name our vacuum. After a good twelve-hour charge (we had it charging while we were working and taking care of dinner), we had to do its first sweep of the house, mostly just mapping its new territory. It had a very detailed map on the first try, something our old vacuum had never really accomplished. What was really impressive, however, was the vacuuming itself. The next day, we let it go on its first true expedition. Unlike our old one, we still have not seen an error, and it has taken care of itself, even with large tufts of dog fur (we have two double-coated Alaskan Malamutes in full shed). It just didn't care. It took care of everything, emptied itself, and had no clogs! It even had an even better map after working and sent us complete statistics of its work. We are so glad we got this vacuum and are pleased with how it has cleaned and handled large amounts of dog fur. If you have a double-coated dog and want to make life easier, get this vacuum!

Which is a bit unfair. That's like comparing a 5 year old Merc S class to a new Kia sedan... I've had a Roborock (Rr) S6 MaxV for a few years now and it's having the Cliff Edge error, where dirt seems to have gotten into the sensors and everything is the edge of a cliff... So I bought this about 6 weeks ago, for less than half of what the Rr cost me 5 years ago, with a view to replacing the Rr with this. I will say this does the job and does it well. You just have to learn some quirks and features...The Good:The extended bin. I only empty it once a month now. Lazy, me, no...The suction. I started to notice the Rr left dust lines on the hardwood after a while.It keeps track of where it is, whether it's emptying its own bin or returned for a recharge.No mop. I don't need it and this doesn't have one.The Bad:The base location. 3 feet in all directions must be clear...The noise. WHAT, SPEAK UP, THIS THING IS LOUD....The map. It built an OK map but I'm not sure it's as good as the Rr's.The map. Although you can number the rooms in any order that you want and select a subset, it doesn't follow the room order. The Rr's does even on a full floor clean.The charge time. If it says it's going to need 180 mins to charge before carrying on then it's going to take 180...So it sounds like I don't like this. I do, it does the job and does it well. You just need to adjust to it if you've had, or have, a different robovac. I might try and get a 2nd base station for this so I can then run it on both floors. Then I might fix the Roborock or I might just sell it on as is.I haven't had to replace anything consumable yet but it uses different 'bits' than the Rr does. Shocker I know...This is worth the buy. Even more so if you don't want to keep emptying it and you don't need a mop.4 stars because the app is a little slow and what's the point numbering each room if it doesn't stick to that order when cleaning.