When it comes to how long Roomba’s and robot vacuums take to clean, there is a range. The amount of time it takes for a robot vacuum to clean will depend on the model you have, as well as the size and layout of your home.
Generally speaking, most robot vacuums will run for 90 minutes or until they deem the home is cleaned.
Some models will go back to the charger and recharge itself to finish the job. Whether or not a robot vacuum can be told to clean for a shorter amount of time depends on the model you have.
Cleaning Time – 90 to 120 Min.
Most robot vacuums will run until they run out of battery, which is about 90 to 120 minutes, or until they think they’re done cleaning.
A random navigation robot vacuum will take the whole 90 minutes, which is how long the battery last, to clean your home. They don’t have a clue how big your house is, and there is no method to their madness of cleaning. They go until they run out of power and then go home to charge.
The robot vacuums that use LiDAR and cameras map your home and fully learn it within 5 hours, or several runs. They clean line by line, which cuts down on cleaning time and will most often be done before the 90 minutes or before the battery dies.
Some robot vacuums can go for longer, especially if you run them in their low-power or ECO modes. But generally, expect a robot vacuum to run for over an hour.
Cleaning Time Can Take Longer
The reason robot vacuums take so long to clean is because they use power suction and clean more meticulously, so they need to run for longer to get your floors cleaned.
The robot vacuums that take the longest to clean are the random navigation models, which are often the cheaper models.
The random robot vacuums don’t map your home and don’t have a clue when it’s done, it just goes until it runs out of battery power. When the battery gets low, they start to look for an invisible blinking light from the charger and go towards it to recharge.
The smarter robot vacuums will clean until it gets to all the areas it can. If that means going back home to recharge and pick back up after that, they will. They can go to multiple rooms so long as there is nothing stopping them.
So if you have a large home, your robot vacuum will run for longer than someone with a smaller home.
Cleaning A Whole House
Every home is different, bigger homes will take longer to clean, but in general expect the robot vacuum to run for 60 to 120 minutes.
The robot vacuum will make a noise that can be distracting, but turning the TV up will block it out nicely. If that is a concern, then program the robot vacuum to start 2 hours before you come home, so you have clean floors when you arrive.
Spot Cleaning With A Robot Vacuum
If you don’t want the robot vacuum to clean the whole home, you can have many models only spot clean.
In the app or by pressing a button on the robot vacuum, you can have it clean the area you want.
You can even program a few models to only clean certain rooms at certain times if you like.
The cleaning times can also be adjusted and even put in a quiet mode for some robot vacuums. You’ll find robot vacuums very versatile and adjustable to your cleaning needs.