When you talk about robot vacuums as much as I do it always ends up with someone asking about a robot vacuum that can clean the stairs.
There is so much interest in this idea of vacuuming stairs, or I should say not vacuuming stairs, that people are eager for a robot to do it.
The answer is NO, there is not such a robot that can vacuum your stairs. Nor would there be one for years. I think it’s best if we talk about this and other easy solutions you should be doing instead of this crazy dream.
The Problem
Even though the stairs are so simple for us humans, it’s quite complicated for a robot. Then throw on a vacuum cleaner option, and it’s near impossible.
The only robots that can climb stairs are made by companies with millions of dollars to throw at the research. While they’re getting the hang of stairs the vacuuming at the same time is a different story.
To give you an example of how complex climbing stairs are, here is a video showing a robot doing just that.
There do exist some robots that can climb stairs without legs; they just use tracks. While it would be nice to have a robot vacuum that could vacuum multiple floors just by climbing the stairs, I feel like that is not going to happen any time soon. It’s mostly to do with cost and by the time we get that worked out robots with legs might be the cheaper and better option. Not that it’s hard to make tread robots but more complicated and more cumbersome than the average person would want.
When Will We Get Robot Vacuums Doing Stairs
It is fair to say that we won’t get robot vacuums that can clean stairs until we get Humanoid Robots. This would mean the robot vacuums will look like humans with arms and legs.
When we get such robots, they’ll be doing more than just vacuuming. Kind of reminds me of the Will Smith Movie “I, Robot.”
It’s hard to say for sure the year, but I would not be surprised that in 20 years from now we have some version of a robot that can vacuum your stairs. I don’t know about you, but that is a long time to wait. Let’s talk about what you can do now.
How To Clean Your Stairs Now
The stair cleaning robot vacuum is too far in the future, but it’s not a big deal.
I don’t know why people think this is a problem. Even the “old way” of cleaning stairs is not hard. You can even use a handheld vacuum, and yes they make models that adjust to clean all areas of the stairs.
The real solution is the one where you don’t need to vacuum the stairs at all. You got 2 ways to go about this.
- You either don’t have carpet, and you can dust off or sweep the floors instead.
- Or you get stair protectors* to place over them. They even make carpet sections you can place on each step.
There is a 3rd option that I don’t think many people will want to do but you can hire someone to clean your home instead.
The biggest takeaway from this is that Humans are the best thing to use to clean stairs. Until there are humanoid robots this job is secure. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but we have a better shot of self-emptying robot vacuums which I personally look forward to.
The Next Question
After talking about stair cleaning robots, the next question I often get is if a robot vacuum can replace their regular vacuum.
The answer is Yes, but I have a post that shows me actually putting this to the test.