Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum (1st gen) Questions & Answers (page 3 of 4)

I'm not too sure on this question as I only have tiled floors so no carpet or rugs in the house as my son has chronic asthma sorry about that

Hi Melissa. I cannot honestly answer your question as we have no rugs or carpet. My advice is that you should read as many other reviews as possible to try and get a definitive answer. Cheers. Ron

Hi ..I have mainly carpets and slate kitchen floor and it navigates from carpet to slate no problem.It cleans brilliantly..Steve

there is no individual wall with xiaomi vacuum robot.

thanks

Sorry don’t know

Not 100% sure as I dont have one of the virtual walls but from my understanding it is a magnetic strip so I dont see why it wont work under carpet. If you have your location set as mainland china and the latest version of the frimware you also now have the option to clean a zoned area. Once it has cleaned the floor once it will remember the scanned layout of the floor and allow you to draw rectangular areas on the map you want it to clean and how many times to go over want section.

1. Download the mi home app, create an account, and add in the vacuum
2. From the app, select the vacuum and the click on settings
3. Click on 'vacuum settings' and then 'voice pack'
4. Scroll down to find 'English' and tap on 'use'

Done. The app has many other uses - updating the firmware, checking if the vacuum needs items replaced like brushes or filters, remote control of the device itself, battery level, map of where it has been, etc etc.

The battery should last two years or so with normal use. Because the vacuum is fairly new, there isn't a huge demand for replacement batteries yet so they are a little hard to find so when you do find them you will find they are not cheap. I suspect that they will become more common (and cheaper) in a year or so. I believe that the pack actually uses fairly standard 18650 batteries so should by rights be less than $80 - although shipping etc will add to the overall cost. Other replacement parts like brushes etc are available however. I would not be surprised if someone eventually puts together instructions on how to replace the batteries in the pack itself.

A quick search on aliexpress just then found a handful for sale around the $100 mark delivered. Given that's close to a third the cost of a whole new (series 1) vacuum, it's almost worth considering replacing the whole thing (getting an extra docking station, new brushes etc at the same time) when it gets to that stage!

FWIW Replacing the battery is fairly simple - just need to remove the main and side brushes, then unscrew the bottom plate. Once that's removed you can see the battery pack which can be just lifted out and unplugged. See here: https://youtu.be/8FlZgIHOodM?t=3m43s (it's not in english, but it's easy enough to see how to do it).

The battery in the vacuum is rated at 5,200 mAh which is the equivalent to about 20 watt hours ie running a 20w light bulb for an hour. So let's assume every time you use the vacuum you nearly drain the battery, if you also assume you are paying around $0.30 per kWh (1,000 watt hours), then it is costing you about $0.01 to vacuum the floor. Now it will actually be a bit more than that, as the charger will not be 100% efficient and as the filter gets dirty the battery will drain faster etc but basically, it's not going to cost much and most likely a lot less than a normal wall powered vacuum.

In comparison, a Samsung Galaxy S8 has a 3,000 mAh battery and an iPhone X has a 2,716 mAh battery. So think of it like the amount of power required to charge two mobile phones.

Also in comparison, a normal vacuum may use between 800W to maybe 2400W. Let's say it's 800W, and it takes 30 minutes (400 watt hours) for you to vacuum the house versus 60 minutes for the robot. That's still 20 times more electricity than the robot vacuum. Forgetting about the cost of recycling the batteries etc, from a basic running cost perspective the robot is much cheaper to run.

So let's say I let it run every second day for a full house maybe a full charge. How much would that cost for a whole year or two?

At $0.01 per day estimated above, if you ran the robot vacuum every second day then that would be 365/2*0.01=$1.82. If you ran the 800W vacuum for 30 minutes every second day, then that would be 365/2*0.12=$21.90

Assumptions including $0.30 per kWh, you totally ran the robot vacuum flat each time, you are comparing it to an 800W vacuum and use that for 30 mins every second day.

I bought the first version it doesn't mop

Generation 2 does, Generation 1 does not.

It could aways be a faulty unit, but things I'd suggest doing would include:
1. Do a full reset of the vacuum
2. Make sure it's running the latest firmware
3. Use a jet blower (a little puffer unit - sometimes called a 'rocket blower' - you can get them from camera shops or eBay) to try to remove any built up dust from laser unit itself. Be careful not to touch the lens though. Do not used a can of compressed air as the propellant can get on the lens of the laser and it is a lot like oil so will simply stay there and dust will stick to it.
4. Is the area it's trying to clean very dusty? Under tables and couches that haven't seen a vacuum in years can be bad at first. If so it might simply be getting dusty quickly. Over time this may improve - in particular if you clean and replace the vacuum filter regularly. Getting a stand alone air purifier/filter can help a lot if the environment is dusty.

If it is a faulty unit, you can either try a warranty claim if it's new or if not you can get a replacement LiDAR LDR unit - it's very simple to replace. Cost however in not insignificant, so if that turns out to be the case might be better getting a new unit and use the old one for spare parts.

Thank you so much for your kind suggestions I will try all of the above. I had thought of using compressed air so also thanks for your warning not to do so. Kind regards less frustrated

Get the second gen, from research it is so much better. There is only one setting, it’s a nice noise level, I wouldn’t say it’s super quiet but it isn’t as noisy as my Dyson.

