If you are someone who is drowned in work and has no time to clean, or if you absolutely despise spending hours brooming and mopping the house, robot vacuums might be perfect for you. These smart devices are very efficient in cleaning floors. They are known to clean even difficult corners with ease. Moreover, a robot vacuum needs minimum or no effort on your part.
If you have spent hundreds of dollars installing your gorgeous wooden flooring, it is obvious that you’d like to know whether robot vacuums are good for your wooden flooring. So let us look at the robot vacuum in a little more detail and figure out if robot vacuums are good for your wood floors.
Do robot vacuums clean wooden floors properly?
Yes, robot vacuums do a great job at cleaning wooden floors. These robot vacuums are designed in such a way that they can clean a variety of surfaces. Carpeted floors, wooden floors, marble floors, etc can be easily cleaned using a robot vacuum.
However, if you want something that is meant specifically for your flooring, you can easily find it online. But even if you don’t find a robot vacuum designed especially for wooden flooring, or if it is too expensive, you can buy any good robot vacuum.
Can robot vacuums scratch your wooden floor?
The answer isn’t quite as simple. If we talk about the design of the robot vacuum, they are actually designed to clean different kinds of surfaces, including wooden floors. These vacuums are supposed to clean wooden floors without causing any scratches on the surface. But that is just one part of it.
If grains of sand, hard bits of food, plastic, or any other material that has the potential to scratch wooden floors, gets stuck in the robot vacuum’s wheels, then it can scratch your floor. When the weight of the robot vacuum is combined with the sharpness of the object stuck in its wheels, you can get an idea about how deep or bad a scratch can be.
Another thing that might cause scratches on your wooden floor is the front wheel of the cleaner. The front caster wheel tends to get jammed sometimes, mostly because of hair that gets stuck in the wheel. The front wheel’s job is to move freely and help the robot vacuum move about with ease, but when due to any foreign object this movement is restricted, the movement of the cleaner is affected. When this happens, the cleaner drags itself on the floor and can potentially cause scratches.
The chances of foreign particles getting stuck in your robot vacuum are higher if you leave it unattended for long periods of time. These particles can then go on to scratch your wooden floors.
How to prevent scratches on a wood floor?
The issues that can cause scratches on wooden floors by a robot cleaner can easily be solved. Just a little extra care can solve all of the issues.
1> Empty out your robot vacuum regularly
2> Don’t leave it unattended for prolonged periods of time
3> Before it starts cleaning, make sure to see that there is nothing stuck on its wheels.
4> Remove all cords and wires before cleaning. The robot vacuum can get tangled in wires and drag across the floor.
5> Pick up any sharp or pointed object that you can spot with your naked eyes.
6> Collect all the hair from the floor. It might not be possible to spot every strand of hair but clear out as much hair as you can. Hair strands can get stuck in the wheel of the robot vacuum very easily
7> Choose the correct design of robot vacuum for your floor
8> Be around the house when your robot vacuum is cleaning to ensure that it doesn’t drag across the floor or get stuck.
Prepare the home for a robot cleaner
If you want your robot cleaner to do its job properly and clean your house properly, you have to prepare your home for it. There might be obstacles in your house that can cause a robot cleaner to trip and fall or get stuck. So before installing your robot vacuum get rid of all of these obstacles. Robot cleaners are devices that can navigate their way around furniture and other objects. However, there might be a few situations that your robot cleaner can’t get out of.
The best thing to do is to follow your robot cleaner around the house for the first few days to observe the areas that your robot cleaner faces a problem. For example, doormats or rubber doorstops might be an issue. You can remove these things before you start cleaning to let your robot cleaner do its job properly.
If you don’t want your robot cleaner to eat up your shoelaces, wires, and other cables, you should remove them from the robot vacuum’s path. Not only can robot vacuums eat these things up, but if these things get stuck in the wheels of the vacuum cleaner, they might have to drag themselves across the floor and scratch the surface.
Selecting the home base for your robot vacuum is another crucial thing. Even though the requirements of a home base vary from one robot cleaner to another, in general, open space is needed for the home base. There should be enough room for the robot vacuum to maneuver and find its way. The charging station and the power outlet should also be close by. It is best to read the instructions carefully before setting up the home base.
Conclusion
Even if robot vacuums are generally designed for all kinds of surfaces, there are some with harder bristles that might not be the best for wooden flooring. To be on the safer side, it is always a good idea to talk to your floor installation company and check with them before buying a robot cleaner. You can tell them the details about the robot vacuum you are planning to buy, and they can check the design of it to tell you whether it is suited for your wooden floor or not.
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