Kärcher Robocleaner RC3000 review

[grapedrink]

I use the 3h program. Once or twice a week. Still it is amazing how clean the floors are.

I don't know what you do at your houses to need that much cleaning.

Could not agree more. Sounds like your cleaning schedule is very similar to mine except I let mine run twice as long due to a larger floor space. Running my Karcher once or twice a week is more than enough!

Believe it or not, the Karcher is the quietest, so you can imagine how loud the Roomba and Neato etc are!! Being at home while they clean will drive you crazy.

Glad to see another happy Karcher owner.

[a4refillpad]

I like running all my bots everyday. If you can then why not? Whole point of automation is to maximise benefit and minimise effort, especially with the karcher as you do not even need to empty it. I have mine on a remote now so my daily scheduling is actually controlled by computer. I do not even need to reach over and press a button!

[robocleaner]

I like running all my bots everyday. If you can then why not?

I guess because these things have a finite life. If running your robot just 2 times a week does the job adequately, it should last 3.5 times longer than if you run it 7 days a week... at least in theory!

I have mine on a remote now so my daily scheduling is actually controlled by computer. I do not even need to reach over and press a button!

I like the discipline of checking my floors for stray socks, CD's/Blu-ray discs, and paperwork I've casually strewn around the place before pressing the GO button - I'm inherently quite lazy and untidy, and this forces me to tidy up a bit before setting the robotic cleaner going! But nevertheless I'd be very interested to learn how you've done that!

[a4refillpad]

Don't know about yourself but a floor is a floor. Largest surface area in the house and the largest receptacle of dirt dust and fluff. We're not an untidy family but these robots are just not as good as a human being at vacuuming with a full blown machine. The only way to compensate is to run very regularly which in my house removes the need to bring out my meile completely! I only need to use the handheld vacuum for the stairs. My view is life too short to care for the life of the device. The karcher is very robust and well engineered and I hope can live a very long while. Parts also seem readily available so I am little concerned.

As for the remote control feature, I did start a thread but it didn't seem to gather much interest. I simply fitted a 433mhz receiver into the circuitry and using a telldus device on my pc integrated it into my existing home automation software. Great thing is I can also decide to start or stop the robot manually from my android phone if I want to. I've found the battery drain to be negligible and very convenient. Always found it very retro that I needed to reach over and manually start the neato/vr100 and karcher. Now my karcher is done I only wish the neato was as easy to mod.

[robocleaner]

Don't know about yourself but a floor is a floor. Largest surface area in the house and the largest receptacle of dirt dust and fluff. We're not an untidy family but these robots are just not as good as a human being at vacuuming with a full blown machine. The only way to compensate is to run very regularly which in my house removes the need to bring out my meile completely! I only need to use the handheld vacuum for the stairs. My view is life too short to care for the life of the device. The karcher is very robust and well engineered and I hope can live a very long while. Parts also seem readily available so I am little concerned.

Yes I'd agree, but seeing as dust is dead skin, the volume of dust/dirt is directly dependent upon the number of people using the home. For a single individual who spends a lot of time away, just once or twice a week is more than enough. For a young family, perhaps with pets too, more frequent use probably is needed (I'm sure there was a member on one of these forums who left his Karcher running 24/7 indefinitely!). As you say, life is too short, but there's no point running a vacuum cleaner if the floor isn't dirty. I don't run my dishwasher either if there aren't any dirty plates to wash! Yes, it is robust (my oldest now being 7 years and still on its' original batteries), but for some that may be less affluent overall product life and the cost of repairs or replacement probably is of concern.

As for the remote control feature, I did start a thread but it didn't seem to gather much interest. I simply fitted a 433mhz receiver into the circuitry and using a telldus device on my pc integrated it into my existing home automation software. Great thing is I can also decide to start or stop the robot manually from my android phone if I want to. I've found the battery drain to be negligible and very convenient. Always found it very retro that I needed to reach over and manually start the neato/vr100 and karcher. Now my karcher is done I only wish the neato was as easy to mod.

Scheduling does seem to be one of the key features that many miss, and I'm sure Karcher would likely incorporate if they redesigned the product afresh. Given how often the absence of scheduling is commented upon, I'm surprised your thread didn't gather much interest - where was it? Did I miss it?

I did think of a theoretical way of controlling my Karcher using my Harmony 1100 remote (which controls my Home Cinema, lights, even the air conditioning - and the Navibot), but at the end of the day it would be remote operation not scheduling, and, frankly, I couldn't be bothered trying it anyway!: Pressing a button to start an appliance - be it my dishwasher or vacuum - isn't such a huge ask! Anyway, isn't Brighton - or should I say "Hove Actually" - the home of Retro?!! It certainly was in the 10 years I lived and worked there!

[grapedrink]

I like the discipline of checking my floors for stray socks, CD's/Blu-ray discs, and paperwork I've casually strewn around the place before pressing the GO button - I'm inherently quite lazy and untidy, and this forces me to tidy up a bit before setting the robotic cleaner going! But nevertheless I'd be very interested to learn how you've done that!

Bingo. This is exactly why I don't need or care about scheduling on my Karcher. It forces you to tidy a bit (to ensure the robot doesn't get stuck etc) before letting the robot out.

[a4refillpad]

The karcher is the least picky of my robots and can easily cope with most things being left around and I so far never encountered any issues even with young children in my family. Guys, don't like the sound of your houses with socks, paper and dvd cases lying all over the place! Even if I wanted to, my other half would not want to live like that!
... and yes I suppose it does force us to not leave the place in a complete mess every day. Which is good right?
Each to their own I guess.