Thankyou so much I’m going to get the second one ☺️

1. Download the mi home app, create an account, and add in the vacuum
2. From the app, select the vacuum and the click on settings
3. Click on 'vacuum settings' and then 'voice pack'
4. Scroll down to find 'English' and tap on 'use'

Done. The app has many other uses - updating the firmware, checking if the vacuum needs items replaced like brushes or filters, remote control of the device itself, battery level, map of where it has been, etc etc.

It is very good at pushing toys to the wall but it is definitely worth clearing most, especially small bits. It hates cables tho so that is more of a concern. So far it has never jammed om a toy

So sorry I am unable to help you. My son who is an electronic genius got it going and changed the language to English for me. If I hadn’t had his help I would have been up that well known creek. Once you do get it going you will be rapt. Good luck, I hope all goes well for you.

Do you have the correct app? In Google play store I see there are several apps. I can't remember how I picked the one that works. In playstore the app is called "MiHome" by Xiaomi. The icon is green with white letters - a miss-shapen "M" over a "U" or a "J". Download this then connect the phone app to your wifi router. I think I used instructions from Google.
With the MI Home you can then in theory select devices - vacuum 1 and possibly 2 and other things like phones, fridges air con etc
Somehow I connected the phone app to the vacuum itself - a separate icon on phone. Mine, on the phone is called "Mi Robot Vacuum". It has a square green icon with a white circle with a small o and l. this is a stylised picture of the cleaner.
Other apps in play store are Mi Drop, or Mi WiFi or MIUI, or Mi Explorer, or Mi Mover. (Although these might also work???). Can't help with other than google. Don't know about Gen2
Sorry this sounds a bit scrambled - I understand your confusion and remember my frustration which I was expecting from the reviews. .Two icons on the phone and getting wifi set up on MIHome were the keys.
I hope it doesn't take long for the little wretch to earn his keep. Good luck

Hello, I am having this problem now myself after buying the second generation, I can’t get it to connect to the app, did you find a solution? Thankyou in advance :)

I have set my vacuum to clean my floors every Sunday at 9.30 and Thursday at 9.30. On Sunday it cleans every room downstairs, whilst on Thursday I take it upstairs where it does the upstairs of our unit. It always returns to the dock downstairs, but it returns to my starting point upstairs, then I take it back to its dock to recharge and I empty it. The dust pan is easy to insert and clean. I have never had it so full that it stops. Every time I use it it has less dust and fluff in the pan. My floors are super clean. If you don’t want to do certain areas just shut the door to this area. It’s little voice tells you when you need to clean the filter. BRILLIANT!

It will go to all rooms it has access to once started. I pick it up and shut it in a room that needs special attention. There is a spot clean function that can be started from a phone app that will start it to clean a 1.5m square ( I think that is the dimension)

If you have your location set as mainland china and the latest version of the frimware you also now have the option to clean a zoned area. Once it has cleaned the floor once it will remember the scanned layout of the floor and allow you to draw rectangular areas on the map you want it to clean and how many times to go over want section.

I am unable to answer your question true fully. I have a dog, but she has short hair. Our carpet while it is new has a low pile. I’m more than happy with my Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacuum so much so I got my daughter to buy one, and she is delighted with it.

Robot does pick up long hair. When it was new on our old nylon loop pile carped it picked up a lot that the previous vacuum did not. The brushes did get clogged often. However, once the backlog of hair was cleaned up after a couple of runs the clogging was no longer such a problem. We find we clean more often than the manually driven machine. We don't have a pet but I am sure that Robot would pick up its fur (as long as the pet stays still and is fairly flat?). The soil container does need frequent emptying and keep an eye on the brush for clogging.

I supervised it on the first few occasions but have since been allowing it to vacuum my upstairs unsupervised. It does have some sensor that make it stop at the top of the stair. Use it twice per week for 3 months, no problem.

I use a Contempo electric vacuum cleaner (from Woolies) for the stairs and this is about twice as loud as the Xiaomi Robot.

Thanks. Yes I have used Woolies electric vacuum cleaner before so I can imagine. lol

Depending on the power setting you use the Xiaomi vac will run for 2 - 2.5 hours ... My experience shows that it cleans roughly 1 square metre every minute, so, i guess that on full charge it will cover 120 m2 - 150 m2. If your house is larger than that, it'll clean until it hits 20% battery and return itself back to the charging dock. Then once the battery hits 80 % charged, it'll go back to where it left off, and continue on with the rest of the house ... That's why I called my unit Arnie, because ... "he'll be back" :)

Yes it has been good with carpet and long and short hairs

Yeah good, mine goes under beds and buffet, tables

pretty well, i think the sensors are working fine in dark as well.

you can run it without the phone, there's a button on the vacuum where you can press it manually to start up. Having the phone app will allow you to monitor the vacuum and it will send you a notification if the vacuum is stuck for example. So it really just a bonus to have the phone app.

You can turn it on/off or return it to the docking using 2 buttons on the vacuum. so you can use the machine without having a phone . But for scheduling and monitoring you’ll need a smart phone

not true, I have black jigsaw mats at home and it went on it, i was surprised because i thought it wouldn't go on it due to the height of my mat being about 2cm height. But it made its way up there and cleans pretty well!

cheers

The advice the other person gave you is untrue. It will not vacuum Black polyester "outdoor carpet" style mats. I have two in the kitchen, and two at the rear entrance of the house. If I don't remove them before I switch it on to clean, it will skirt around them, as the sensors think it is a cliff which it could fall from. However, I have black cotton runners on my polished floors, which it will happily vacuum. It doesn't seem to like the gloss from the outdoor carpet mats