Robot vacuums are the floor care experts. But to order them and have access to the features, they connect to the manufacturer’s app and therefore need to be paired with a smartphone. Is it really essential?
Appreciated by many for their autonomy and their functionalities, robot vacuum cleaners are at the cutting edge of technology in terms of floor maintenance. Thanks to cameras, laser rangefinders or sensors of all kinds, they are able to find their way around our home and cover all or part of a surface. For their part, the manufacturers all offer an app through which it is possible to launch suction sessions and set a whole host of options. In order to have it, the user must obviously connect his robot to the wifi and go through his smartphone. But without a connection, does the robot become blind and inoperative?
Limited possibilities
If they are most often discreet, buttons are still installed on the hood of the vacuum cleaner or even on its base if it is equipped. These few keys sometimes allow you to turn the robot on and off, launch a suction session, return to the base or localized cleaning around the device. If these buttons are obviously few and limited to basic commands, they have the merit of avoiding the use of the application.
To overcome the lack of internet connection, the user can use the remote control supplied with certain models. Let’s be honest: this is only a tiny part of the references available on the market and these models are unfortunately becoming increasingly rare.
Anyway, thanks to this remote control it is possible to launch cleaning sessions, to select the suction power or even sometimes to organize a cleaning schedule or to direct the vacuum cleaner via directional arrows. By exception always, some offer the possibility of scheduling cleanings, but only in the short term – within three hours, for example.
An offline, meaningless robot?
Without connectivity and without an app, the user does not have access to the maps of his home and must obviously be present at home to start the suction. The robot then loses some of its essence, since it cannot be launched from a distance. But that’s not the only feature left out of an offline robot vacuum.
Indeed, without an app, the user loses access to many options. In particular, he cannot create zones, that is to say prevent the device from vacuuming a specific place or, on the contrary, ask him to clean a particular zone. You must then block his way by closing the doors or remove the insurmountable obstacles strewing his path if you want to prevent him from accessing certain rooms or areas of the room. The suction power cannot be changed either. And without a connection, it is also impossible to schedule cleaning sessions. Finally, more ancillary options, such as the health status of filters and brushes, are not available without an application.
In conclusion, an offline robot vacuum cleaner is quite capable of carrying out its primary mission, which is none other than vacuuming. However, it will be necessary to ignore all the other functionalities of the device which pass through the app. If the choice is up to everyone whether or not to buy such a robot without connecting it, we can only advise you on one thing: it is better to focus on the suction performance and the navigation system of the machine. . The robot will indeed be on its own in the home, unable to receive help from the user through the application.