Me and My NaviBot, Day 2: Nathalie vs NaviBot in the Kids' Pigsty!

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On day two of my adventures with the Samsung NaviBot SR8855, the robotic vacuum cleaner takes on the kids' bedroom, its grubby rug and its light sprinkling of toys. The NaviBot's biggest challenge by far though, was a face-to-face encounter with Nathalie the cleaning lady!

The base is in position and off goes the NaviBot, heading straight under the bed. It gets in all kind of places I'd never reach, and it saves you from having to lift heavy furniture to clean underneath.

Twenty minutes later when I empty the dust compartment, I have to admit the little fella has picked up some serious fluff!

After the bed it's on to the main part of room. The kids do claim to have tidied up, but there's still plenty of junk scattered around, and some of the smaller bits and pieces tend to cause trouble for our friend the NaviBot.



Miniature Playmobil bracelets are swallowed whole, but this little umbrella (see above) got stuck somewhere under the vac, and the NaviBot ended up dragging it around the room. It hiccoughed, shuddered, spit and creaked until I finally took pity on the thing and removed the pesky umbrella. I didn't have the heart to watch it suffer ... I'm getting as bad as my kids!


On day two with the NaviBot, the kids are still just as fascinated by it. For me, however, this is a much-awaited moment, as Samsung claims the SR8855 can clean over obstacles such as wires, as well as mount rugs and clean them. All this makes it sound like a genuinely intelligent vacuum cleaner, but how will it get on in my kids' pigsty of a bedroom?

At £450, is it anything more than a luxury Dustbuster?

NaviBot did manage to climb up onto the rug, then it moved around all over it, cleaning as it went. I'd say it's definitely more effective than the average handheld vacuum cleaner, but it's much less effective than my regular household vac (the two-star bagless model that'll be published later today, in fact). It leaves behind bits of thread and fibres, and I had to set it off cleaning the rug three times before it finally looked respectable. Rugs and carpet are therefore certainly a weak point!


Otherwise, the NaviBot is in its element on the bedroom's lino floor, scooting around with the greatest of ease. Again though, it decides to go back to its base rather than go off to clean the corridor right next to the bedroom. It seems that once it's worked for 15 minutes, the NaviBot needs to take a break and automatically heads back to its base. Once again it hooked up and started recharging with no problem at all. I wouldn't advise you to manually re-launch the robot if you think it hasn't quite finished its job as the battery really doesn't last long at all. The SR8855 quickly becomes slow and the brushes start to lose their power. You can tell it needs to go back to its base and recharge, and in the meantime all you can do is wait!


The Ultimate Challenge: Nathalie the Cleaning Lady

Who needs Kim and Aggie when you've got Nathalie the cleaning lady? She's like a whirlwind of efficiency who can have our flat looking clean, tidy and as shiny as a brand new penny in no time at all. Needless to say, she's a godsend: like a magic fairy with a special cleaning wand. I was a bit worried about what she'd have to say when she laid her eyes on my new robotic buddy!


Her first reaction was: 'Wow brilliant! I've only ever seen those on TV. Go on, set it off on the rug, let's see how it works.' And then, I saw her face literally drop with disappointment. 'But it doesn't even work properly your robot thing. Look at all those threads and bits it's leaving behind.' Then, seeing that NaviBot is about to move off the rug, she starts using teddies to try and block its path. 'You see, at least I have a brain. Your thing there, well ... it's daft and totally useless.'

'No, no, it's not totally useless,' I protest, 'I used it this morning at it picked up loads of fluff and dust balls from under the bed.'

Oh no, what have I just said? She too lifts up beds and cleans under them! But it's OK, if anything she looks relieved; at least she won't have to mess around moving a double bed on her own with the NaviBot around. But for the rest, Nathalie strictly refuses to be replaced by a robot, especially one she thinks doesn't even do its job properly. Then she asked me how much a robot like that costs, and I honestly thought she was going to choke when I told her it was £450. Her verdict? 'No way! I wouldn't even pay £100 for that thing!' But then at the same time, she's not a gadget geek ... anyway, I stand firm, NaviBot will clean my flat and I'm going to prove it.

In the next instalment: NaviBot on carpet tiles, NaviBot's power consumption and NaviBot's noise output.

> Me and My NaviBot, Day 1: A New Member of the Family


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